The Blues List

Whoa! Lennon could sing the blues!!

 

CREAM

Crossroads


I was going to do another post on Robert Johnson and his crossroads story. But the very first version of Robert Johnson's song on his crossroad experience that I heard was this one done by Cream.

I was spending the night at a friends house sometime in the late 60's and he had the Disraeli Gears album. It was that night, listening to Cream and Creedence Clearwater Revival that we decided to grow our hair long and become hippies. The decision was not a surprise to either of us, we had long thought hippies were cool.

I am sure I had heard Crossroads before that night. Sunshine of My Life was certainly already a favorite song of mine, but I specifically remember hearing it that night because we played it over and over numerous times.

Cream formed in 1966 and was made up of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce who were already recognized as the top blues musicians in the growing blues movement in England. They took on the name Cream (initially, The Cream) because they were the cream of the crop.

In the early 2000's Ginger Baker lived in the Colorado mountain town of Nederland, not far from me. It was famous for a great recording studio where a lot of good rock albums were recorded. Unfortunately Baker was having immigration issues and he couldn't stay. During that time, an old British hippie with curly greying hair stepped into a Starbucks I was relaxing at. I thought it was Baker! We became friends and while he was not Baker, he was friends with the British version of Owsley Stanley (if you know you know) back in the day. He has some good stories, including how he met the Beatles.

Eric Clapton recently came to Denver with Jimmy Vaughn. Unfortunately my schedule did not allow me to get to the show... I love both of them, I'm sure it was a great show.

I'll post Robert Johnson's story in the next post.

 

ROBERT JOHNSON

Crossroad Blues


As I said in an earlier post, if you want to know about the Blues, you have to know the story (or myth) about Robert Johnson and the crossroads. The story goes that he was envious of Son House and his blues playing, and the way he got the girls, so as per an old African or Southern tradition about making a deal with the devil or some dark figure at the crossroads, and the fact that the Mississippi delta has numerous crossroads, he went to the crossroads or intersection of Highway 61 and Highway 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi at midnight and sold his soul to the devil.

The song, Crossroad Blues, or, Crossroads, does not actually refer to the devil or such a Faustian deal specifically, and there are researchers who claim that he could have just written the song about trying to hitch a ride before sundown to go see his girl. But he did record other songs , such as Hellhound on my Trail, which empowers the notion that the devil was responsible for his fame, and his early death that prevented him from enjoying that fame. Another Blues singer from the 1920's, Tommy Johnson (no relation to Robert), claimed even earlier that he actually went to the crossroads and made a deal for fame.

The song is also said by some superstitious folk to be jinxed, and anyone that performs it will have tragedy befall them. Eric Clapton did suffer tragedy, and Robert Johnson himself tragically died early.

Coincidentally, Johnson recorded this song on November 27, 1936. Thirteen years later, on November 27, 1949, Jimi Hendrix was born. I know this because yours truly was also born on November 27 (that means me...). Cream recorded their version on November 28, 1966.

The song was not typical of 12 bar blues, as the verses ranged between 14 and 15 bars. The rythm, as well, fluctuated within the song. Johnson used his slide guitar as a 2nd vocalist, answering his vocals. His slide technique bore the influence of Son House, who was one of his mentors. He recorded two versions, one being shorter, possibly to fit the 78 rpm record it was going onto.

 

SAMANTHA FISH

Lost Myself

Samantha Fish is certainly becoming today's Queen of the Blues. Lost Myself is a song that she composed, and the link I posted is a video of a live performance. I like it better than the album version. You can see that she has really perfected her stage presence.

She is playing in Denver this weekend and I hope I can make it to that show.

Her voice, her guitar playing, her composition, her face, her skirt, her legs... there is absolutely no fault you can find with this artist. She is as perfect as a blues artist can ever be.


