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Learning This Blues

Slogold

By Slogold
in The Gibson Lounge

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RudyH

RudyH

Posted
Posted

I used to think of how to get in the blues mood and then realized it is pretty simple. I just watched that Freddie King video and took to heart. I then started to talk the way Freddie King sang. I'd go to McDonalds and sing "I'd like a cheesburger...are you listening...can you say yeah! ...."

Then I saw a traffic accident on the way home and called 911 on my cell phone and sang "There's a six car pile up with fatalities...can you say yeah! can you say yeah! ..."

 

After a while you get good at it and people just naturally respond, especially if you accompany yourself with a guitar.

 

Actually, there is quite a skill to it, isn't there.

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Homz

Homz

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The Blues are what ever you want them to be. It's a state of mind. Yes there are typical things that automatically make people say that's the blues, but there are many others that more subtle. The original post in this thread I would have identified as Blues.

 

I'm a huge Pink Floyd fan and have been all my life. Until recently I would have never considered Gilmore's leads to be Blues. Even Zeppelin wasn't in my narrow vision of what the Blues were until recently. With Zeppelin I started playing a lot of their stuff before I started thinking of them as a Blues based band.

 

IMHO

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Gitfidl

Gitfidl

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Everybody has their own idea of what are blues. So you have the Chicago Blues, Memphis Blues, Texas blues, Mississippi blues, acoustic blues, rock blues, jazz blues, soul blues, slider blues --- so you might ask - what have the blues got in common. Well not even the 12 bar blues are all the same. There are 12 bar blues where the first 4 bars are the #1 chord (i) and there are 12 bar blues that vary the chords. Still it all souonds like 12 bar blues -- sounds great. So the 12 bar varies from Night Train to Bill Haley to Muddy Waters to Peggy Lee. So there is NO ONE WAY or no ONE chord progression. It's pretty much what come out of your heart/soul -- not you mind.

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Rocky4

Rocky4

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Posted
Wow. That was no where near the blues. Having the word 'blues' in the title doesn't make it the blues' date=' as I have to explain to my wife over and over.

[/quote']

I see your point kinda. I don't think white people come close to blacks playing blues. This is not a racist comment, just my opinion. I'd rather listen to Albert, Freddie, and BB King (no relation) than SRV any day.

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NeoConMan

NeoConMan

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I'd rather listen to Albert' date=' Freddie, and BB King (no relation) than SRV any day. [/quote']

Ah yes, the Three Kings!

 

I got into the blues thru the back door.

I remember when Kiss was doing their four solo albums in 1978 and I read an interview with Ace Frehley where they asked him what his album was gonna sound like.

He said it was gonna have some blues on it, leaning alot more toward the blues than any of the Kiss stuff.

 

So, I'm wondering if he's gonna sound like Robert Johnson or BB King.

I really had no idea of what to expect.

 

I heard the Frehley solo album and could NOT make the connection at first.

Then I started listening more to the Rolling Stones and their 'blues' and I still couldn't glue it all together.

The Stray Cats were doing 'blues' and I was getting more impatient with people throwing the term around with no apparent logic involved.

Johnny Winters, Foghat, Steve Miller, it all sounded like Rock and Roll to me.

I hadn't heard much ZZ Top, but I thought they were just using a country and southern rock angle.

 

Then SRV hit the radio....

THEN I went back and listened to all that old Led Zep stuff again....

THEN I started to get it.

AC/DC - that's my idea of blues now....

(Feel free to disagree.)

 

I moved to Texas in 1988 and was knee deep in the guitar Blues there.

THEN I FINALLY GOT IT.

I could tie it all together by following everybody back to the Blues Masters - all the old black guys.

Yes, Freddie King is the blues.

 

I'm a Blues Rock guy for damned sure, with a big interest in southern rock and boogie.

 

To paraphrase Dire Straits, I don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band. It ain't what I call Rock and Roll.

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NeoConMan

NeoConMan

Posted
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Here's a brief narrative I kinda like;

 

 

What is The Blues?

 

There's an intersection of different musical styles that have always intrigued me.

That singular point would have to be blues on electric guitar.

Stevie Ray Vaughn is probably the best known of the genre, but there are so many layers to the

music and talented (or tortured) guitarists out there who made it their own.

 

Country music came from the South with the influence of European instruments thrown in.

Blues came from the same South, primarily the black work songs.

Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, all the roots of fifties Rock and Roll came from the Blues.

The British invasion that started modern Rock and Roll?

The Yardbirds, Rolling Stones, Who, Led Zeppelin, Cream, even our own Jimi Hendrix?

They found records of old American blues nobody knew of, learned the licks on electric guitar, and changed history.

Those songs were cut up, merged, rearranged and then played really loud thru big amplifiers from Marshall and HiWatt.

Rock music was on a roll.

 

A few black men in the rural South had picked up a guitar and gave a new twist to all their old gospel and work songs.

They managed to make a dollar or two traveling around the South and sharing their unique sounds.

A few managed to get recorded, like Robert Johnson. Remember the Ralph Macchio movie "Crossroads?"

That's his story loosely weaved into the plot. Sold his soul to the Devil down at the crossroads to play guitar so well.

Died young from poisoned whiskey - thanks to the husband of a love interest.

These old black men labored in obscurity for years, few ever made any recordings, none made any money from them.

The British were enamored with movies and culture from the US, and readily consumed anything they could get.

Somebody had the bright idea to send a bunch of "negro records" over there because nobody in the US wanted them.

Meanwhile, a bunch of skinny, awkward teenage British boys who were too shy for girls had started playing guitar....

 

Rock and Roll became a huge force of its own by the seventies, spawning another generation of new musical types.

This new music was really nothing new, but the influences are so obscured today it has become a non-issue for most.

A real aficianado or connoisseur of the Blues needs the skill of an archeologist to gain a working understanding of it all.

Aside from the Beatles (another story of their own) this is where it all comes from.

If you like music, especially any I've mentioned, you owe a debt to the Blues.

 

 

 

Well, how does that sound?

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