whoa oh, smokestack lightnin

Robert Johnson is a god, his music is so ahead of its time it's scary. I also like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, Otis Rush etc. You can trace most modern chart songs back to the blues in some way, but it doesn't get enough credit for its influence.

 

Smokestack is one of the all time greats, and there have been many covers, but can anyone beat Howlin' Wolf's peerless vocal? Hubert Sumlin should have patented that timeless riff! It also serves as a lesson of just how good a one chord song can be.

However, as a dude flying past middle age, fast, and mainly downhill, I have some concerns about what I consider to be blues overkill at the mo. It is important to remember that what is now a genre all of it's own was once simply classed as american folk music. In the late 50's and early 60's, folk clubs would have one dude doing Bob Dylan, another some Peter, Paul and Mary and another some Leadbelly or Muddy Waters. Now, folk and blues are poles part.

Another point to consider is that at it's original zenith, in the 30's and 40's - not the british 60's driven blues revival - , blues was contemporary music. It was what was happening, man. Can you imagine Robert johnson or Elmore James walking into a bar and playing some Cole Porter or a 19th century muisc hall number?!?! Yet, that is - in effect - what we have now, namely a too slavish mania with the old used and abused blues classics.

I believe it was Sam Andrew out of Haight Ashbury's Big Brother and the Holding Company who once said, 'We wanted to take the essence of blues, without being purists, yet still keep the power of that beuatiful music intact.'

In other words, way back in '67 they appreciated the formidable power of 12 bar blues, but equally realised that it needed to be taken somewhere new. Eric Bibb has made similar comments to the effect that we are looking back far too much with a musical genre that was originally new and exciting.....in the 30's.

Everywhere i go, I see kids playing blues originals. The ones that stand out, and the ones that the original blues greats would, I believe, if they were still here, stop and listen to are the tiny minority who try and change the key, tempo, structure into something still powerful, but also evolutionary.

 

Yes, I listen to a lot of it. I don't exactly own a lot of blues, but I enjoy a listen now and then.

 

mmm, blues! Pre- or Post-war? I dont mind, i love both!

Chester Burnette & McKinley Morganfield, some of the best songwriters and performers the world has seen the past hundred years or so.

And to say that Bessie Smith had "a hit song" takes away from her fame as the Empress Of the Blues! Bessie made more money a night back in the 20s than most individuals make a week these days, more if she was playing for white audiences.

Dont forget BigMama Thornton, who penned Hound Dog but didnt get credit for it, that going to Lieber/Stollers arrangement for Elvis. Big Mama also wrote Ball and Chain, later covered exquisitely by Janis.

Lil Johnson, Tampa Red, this list is longer than anyone can compile at once!

Great stuff!

Also, Sam Andrew usually knows what he is talking about, and I agree with what was posted about his group. The blues, like folk, is music of the people. One doesnt need to study or be taught a wrong way to do them, and Big Bro was very much a music of the people at the time.

 

grateful dead...pigpen's version of smokestack lightnin' is great
i think the yardbirds are funny, ever heard their version of goodmornin little schoolgirl?...it's a gas!

 

why yes i have, tis most bueno. and pigpen owns that song. and hey, i shook am andrew's hand! they played a free show at some bullshit festival in DC last year.

 

well...to me pigpen owns every song he ever sang.

 

Yeah, more blues-rock though. I love blues though.

 

no joke man, no doubt one of my favorite personalities in music, ever...

 

Hey i'm justatokin3,been into blues music for acouple years now. Try some Paul BUTTERFIELD,Charlie Musslewhite or a new member Poppa Chubby.

 

The Paul Butterfield blues band has some great albums indeed!

 

damn scrate!

 

I'm a big blues fan, mainly listen to George Thorogood, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan and early Clapton. I've got a telecaster and I'm trying to learn the blues myself, looking for other people to play with at the moment.

 

too bad theres some kind of pond b/w us

 

yip!

 

Mike Bloomfield was an great blues guitarist, that's why.

 

hell yeah!
i got this lp with bloomfield hammond and dr. john
triumvirate, it's great

 

You can download a torrent file with ALL Howlin Wolf chess studio recordings. Its easy to find and fuckin great!

Just do it

 

smokestack lightnin is an awesome song. Robert Johnson is awesome..... I was humming they're red hot today and nobody in school knew the tune! The chili peppers did that one pretty well. I like the delta blues a bit, with Robert Johnson and Son House is kind of scary good. Elmore James is awesome, great slide guitarist, first slide song i learned was dust my blues. Albert King and Freddy King are great guitarists, once you get "hideaway" or born under a bad sign in your head, it doesn't go away. I like SRV and Thee early Yardbirds and some of the latter day blues as well, but listening to hell hound on my trail.... just scary.