(By the way, I did make it to that show, and posted several videos of it to my IG page. The videos are on my page (along with other shows and some local musicians, etc), and so far I have skipped the posts with my own videos because I haven't figured out how to post them to HipForums. I guess I could try posting from my phone, but I never get onto Hip Forums from my phone...)

 

TONY VEGA BAND

Sweet In Between


One good thing about Texas is the blues. There is Houston Blues Radio, which you can listen to online, there is ZZ Tops, and now there is also the Tony Vega Band!

This song would be perfect for a modern day Spaghetti Western with a Clint Eastwood-like character, or even better, a Young Guns III. If Bon Jovi's song for that movie franchise made the charts, this one definitely should.

When I first heard it I could immediately relate---when you play around with a slide guitar you are undoubtedly going to find a cool riff that you want to shape a whole song around. You keep playing it, and each time it sounds cool.

Then there is the vocals. It reminds me of the voice of an uncle I had. He was born a city boy, but he loved the wild west. He married a farm girl and inherited a farm. I suppose he had what one could detect as a Colorado drawl. I told my son to listen to this song by my uncle, and he believed that it was actually him. The voice is uncannily similar.

Then that wahwah guitar comes in. Damn!

The Tony Vega Band plays blues and roots, and they have an Instagram page you can follow, @tonyvegaband.


(Tony Vega contacted me after I posted this and thanked me for the kind words. He informed me who sang the vocals on this song, and he looks nothing like my uncle---but a damn good musician in his own right. I will hopefully post him in the future.)

 

Yeah! Very nice.

 

JIMMIE VAUGHAN

Dengue Woman Blues


Ok, I didnt forget, here's something else Texas gave us--Dengue Fever. Just kidding! Texas gave us the Vaughan brothers. This is Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughan's older brother. And this is a great song he did about dengue.

He came to Denver recently with Eric Clapton, unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, I couldn't make it to the show. Jimmie began performing for audiences in High School in the mid 60's. In '69 he opened for Jimmi Hendrix in Fort Worth. He formed the group, The Fabulous Thunderbirds which put out some great tunes, some of which I will post in the future. He recorded an album with his brother, Stevie Ray, as the Vaughan Brothers, right before Stevie Ray was killed in the helicopter crash.

Dengue is a tropical mosquito borne illness. Symptoms include high fever, vomiting, joint pain and so forth. What you don't see is that it causes your internal organs to bleed.

When I lived in the Philippines in my wife's neighborhood, the Sarao family (whose wealth came from the invention of the jeepney after World War II) had numerous properties and residences of the children. One compound straddled our subdivision and the one next to it. The Sarao family let people walk through it as a shortcut to the stores and a subdivision swimming pool and park.

There were two squatter families that lived in the compound, and in return, the husbands would repair jeepneys. Whenever we walked through the compound one of the wives would always greet us with a smile and a nod and sometimes a conversation. We would sometimes bring them food.

She had a baby, and even before he could talk, he would smile and nod at us, just like his mother. He was really cute and we'd often laugh. When he was about 2 he contracted Dengue. Manila hospitals were really cheap, but back then you had to show you could afford them before you could get any care. We didn't know he was sick until, tragically, after he had passed away. We paid for his funeral.

My granddaughter caught Dengue at a university in Arizona at the beginning of classes last year. The doctor said it's possible that a newly arrived foreign student got bit by a mosquito. But I recently read that cases are starting to appear in the South thanks to global warming.

But this is some great slow blues.

 

GARY CLARK JR

Catfish Blues


Gary Clark Jr was born in 1981, but man, you'd think this cat lived through the 60's when you hear him play. He melds blues, rock, and soul, and close your eyes, and you might think its Jimi Hendrix playing.

Catfish Blues was written by Robert Petway, but it is a blues icon and was sung by Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix, and others One of my favorite versions of Gary Clark's Catfish Blues is on his album Gary Clark Live, which is the link I posted. I love him!

