Day 4 of my challenge from Grant Harrison. Choose a record a day for 5 day, say why it is one of your favourites and nominate 3 people per day to do the same. Today I nominate Family Boys Fluff Daddy Chris Burrell, Carlos Fandango Richard Hawkins & Meat Pyers Peter Myers. Tune 4 and I turn to a style of music, which has probably had more influence on both my listening and on my playing than any other style – The Blues. In relation to modern music that I like you can draw a family tree of where it originates from, soul, funk, rock, jazz, rare groove, all of these styles are clearly influenced the blues. A style which in some ways can be simplified into a I-IV-V chord structure, however to think the blues is just a 12 or 16 bar repetition of C-F &G7, starting with the line ‘Woke up this morning…’is a simplistic generalisation which does no justice to the playing style, the story telling and the attitude of the Blues. From the names of the artists ‘Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ice Man Albert Collins, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Big Mama Thornton, Memphis Slim, to the stories that underpin their songs: went to the crossroad fell down on my knees, asked the Lord above Have mercy, now save poor Bob, if you please” as our protagonist Robert Johnson sells his soul to the Devil, the cost of fame and fortune hear on Earth, the blues like its bastard offspring the Funk, is not just a musical genre, it’s an attitude and way of life. Therefore to choose one artist and song to represent the impact this music has had on me is an impossible task and there are so many people that should be in this spot. Buddy Guy, the man who was doing all those tricks of the guitar playing with teeth and behind the back whilst Jimi Hendrix was still a clean cut player for The Isley Brothers, his mentor and band leader of years Muddy Waters, a player that seamlessly made the leap from acoustic to electric leaving a legacy in both which was to shape modern music like no other, Ray Charles for whom nothing needs to be said, any of the 3 Kings (BB, Freddie, Albert) or even the 60’s generation of white British players who imported America’s music back to their country (The Beatles, The Stones, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Jimmy Page and the most influential of them all Eric Clapton. It’s a weird thing that my love of Clapton has always been slightly guilty pleasure, with a lot of my friends just not getting him at all. In fairness, they do have some strong points on their side such as (a) covering I Shot The Sherriff (b) employing Phil Collins as a producer (The album August beautifully sums up every single thing I find wrong about 80’s music), but blimey, Stevie recorded “I just called to say I love you’, the 80’s was a decade of bad choices for all of us – I even got convinced I should support West Ham rather than Liverpool – thanks for that Dad. However, when I was seriously getting into the blues from about the age of 16 upwards, Eric was a major player and you could get to see some pretty hardcore blues legends when he did his Blues only nights at the Royal Albert Hall. I remember going to see him one night there and on stage with him was Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray & Johnny Johnson on piano – now that’s a band. And for every August album, there is a Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs or Disraeli Gears album. That one and only Derek & The Dominoes studio album still finds itself on hard rotation on my record player and Bell Bottom Blues whilst not making it on my Top 5 list would have certainly made it on my top 10 list. However, the player I have opted for is someone who had such a profound impact on me it is a real Kennedy moment (where were you when you first saw the ‘Live at Live At El Mocambo’?). There is an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlett is talking about a new piece of music he has just heard for the first time being performed by the Reykjavik Orchestra. He says that he thought that he couldn’t be surprised by a piece of music any more and yet that night that very thing had happened. I have a lot of empathy for that view and it is one of the realities that we all have to accept as we grow older. I feel excited for Marley and Roo that at certain points in their youth and adolescence they will hear some piece of music or see some film or play or read a book that will make them experience the world in a different way, will hit them in a way that they will not be able to effectively describe by the use of words, will in some way influence everything they do afterwards. As we grow older, our experiences expand and our palette become richer we minimise the opportunities for these experiences. One such experience for me was the first time I saw the DVD ‘Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble live at El Mocambo, in particular their cover of Texas Flood and Stevie’s instrumental dedicated to his then wife Lenny. Compared to how many musicians there are in the world, there are very few by comparison that have that ability to lay out their soul in front of an audience, to do something with their instrument of choice that no matter how technically competent a player becomes they would never be able to replicate, something that cannot be learnt as it comes from another place, somewhere divine where as the audience when we listen we hear the person communicate something so emotional that it influences a change of state in us. Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Terry Callier, Billie Holiday, Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Otis Redding, Peter Green, Clapton, Gary Brooker, Beth Gibbon, Prince, Vangelis, Leonard Bernstein, Aretha Franklin, Carol King, Herbie Hancock are a few players that spring to mind when I think of this quality but I cannot think of anyone whose impact was quite as strong as SRV. I was working in America when Stevie died. I remember there was a Texan who was one of my bosses, Bill. He was about 10 years older than me. He was as wide as he was tall and every inch of him was pure muscle and black percolated coffee (in fact I wouldn’t mind betting he pissed coffee he drank so much of it, it was certainly what he smelt of In a couple of moments of misjudged macho egoism I sparred with him boxing and both times he knocked me cold out. A harder man I don’t think I have met who never let his emotions show to the outside world. That was until the news came over the radio that Stevie had died in a helicopter crash as part of Clapton’s tour of America. Bill was inconsolable and it is only in later life that I understand why it hit him so much. I only had the privilege of seeing Stevie on DVD but Bill had been a lifelong fan who had seen him many many times live from his earliest concerts through his rise in fame from playing guitar for Davie Bowie in Lets Dance to a player who could stand on stage with Blues giants suck as The Kings, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Clapton and for these players to be blown away and a little intimidated by the new boy in town. Like one of my real guilty pleasures Level 42, Stevie’s studio albums never really did justice to him and like 42 you have to see him live to really appreciate what you are hearing. So I am going to cheat here a little and choose 2 songs from the same DVD because to include only an instrumental would mean you wouldn’t hear just how authentic and yet original SRV’s voice was and to only include Texas Flood would mean you wouldn’t hear just how authentic and original his guitar voice is. It may seem a weird thing to say, but Stevie is the only player I know who plays Jimi better than Hendrix did himself (If you don’t get that comment, listen to the original of Little Wing and then listen to Stevie’s version). Don’t just listen with your ears with these tracks – listen with your eyes, your mind and your soul – your world might just change a little as a result. https://youtube/watch?v=iFS_4nAfF4k
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 09:44:31 +0000
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