kudzurunner
4703 posts
May 18, 2014
5:05 PM
|
Here, in one minute and 23 seconds, is the spirit of the blues.
Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller, aka "Sonny Boy Two") walking onstage in England in 1964. He is dressed like a fashionable white English gentleman, Saville-Row style. That is the infinite adaptability of the blues. He has no "right" to wear those clothes, but they're what the sharp dressers in THAT world are wearing, and he's a strong enough personality to throw them on and make them a part of who he is.
Then he starts playing. He'd probably been drinking all day, something he was known to do. But when he hits the first note, he's all business. His gaze is outward-focused. He's ready to entrance.
There are many lessons here, for all who are willing to figure them out and learn them.
One lesson is that the blues claims it wants to keep stuff private, but it does so in venues where it's spreading the news far and wide.
That's......crazy. But it's what we do when we're in pain.
Lesson #1.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on May 18, 2014 5:09 PM
|
