Then I discovered the legend of Robert Johnson, which is a whole other blog post. Albert Collins was another guy I heard a lot about. There were the Three Kings – B.B., Freddie, and Albert. There were names that my Rock Star heroes were dropping in interviews, the names of their heroes. Searching and seeking out the blues was really the root of my life long obsession with musical spelunking. After hearing the Blues Brothers I began to explore the roots of all this rock and roll music I was listening to, and started reading liner notes and writing credits, and realized there was a world of blues artists I hadn’t realized existed. As a young kid I heard Cream’s version of “Rollin’ and Tumbling'” and thought it was their song. It’s easy to hear Van Morrison’s band Them doing their version of “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” (perhaps the definitive rock version of that song) and not realize how heavily influenced he was by Muddy Waters’ version. It’s easy I suppose, especially when you’re young, to hear a band and not realize they were influenced heavily by other artists, the artists that came before them. I love it when he says, “I suggest you buy all the blues albums you can,” in between songs. A lot of criticism was leveled at the Blues Brothers, but that was an amazing band – Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn and an amazing horn section… Sure Belushi was no Sam Cooke on vocals, but he was committed. The blues were powerful and joyful and simply amazing all at the same time.
#JOHNNY WINTER TRIBUTE TO MUDDY FULL#
Oh, the ignorance of youth… It wasn’t until I purchased, and I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this, the Blues Brother’s live album, Briefcase Full of Blues that I realized the blues were more than just sad, acoustic based songs. People think of the young Bob Dylan as a folkie, but I hear as much Robert Johnson in his early music as Woody Guthrie… I had no idea “I Just Wanna Make Love To You” was a blues cover… I thought it was just a Foghat song. Jimi Hendrix, Cream, the Faces, Foghat, AC/DC, Humble Pie, the list goes on and on, were all either blues rock or at the very least performing blues covers. Led Zeppelin’s music was steeped in the blues so much they were sued for copyright infringement. Every band I liked played blues-based music or as it was known, “blues rock.” My first love, the Rolling Stones, were basically a blues cover band for the first five years of their career and still play the blues today ( LP Review: The Rolling Stones, The Superb “Blue And Lonesome” – They Come Full Circle). However, without even knowing it, I was already a fan of the blues. I used to like to put that on mix tapes when I broke up with someone, but those records are sealed. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone,” and that’s a pretty sad song. The only blues song I’d probably ever heard at that point was the amazing B.B. So I really didn’t know anything about the blues except this vague impression that it was “downer” music.
My parents weren’t exactly musical people and that didn’t help. I grew up in the suburbs of a small, midwestern, American town and the blues were not something you heard on the radio.
#JOHNNY WINTER TRIBUTE TO MUDDY MOVIE#
I can still remember in the movie The Jerk, when Steve Martin’s character, Navin Johnson, is asked by his brother if he’d like to come out on the porch and sing the blues… Martin deadpans, “No, there’s just something about that music that depresses me.” That was my only impression of the blues. I was a fan of the blues before I even knew what the blues were. “Well the blues had a baby and they named the baby ‘Rock and Roll'” – Muddy Waters, “The Blues Had a Baby”
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