whitefang Posted June 20, 2002 Share Posted June 20, 2002 A while back, when I started gracing (or is that GRAZING) this forum with my hogwash, I mentioned to a member called Downchild that I would give him a bio on my "love affair" with the blues. He may have been rueing the day ever since, but with time on my hands, I'll give it a go. This may be lengthy...grab a lunch..... When I was about five or six years old, in around the mid-fifties, my brother had a crystal radio. These came in small kits (no, not Heathkit. More toy-like)and once assembled, all one had to do was fasten the "antenna" to something metal (in those days, a window frame) with an alligator clip, and listen to AM band broadcasts through an earphone. My brother, four years my senior and always a hundred pounds heavier (to this day!)warned me if I ever went NEAR it, my ass was grass! So, after he would drop off to sleep, I'd pilpher the crystal out of his "hiding" place, clip onto the wire left from the TV antenna on the roof(and still attached), and search around for something to listen to. As some may know, AM signals at that time of night can be picked up from pretty far off. I found myself listening to some station out of Chicago, which at the time I knew had to be at least a thousand miles away! The songs had a catchy, foot tapping sound, and appeared to be all sung by "colored people"! Hey, I SAID I was about six, and growing up in a white suburb. Don't jump on me! I liked not only the sound, but the singers all had weird names like "Sonny", "Mama", "Sippy", "Junior", "Cocoa" (learning later it was KOKO), "T-Bone" and the like. And once in a while some guy named something Berry. I would lose much needed sleep over this, and try to make up for it next day at school. They didn't go for THAT! Well, after a few years, my brother swapped the crystal for some other piece of crap, and the absence of this music went on until I was about 14. I was watching the old "Shindig" TV show, and the Rolling Stones were the guests. Brian Jones stepped up to the mike and introduced a man he said was one of the groups influences. Up stepped an old black man (must've been in his FORTIES!) called Howlin' Wolf. He started playing the music of my younger years, and blowing into a harmonica. I must have been thinking out loud when I thought, "What IS that music he's playing?", 'cause then my Mom piped up and said, "Oh, he's just singing the blues." Hmm...them 1940's hep-cats knew more than we thought! But purchasing recordings of this in my area STILL proved difficult until the latter part of the '60's, when British rock bands and then American bands started covering a lot of old blues favorites. Then the radio stations (The FM "underground" stations, that is) started digging up old 78's and newer presses re-released by the Chess label. Chess put out a series of anthology albums by Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter, Willie Dixon and of course, Howlin' Wolf. I once had almost all of them. But in 30 some-odd years, most have become misplaced. Bummer! Perhaps this is why I have trouble accepting newer, young white guys claiming to be bluesmen out of hand. They have something to prove to me. And some do, while most others don't. Some punks get so wrapped up in trying to display their knowledge of some blues "style", that they forget to insert any of the blues "feeling"! To me, to play the blues, you gotta apply what the actor's studio students call "sense-memory". It ain't gonna work out singing or playing a solo over a song about a butchered heart if you really can't relate to it. Or whatever the song is about. But I was only intending to relate my history of a relationship with the blues. Not start a debate. My love of this music is life-long, not Johnny-come-lately. It didn't begin with Stevie, and won't end with Lang. As long as there are true enthusiasts recording this stuff, I'll be there for them! Whitefang I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverfish Posted June 20, 2002 Share Posted June 20, 2002 Check out the Lomax recordings at the Library of Congress. Also check out Paul Reddick and the Sidemen's new album "RattleBag" And Colin Lindon's genius production. SF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverfish Posted June 21, 2002 Share Posted June 21, 2002 WhiteFang... I got your message but don't know how to reply... But cheers man... Check this site too... The Hoax They are friends of mine from England. The clips are great. SF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Downchild Posted June 21, 2002 Share Posted June 21, 2002 Hey Whitefang it's about time man! I can imagine that hearing those tunes coming over a crystal set in that time and place must've been like hearing a transmission from outer-space. Compared to you, I'm a Johhny-come-lately, being I'm in my early 30's, but I've been listening to the music for over half my life. (compared to Robert Lockwood Jr, we're ALL Johnny-come-latelys)Thankfully, I found out about the music at a time and place when my peers were listening to rap/hip-hop. Needless to say, it's great to connect to something that is a part of my heritage, but speaks eloquently about the human condition. Along similar lines, when I was growing up in the inner city, blues and the like were hard, if not, impossible to come by. The record stores didn't stock it, and urban radio definetely didn't play it. I ended up doing my own legwork. I hate to admit this, but I borrowed (and failed to return) a Chess compilation LP from the library called 'Wizards from the southside'. The original reason being is that the sleeve showed Muddy Waters and the gang with guitars. I was like: brothers who play guitar? I'm not some freak of nature! Needless to say I was hooked, and that was the start of my "love affair". I agree about much of what passes for 'blues' today. It saddens me that the artform went from being about songs/voice/storytelling to pentatonic scales/tubescreamers/boutique amps, and I/IV/Vs. I'm not knocking the gear, hell, I own some of these things, but the overall perspective has been derailed somewhat.... The blues is still a relatively new music thats only had about a century to develop, so it may be too early to speculate on where it might be heading, so I won't try. But I can't help but sort of mourn the Wolf, Little Walter, et al for not being around. At least we have the records, right? And hey...I didn't take your initial posts for a debate at all. I respect your opinions, and I'm glad to be able to chat with a fellow 'bluesaholic', since I don't run into too many during the course of a regular day. BTW how's the slide coming along? Is the cat out of the acid bath yet? heh heh Peace, Mr D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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