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Is blues a dying art?

#201
NekoTheWolf said:
That's the way I'd describe it too. Lol Takes no skill to play blues. Especially on bass.
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Hah! I doubt you can do it!

Post a video of you to disprove it.

Blues takes a certain amount of FEEL. If other things you have posted about yourself are true, then you couldn't possibly HAVE that feel!

Hah!

You are so busted!

There is no WAY you have the empathy of feeling required to play the blues, unless an entire thread you posted is a LIE.

The blues is an art, and it is not a dying art. It will outlive many other genres. It ebbs and flows. One year it's in. One year it's out.

I can't believe the things I've read on this thread, but remember this:

The Blues had a baby, and they called it Rock and Roll.

No blues; no rock.

No rock; no metal, fusion, grindcore, deathcore, bubblegumcore, or whatever else kind of genre you think is superior.

Blues bashers and Blues purists, understand ONE THING:

Blues is at the root of most modern music, and all that music IS the Blues.

Take THAT.
 
#204
GlennW said:
Welcome to TB.

I see this is your first post, and right off jump street you say the Man "wasn't much of a blues artist."

Please inform the likes of BB King, John Hammond Jr., Buddy Guy, Little Richard, etc. with your opinion. But be gentle, and try not to embarrass them for having it all wrong for all these years.
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To mess up things more I'd like to clarify some issues.
I'll present some comments from literal sources. The always polite B.B. King said: 'Jimi played blues, and he did it well; he just did it Jimi Hendrix's way.' (Shaar Murray: Crosstown Traffic).
Buddy Guy wrote in his book about playing with Jimi '... I heard him as a good bluesman who, like me, went looking for new sounds and didn't mind if he got little lost along the way.'
In Shaar Murray book Jeffrey Hammond Jr is claimed to say that Hendrix knew little about the blues before he relocated back to the USA. And we all know how deeply Hammond knew the blues, for haven't he bought as a youngster a pair of blindman's glasses and a tin cup and taken to the streets to play blues (White Negro syndrome?).

Those are rather irrelevant facts. Main point is that there are very little blues structures in Jimi's works. I think blues is quite structured music in which there are plenty of variation possibilities. One Red House doesn't make a day.
Jimi's CD Blues is a good example of his outside view of the blues; sloppy playing, no less-is-more principle, use of effects. But all this understandable because his youger years were in segregrated Seattle and his music background was in R&B and his money making era was in psychedelic rock.
But if you take blues as a spiritual state of mind, then of course Jimi had it most strongly.
I know I am an oldfashioned goof who wants make difference with blues (swamp,delta, Texas, West Coast, big city electric) and rhythm and blues (black, urbane jazz based music during 40's/50's), the forefather of rock'n'roll or of western popular music (check Wiki).
So I have trouble where to put Whitey in this context. Whitey does well folk, hillybilly, rockabilly, pop, indie, metal, arty stuff etc..
Sorry that was utterly evil minded. The fact is that white Europeans and Americans keep the blues alive. They buy records (if somebody still does), they flock on Beale Street or in various blues clubs or in concerts and festivals.
I think that in blues there is this entertainment side. It is not a competition who plays fastest or most complicated or who has the deepest sosio-political aspect.
Let late Macig Slim show you what I mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dBrFpQ44-o
 
#205
Whether Jimi Hendrix is considered a bluesman is irrelevant to me. Certainly, he was influenced quite a bit by the blues. But whatever music it was that he did eventually make was some of the best music on the planet. Here is an example. A song that was actually discarded and finally morphed into another song. This has a drummer and organist Hendrix wasn't used to and it appears there might have been some problems getting them to play exactly what he was wanting. Billy Cox is on bass, though. This is an example of Cox getting used to things in the studio having been privately called by Hendrix to eventually take over bass duties. Personally, I like the sound. The point is, however, this song is a song rejected by Hendrix. Even his rejects were far better than most people's finished products. This is not to be confused with the "Crash Landing" which came out in the 80s and was ruined by overdubs from other artists who never even played with Hendrix.



 
#207
PahaPeikko said:
...To mess up things more I'd like to clarify some issues...
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Here's the thing, just because someone is not known as a blues player does not mean they are NOT a blues player.

Blues is not about sticking to a certain musical assumption, blues is in fact not even a musical concept.

The blues is best defined (for me) by this

"The blues is just a good man feeling bad."

Please note there is no musical reference included in this beautifully succinct explanation of what blues really is.

Converting those feelings into music was defined as blues because the people who were doing it at the time where the epitome of the above definition.

So a group of peoples are sittin round and one of them breaks out his starvation box and bangs out the sound of the train he wished he was on, headed anywhere but where he's at. Someone in the group says "Man that was fine, what you call it?" The guy replies, "Don't got no name, I got the blues and it's just what come out when I'm thinking about getting up outta here." To which the other guy replies "Sounds to me like you testifying yo blues with yo gitfiddle young man. Play that chit again, it sounds real good."

Next day the folks who were there are talking to their friends about the young rounder at the juke last night playing out his blues and how good it sounded.

So, calling someone a blues man because they are known for playing mostly the traditional 12 bar form commonly regarded as "the blues" is IMO, not by default a blues man. A blues man is the guy who has the blues and is expressing those feelings through the traditional 12 bar form.

Considering Jimi's life from cradle to grave, I'd say if anyone had the blues from time to time, it would be the former front man/guitar player from the Famous Flames.
 
#213
I like bluegrass but don't like Irish music. The difference is the blues that seeped into Irish music in this country. The difference is subtle, but it is enough for me to love bluegrass and puke when I hear Irish music. The blues has seeped into everything, and that's good.
 
#217
Gaolee said:
I like bluegrass but don't like Irish music. The difference is the blues that seeped into Irish music in this country. The difference is subtle, but it is enough for me to love bluegrass and puke when I hear Irish music. The blues has seeped into everything, and that's good.
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I used to puke when I heard Irish music, as well. I found it unusual, but then I discovered I had Celtitis. Once I got on a good anti-fermulent, I could not only listen to Irish music, but eat six bowls of Lucky Charms. They're magically delicious! The only downside is, someone's always after them.
 
#219
mellowinman said:
I used to puke when I heard Irish music, as well. I found it unusual, but then I discovered I had Celtitis. Once I got on a good anti-fermulent, I could not only listen to Irish music, but eat six bowls of Lucky Charms. They're magically delicious! The only downside is, someone's always after them.
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This, my friends, is in the running for "post of the year". Just the right blend of humor, while acknowledging some real world concerns...
 
#220
Funny, I don't hear people saying Rock n' Roll is a dying art form. I think Blues has evolved and is still evolving and has taken on different sub genres much in the same way Rock, Country, Pop and Hip Hop have done. To say Hendrix wasn't a Bluesman is absurd, go listen to what he did with it. There are tons of great blues bands today, Buddy guy is a bluesman, Walter Trout, Joe Bonnamassa, George Thorogood, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Cray, Johnny Lang, John Mayer, they all do something different with it but it's all Blues. It's really more of your perspective I think. The Shakes are just as much of a Blues Band as BB King just in a different light. That's what makes blues so frickin cool. Go to a blues jam and listen to the way all the different guys play the Blues but they can still get up there with perfect strangers and make it all work out. Is Blues a dying art? Hell No, it's living just as strong as it ever did, it's just changing...
 

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