Riding With The King-The Music Of B.B.
King
CD Review
By Zack James
Riding With The King, B.B. King, Eric
Clapton
“You never know where music, the muse
of music if that is the right way to say it, if it is not redundant” Seth Garth
said to his old friend Bartlett Webber one night when they were discussing
various musical trends and commitments over a few drinks at Friday’s in
downtown Boston. Seth had just been commenting on the hard fact that the guys
and gals who were holding up the blues traditions of that quintessentially
black musical form were mostly then younger whites who had gotten their
baptisms of fire back in the early 1960s maybe the 1970s when as part of the
British invasion of rock groups (the Beatles and Stones mostly) who worshiped
at the feet of the old bluesmen and as part of the folk revival of the early
1960s when the young were looking for roots music and hit upon some old time
country blues singers they got hooked on this genre.(That worship at the feet
was no mere expression since as august a group as the Rolling Stones made their
way to Chicago, made their way to legendary blues label Chess Records, made
their way to meet Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.)
Seth went on, “You know with very few
exceptions, maybe in the old days guys like Taj Majal and more recently Keb ‘Mo
young blacks were running away from their “blues is dues” contributions, except
the hip-hop artists who were savoring those blues as backdrop to their new
language experiences.” Bart nodded his head not so much because he was as
knowledgeable as Seth about musical trends, he wasn’t, but because ever since
Seth had turned him on to various non-rock and roll forms of music such as
these blues and folk music he had deferred to him on such subjects.
That deference to Seth had not been
happenstance since for early in his journalistic career starting with the American Folk Gazette when he was still
in college he had been a music critic most frequently and profitably before it
folded long ago when the ebb tide of the 1960s faded the prestigious The Eye. Moreover although Bart was a
true aficionado Seth would be the one to lead the way forward musically ever
since the old days back in Riverdale when Seth had been the guy who turned the
crowd they hung around with to that folk music that was coming over the
horizon. He would take the lead here as well ever since both men had attended a
concert at the Garden by Big Bill Bloom, the legendary folksinger from the
1960s. Both men had agreed to walk out of the performance before the encore as
a protest to the hard fact that Big Bill could no longer sing, was practically
talking the lyrics through. That experience got Seth onto the trail of an idea.
He wanted to check out all the singers still standing from back in the day who
were still performing and rate them on the question of whether they still had
“it.” As it turned out some did like
David Bromberg and his band who burned up the joint one night downtown. The
late Etta James didn’t, didn’t have it. And so the quest.
That quest was now centered more
particularly on the fading fast few blues masters still around. That is where
Seth began to see that break in the black blues tradition as two generations or
more removed from Southern country life or hard inner city industrial madness
which had brought a couple of generations north in search of a better life and
the music needed to pick up the pace as well bringing forth the whole electric
blues scene that hummed cities like Chicago and Detroit in the early 1950s.
That brought them to this-B.B. King and Eric Clapton CD. Clapton, one of those
British invasion guys who was crazy for the blues (and classic rock, now classic
rock, with the likes of Chuck Berry who Clapton to this day swears he does not
know how Berry did what he did with a guitar as hard as he looked to find out
what the master was doing) and the King were going to perform together at the
Garden in a week or so.
At the concert Seth and Bart had been
apprehensive when they saw ancient B.B. and his latest version of Lucille being
escorted to a seat on center stage with Eric Clapton to the side. Not to worry
though the work they did was a great success. Seth mentioned to Bart though
that he was not sure where the new generation would get their blues from since
they would never go away, the blues, the causes for the blues, whiskey. Women,
work, and a wad of dough just like rock and roll once guys like Eric passed
away. This CD was their work to insure the future whatever may come-okay.
No comments:
Post a Comment