When most people hear "the blues", the first image that probably pops into their mind is a middle aged African American man plucking away at his acoustic guitar on a porch somewhere in Louisiana. While many of the genre's forefathers may have fit that mold, it is a restrictive and inaccurate view of a diverse and rich form of music that is the root for almost all modern music. Those that maintain this stereotypical view of the blues and assume it is "grandpa music" are missing out on a lot.

Since the electrification of the guitar shot it to the forefront of three and four piece bands, music entered an evolutionary time warp not unlike that the quantum leaps in science and technology occurring at the same time.

Some of the pioneers during the 50's were B.B. King, Albert King, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. Chuck Berry was among the first to take the blues and kick it up a notch, speeding up the tempo and creating many rock riffs and techniques that are standard vocabulary today.

By the 60's and 70's, the blues had traveled across the pond to Britain. Bands like Cream, the Who, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin all traced their roots back to the blues forefathers. Even Angus Young of AC/DC, considered metal by many(the band always maintains that they are a rock band, not metal) has a very bluesy style of playing.

By the 80's, "Blues-Rock" had become indistinguishable from "Hard Rock". It wasn't until artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan came along and took blues back to it's roots.

Some modern bands that have bluesy overtones include the Black Keys and the White Stripes.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry of fame in Back to the Future as Marvin Berry's cousin and original composer of "Johnny B. Goode" is a true Father of the Blues and Rock 'n' Roll. Chuck berry was the first to popularize "double stops" or paying two trings at the same time while soloing, a must in any guitarist's repertoire today. His sorces of inspiration were Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker. Berry actually got a a chance to meet Muddy Waters when he went to Chicago. Waters told him to look Walter Chess of Chess Records and cut a record. Berry did just that. Berry recorded "Maybelline" and it was his first hit. Berry went on to record other hits such as "No Particular Place toGo", "Nadine", and "You Can Never Tell". Berry was among the first guitarists to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when it First opened in 1986 and was named as on the "Top 100 Guitarists of  All Time". Chuck Berry is 84 and continues to play.  Chuck Berry is about "classic" classic rock and roll as you can get and required listening in my opinion.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)