The Blues

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The blues, I always believed it's the musical equivalent of wallowing in negativity. Then this tune popped back into my head today and I felt reassured and energised...

youtube.com/watch?v=3aKqa2FPeJ0&

Born under a bad sign by Cream

This is the blues, isn't it?

 Ramblin dave 30 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

"The Blues ain't about feeling better, it's about making other people feel worse..." 

In reply to Ramblin dave:

There's truth to that! I shared digs with a really passive aggressive bloke who was unfortunately also suffering from some depression. Occasionally he'd get his guitar out and freestyle some blues at me. A terrible dirge it was. What I like about the Cream track is how there is a rolling menace counteracting the sadness that lifts the tune.

 Oceanrower 30 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I'm really getting into Alternative Blues.

Truck's mended,

Dog got better,

Wife came back...

In reply to Oceanrower:

Is this a thing? Or did you dream it up?

 Oceanrower 30 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Just my idea of a joke...

 Jack 30 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

> The blues, I always believed it's the musical equivalent of wallowing in negativity. Then this tune popped back into my head today and I felt reassured and energised...

> Born under a bad sign by Cream

> This is the blues, isn't it?

It's a kind of blues. Definitely bluesy though. 

Post edited at 22:42
 nathan79 30 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I knew the Albert King original before I knew the Cream version. I find the original more angsty-blues and the Cream cover more hip-happening blues rock. Love both though. 

I'd heard the original on a blues compilation album album I'd bought my dad as a kid. That album taught me from the start their might be darkness but there can be as much humour to balance it out.

 MonkeyPuzzle 30 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Not wallowing; catharsis.

 mbh 30 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Blues songs are lament songs, about bad luck and sod's law:

youtube.com/watch?v=_fZu9ed__O4&

 Tom Valentine 31 Aug 2019
In reply to Oceanrower:

A.K.A. what you get when you play a country record backwards....

1
In reply to mbh:

> Blues songs are lament songs, about bad luck and sod's law:

Erm... no, a big chunk off them are about sex and masculinity

hoochie coochie man, mannish boy, I’m a man, roll in and tumbling, etc etc

 Andy Clarke 31 Aug 2019
In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

> Erm... no, a big chunk off them are about sex and masculinity

> hoochie coochie man, mannish boy, I’m a man, roll in and tumbling, etc etc


And it's not just the men, as Bessie Smith made clear on many occasions:

youtube.com/watch?v=WSOYDm8ftIY&

But for a celebratory blues take on relationships, checkout the greatest white bluesman who ever lived, the mighty SRV:

youtube.com/watch?v=0vo23H9J8o8&

Post edited at 08:11
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Bonzo Dog provided food for thought with Can Blue men sing the whites - try this:

youtube.com/watch?v=Gw-TVrR8wZc&

 Andy Clarke 31 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

> The blues, I always believed it's the musical equivalent of wallowing in negativity. Then this tune popped back into my head today and I felt reassured and energised...

Here's an excellent example of blues positivity: the inimitable Lightnin' Hopkins freestyling his reflections on space exploration: Happy Blues for John Glenn:   youtube.com/watch?v=xMtsFABg7EM&

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

> Erm... no, a big chunk off them are about sex and masculinity

> hoochie coochie man, mannish boy, I’m a man, roll in and tumbling, etc etc

and, for another example from Muddy Waters: I'm a King Bee, Baby

 philipivan 31 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I found this blues film very uplifting https://www.netflix.com/title/81077539?s=a&trkid=13747225&t=cp

 Bob Kemp 31 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

It helps to remember that blues is several things: a feeling, a genre, a black American cultural artefact and art form, a musical structure and form. I'm sure there are other ways of looking at it too. There are many variants, often sad but also dealing with many aspects of life as experienced by people who were downtrodden and poor. So some blues are a fight against the misery of life too - uplifting, life-affirming, danceable, funny, sexy... And even the sad themes of blues are often dealt with in a way that lightens the load, helps people come to terms with the miseries of life, both in the sound and in the sharing of woes. 

In reply to John Stainforth:

Gonna get my mojo workin’

 Andy Clarke 31 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Of course, when the blues gets dark, it can get really dark. Muddy Waters has got a few mentions in this thread. The best - but unjustly little known - guitarist who played with him was one "Pat" Hare (real name Auburn!). Pat was way ahead of his time: he pioneered the electric guitar sounds not only of rockabilly, but also the distorted power chording of heavy rock/metal. In reference to another current thread: no Tool without Pat! Pat only recorded a couple of songs in his own name, but they included the chilling I'm Gonna Murder My Baby:

youtube.com/watch?v=E26dBq-98Po&

Pat ended his days playing in Sounds Incarcerated, a band he formed in Minnesota Correctional Facility, having done in real life exactly what he prophesied in song.

 kevin stephens 31 Aug 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

just give yourself a treat buy listening to Cream's whole double album Wheels of fire (do you like drum solos?)

In reply to kevin stephens:

I will certainly get round to it! Listening to an Iggy Pop / Prodigy collaboration right now!

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I don't want to be too intellectually heavy about this, but isn't there a strong element of catharsis about this: that going through a very strongly felt sad or even tragic package of emotions actually lifts you?

Post edited at 22:16
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

I think you're right, also it can be lonely feeling sad, and hearing someone else express their "blues" there's then an instant connection and you're part of a tribe, a movement, maybe.

I think it's healthy to feel down from time to time and the blues facilitates this.

Post edited at 22:25
 Thunderbird7 01 Sep 2019
In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I've always loved the blues - John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters but for some reason I've always loved this song..

youtube.com/watch?v=FO5-w3540H8&

..which, despite its title, is not a blues sounding song. Great words and sound tho - bit like the UK now ...."you've got nothing left to lose..."

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

> Gonna get my mojo workin’

No good - it will give you the blues - if it doesn't work on your partner!

Post edited at 03:59
 mbh 01 Sep 2019
In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

I was (mis, it turns out)quoting Lee Brilleaux in an interview in the link I gave, from about 5:12. He expands somewhat on my snippet. I like what he says, and what he said earlier in the clip about Howling Wolf.

 mbh 02 Sep 2019
In reply to mbh:

Howlin', I should say.

 Andy Clarke 02 Sep 2019
In reply to Oceanrower:

> Just my idea of a joke...


Boom Boom - to quote John Lee Hooker, proving once again that there's a blues for every occasion.


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