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.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Cream

Well I'm not going to lie, I kind of ran out of guitarists to talk about for now, so I will be talking about one of the most influential bands in Rock and Roll history: Cream.

Cream was formed in the 60's by Ginger Baker (drums), Jack Bruce (vocals and bass guitar) and Eric Clapton (vocals and guitar). They set the format for the standard power trio setup and were the first "super group". They called themselves "Cream" because they were the "cream of the jazz blues musicians". While impressive musicians, Clapton was unaware that Bruce and Baker had quarreled in the past even going so far as to sabotage each other's instruments. The two put their differeneces aside but their egos eventually came to haunt them and ultimately resulted in the band's collapse.

In my opinion, Cream is to Blues and Rock and Roll as Elvis was to Rockabilly and Soul. They took cues from many of the Blues Grandfathers (doing uptempo covers in some cases) and repackaging the blues for a new generation.
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