...in the 60s in preserving, continuing and developing blues music?
I ask this
(a) because there's bound to be some expertise and interest here at MBH,
(b) because there's been some interesting dicussion of black / white Americans and the blues tradition, but I haven't read anything about artists like Mayall / Clapton / Stones / Led Zep and their absence didn't occur to me until MrVerylongusername brought up the latter,
(c) because my limited knowledge tells me that bands like the Rolling Stones were hugely important in popularising blues music in the US and I may be right or wrong about this?
Your right. Listening to the Stones in 1964 when I was in high school got me first interested in the blues. When I realised they were covering songs I then sought out the original versions of the songs I heard them do. I was hooked! :o)
Please don't misunderstand me, I love Zep, but that one track just doesn't sit right. If I can think of one example of what Adam calls "Blackface Minstrelry" it's that intro segment (the rest of the track rocks!). It's like a bad Frank Spencer impression "Woke up this morning.... OOoooh Betty"
If Keith Richards is to be believed (See him at 4:25) then the UK "sold" the blues back to America. However I'm sure it's not as simple as that. For instance, from what I understand there were white practitioners of American folk music in the Mississippi delta at the same time blues evolved, however they, on a whole, were not as transient as the black folk musicians at the time and so did not spread the tradition in the same way.
That said I do think that bands like the Stones, The Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin etc, did play an important role in "popularising" blues music and bringing it into the main stream.
It pointed back to the source. Helped to promote American blues artists as part of the progressive music movement. I remember Howlin' Wolf with Rolling Stones on TV. It Blew my mind.
martin scorses special on the blues revealed what a huge impact the british had on promoting blues Im sure they thought what the hell is the matter with the yanks dont they know great music when they hear it
john mayals "room to move" song on his 'turning point' album sold a lot of harps. i believe it was released in 1970? it seemed every other kid in my school bought a harp.
that was a strange song for a few reasons, 1) it was Db, so second pos. F# harp. ( the song keys were listed on the album cover)
2) it had no drums.( lots of mouth percusion)
3) it sounded a lot like "tequila" by the 'champs'.
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2010 12:49 PM
I'll second Adam's bibligraphic reference. That book will lay it out. Also, there's a good perspective in "Blues With a Feeling: The Little Walter Story" about how when Walter went over to tour England, he played with back-up bands that went on to become those "English Blues" bands we know and love. Very interesting stuff. Not being a Brit, I don't know what the full implications are for the development of British pop music, but I do understand what the implcations were for that bit of Brit music that eventually made it back over the pond. ---------- ------------------ View my videos on YouTube!"
Nastyolddog, you've got it. As Levon Helm put it in "The Last Waltz", in reference to the American South:
(Levon) That's kind of the middle of the country back there. So bluegrass or country music, you know, if it comes down to that area, and if it mixes there with rhythm and if it dances, then you've got a combination of all those different kinds of music. Country, bluegrass, blues music. Show music.
for me personally, i had discovered" blues via "race radio" stations in the early 60's when i should have been asleep! instead i surfed the dial of my big brother's a.m. radio on sunday nights and heard from memphis, atlanta, chicago, and other cities' stations that played blues and r&b. that period of my life didn't last long but i was hooked. add to that an english grandfather who played harmonica to me at a very early age- some blues even- and the hook was deeply set.
with the advent of the stones, yardbirds, led zep, jeff beck, and others- mayall included- i began to find the blues influence, but it took me years to realize what i liked about those bands- it was the blues element to their music. same with clapton, the allmans, and many others, even frank zappa.
so for me the brits did in fact give me back the blues, and later on american bands followed suit. instead of just ripping off the originators, like elvis did, these cats esp the stones and eric burdon gave credit where it was due. i recall the stones bringing wolf on stage on a sunday evening variety show way back when.
it's like there was always this undercurrent of "real" music in this country, but with racist attitudes, a lot of us were settling for watered down "white" blues like johnny rivers and other bands who lifted the guts of blues and then rearranged it to suit a conservative white teen audience. once the stones and others actually brought the real deal blues to everyone's attention, it was like the lights came on.
i doubt that most of us in this country would have the rich world of blues music if it hadn't been for the brit invasion. it would have remained buried under something unsavory and credit would not have gone where it belonged.