In another YouTube video, well worth watching, an 18 year old kid, on his birthday, holds up a sign all night at a concert, I assume asking him to play a song with him. Clark who remembered him from other shows, invited him up. He tells the audience, that this is basically a one time thing--so as not to give anyone any ideas. Anyway Jeff Tallman (the kid) plays it so good, he even surprises Gary Clark who responds with, 'ohhh sh#t.'

There's something about the beat to Catfish Blues. Does anyone remember how, back in the day, the hippies would walk with a rhythm? Their bell bottoms, the frills on their jackets and clothes, their love beads, their hair, and everything else would flow along in waves with them at this rhythm. On that live album the rhythm that is maintained throughout that song after the intro----to me, that was the rhythm the hippies walked to. If you listen to it, it might even bring back the lingering aroma of patchouli...

Gary Clark Jr has an Instagram page, @garyclarkjr .





Here is the video of Jeff Tallman playing with him at that show:

 

GLENN FREY

Smuggler's Blues


The 1980's TV series, Miami Vice, played some great music including some great blues. In fact, it may have been on Miami Vice that I first heard George Thorogood, because I spent much of the 1980's in Japan, and what I could listen to was filtered by Japanese tastes.

Glenn Frey was the cofounder, with Don Henley, of the Eagles. During his solo career he wrote Smugglers Blues which was one of his many top charting hits, and inspired an episode of Miami Vice which he also got to appear in.

He died in 2016 of complications from a drug he was taking for Rheumatoid Arthritis which tells us that you can be a good smuggler and still die from medical malfeasance... er, I mean, a famous rock star.

As I said, I lived in Japan during the 80's, and was working in the stock market. I was so hungry for American TV, and Miami Vice was one of the few shows that aired there. I watched it religiously, and even had a special reciever that received the original soundtrack in English, that was broadcast with the program. The Japanese dubbed soundtrack that you'd get on the TV was ridiculously horrible, and it was modified so the Japanese would understand it.

I loved Don Johnson's style as Detective Crockett, and while I wore a 3-piece suit in the office, I loved to dress in a camel hair blazer over a colored t-shirt. I had a Swiss Bank 24kt gold ingot hanging from a 24kt Thai Baht chain, and a Rolex to go with it. I loved the juxtaposition of that against my long hair. (The same with the 3-piece suit). I still like to pair a blazer with a colored t-shirt ala Detective, Sonny Crockett.

He mentions Telluride, a remote Colorado mountain town, which, in case you dont know, has a great annual Blues festival.

I will provide the link to the Official Video, but there is also a YouTube video from the Miami Vice episode the song played in.





The Miami Vice clip:







(They used to have 1 clip on YouTube that just had the Miami Vice sequence that had the song playing in the original episode---now someone has put quite a bit of the episode into several videos)

 

LINSEY ALEXANDER

Raffle Ticket


Linsey Alexander, the Hoochie Man, was born in Mississippi in 1942. In 1959, he pawned his first guitar to buy a bus ticket to Chicago to follow a girl he met. He eventually became a Chicago blues man playing clubs on the north side. He played with a number of big names, including B B King, Buddy Guy, Magic Slim and A.C. Reed.

His song, Raffle Ticket, is not only some great blues, it has a moral to it----if your woman has a real good raffle ticket, dont let her get it wet.

He is known for his humor, in addition to his vocals and guitar work. And that is one great thing about the blues---there is a lot of gritty humor and seedy entendres...

In this song his woman goes out till late at night, and comes home with a diamond ring. She says she won it with a raffle ticket. Then she goes out again till late at night and wins a mink coat. She's going to go out again, and he tells her to win him a Cadillac with that raffle ticket. ...and its raining outside so she better bring an umbrella so as not to get her raffle ticket wet.

In his live shows he apparently likes to take his guitar and walk among the audience, stopping to flirt with the pretty girls.

...wait a minute! You don't suppose his women is...? No! Where does she keep her raffle ticket...?