It`s always good to share good music and so for those our there who wanna try Blues for the first time, here`s a list of songs to get ya started, some of my fav`s indeed...
Black Muddy River (Grateful Dead).
If You Love Me (Van Morrison).
Standing Knee Deep In The River (Joe Cocker).
When I Come To You (Johnny Lang).
Out Of The Blue (Joe Cocker).
Reminds Me Of You (Van Morrison).
Feel Like Going Home (The Notting Hillbillies).
Need Ur Love So Bad (Fleetwood Mac).
A Women Left Lonely (Janis Joplin).
I’d Rather Go Blind (Etta James).
Cry Baby (Janis Joplin).
The Price I Pay (Robert Cray).
Sensitive Kind (J.J.Cale).
When I Get Home (Mike Bloomfield)
Lullaby Baby Blues (Keb`Mo).
Mercedes Benz (Janis Joplin).
Whiter Shades of Pale (Procol Harum).
Lets get it on (Marvin Gaye).
Strictly speaking, these are not what can be termed as BLUES ( the more accurate term would be, say R&B). But they all have a very strong root in Blues and are all Blues based music. Also, the artists are all Blues Musicians (in general). So, for anyone who wants to get into Blues, but without any prior knowledge of it, I Believe this is the most logical and natural way to start from ( Because with BLUES, you dont start from the beginning but from the END!).
In understanding and feeling BLUES, the experience is somewhat like learning to FLY- the hardest part is not actually the flying part, but coming down!
Blues Music started in America during the slavery period. It became the folk music of the blacks, infact it can be said that - It is the Folk Music of America. The Blacks who were slaves then, were treated very badly and their lives were filled with misery and sadness. 'What does a person do when he is in great Pain?', well, He Cries! The crying of course will not make things better, but after a good understrained cry, that person will feel much better. Well, thats exactly what the Blacks did. They Cried, only that they cried in tune, usually accompanied by guitar or a harmonica or both. Thats why Blues is so heavy (I'm not talking about 'Heavy' as in heavy rock or heavy metal) and deep, dripping with emotion. The essence of Blues is Feeling (the soul). You dont just play it or listen to it, that will not do, but feel it. To quote the immortal Muddy Waters 'It may be easy to play but not to feel it'. This has been the greatest challenge for musicians.
Blues maybe broadly divided into two: Pre war (before 1940) and Post war (after 1940). The pre-war is acoustic fingerstyle guitaring, usually a man singing, accompanying himself with an acoustic guitar. The post-war is usually in a band format including drums etc, with electric based instruments.
The artists mentioned are mostly from the 60's, the exceptions are Robert Cray from the 80's and Johnny Lang, Keb`Mo from the 90's and Etta James from the 50's.
All the popular music of the world can be traced back to the Blues (YeS! even country music). But the music most indebted to Blues is Rock music.Muddy even wrote a song about it called 'The Blues Had a baby and They called it Rock N Roll'.
The best time to listen to Blues is when you re alone. So, dig in, and feel the music and the soul.
14 comments:
Nice post. The lady knows her stuff, huh :)
Cheers! and just a something i read before i log off....
"There's some places in them records, there's somethin' sad in
there that give you the blues; somethin' that reach back in your life or in some friend's life of yours, or that make you think of what have happened today and is so true, that if it didn't happen to
you, you still got a strong idea--you know those things is goin' on.
So this is very touchable, and that develops into the blues."
- JOHN LEE HOOKER.
i hla duh ho hi a mak... Bangalore a mi min hrilh dan chuan, i hla duh chi chu Backstreet Boys te, Five te, NSync te, Britney Spears te an ti a sin... i blog ah dawt i sawi a ni moooo
@ Birdie .. thanks and double thanks!
@ Baldy .... john lee hooker is great, and a touchy definition of his ya got there!
@ KImness hahahahaaaa..... i dont quite remember being a fan of them, but yeah i sure did listen to them hahaha.. anyways who don`t, even my dad does and ya mom probably knows em! hahahahaha...
Haha diddley, you are mistaking me for someone born in your generation. The songs my mum used to listen to are by elvis and the beatles. She passed her 50s long before any boyband ever came in the picture. Even now she still plays beatles at home. I think your mom, dad and I would be of the same age group.
haha kimness..... we` r definitely living in the same generation, considering all the confusion and the assumed generation gap.. a clear syndrome of what almost every youth of this generation seem to come across... the politics of generation...like my mom thinks listening to BSB makes her part of this generation and usually if ya a 13 yr old kid listening to ELvis, ya seem too old for this generation..hahaha!!!
i love
Hell! Lady, are you taking a course on psychology or something like that? If so, then John I really pity you. I can imagine the mental torture you must be going through bro :-)
hahaha.. i actually took up three yrs of psychology as an optional during my COol-age days but did`nt make much of a difference, i slept thru the class`s, thru-out the 3 long yrz ;)
dont worry about john haha, he feels very blessed haha and well, his big head come with an extra large brain.. its really hard to bully him hahahaha
Cool. Chuan i u kha min lo biak don nia... i u ka phone thrin lai te khan i lo om ve reng a lo, a bulah? eee ka van jakkkk....
aw nia i za ka hlau ah, ka lo mei mi ching thrin!!
beng hup tur a lom. mawl e mai. Hmanni ah (around 4-5 months ago) i u tu e moni innei a om em mi? Mi rawn hrilh a inneih ni khan.
yeah. u debby te in nei a nia. sad thing i could`nt go for the wedding :( come to think of it i havnt been in a wedding celebration for like 7 yrs....huis!
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