Initiation To The Blues
We Are Talking Music
At this juncture in my journey, I know the blues is part of my DNA.
There have been periods in my life where there was not a day that went by without Muddy, Fat Fingers Mcgee, or Jelly Legs Jimmy on the turntable.
Some of those names may be made up….
There was big band music played in my childhood home and some of that swing music may have started my initiation into jazz and a bit of blues.
This was just a sprinkling until the 60s came along and the heavens opened up.
When I was a kid AM Radio was filled with what is now classic rock and roll from Elvis to The Beatles and Stones to Motown and more. Rock and roll is a derivative of the devils’ music, but as an early pre-teen, the music I mostly heard was pop.
As I approached the end of this decade of my life, around 1967, things began to change.
Free-form FM radio came into my life, particularly WNEW-FM in New York City.
Rosko, Jonathan Schwartz, Alison Steele, and The Professor Scott Muni were the leading edge in 1967 serving up records and giving the listeners an education. Dave Herman was on in the morning and as we rolled into the afternoon Pete Fornatale arrived. Muni was on later in the afternoon and he always had some British music none of us had heard yet.
Vin Scelsa, Pete Larkin, Dan and Richard Neer, and John Zacherle were just some more of the DJs who taught me all about rock and roll in between my reading Rolling Stone and searching far and wide for information.
The staff at WNEW and other FM radio stations did not just spin records. They gave us an education. They would sometimes play an entire album. Try and find that on the radio dial these days.
The British Invasion, the Civil Rights movement, and Folk Music all played a part in my hearing blues songs. Most of my discoveries came from reading album covers and noting who wrote the song I liked and then digging deeper from there.
For you young people, there was no Google or the internet, so you had to rummage around record stores. How many hours did I spend in those bins?
I was digging around for the testosterone rock and roll that I gravitated to as a 12-13-year-old boy.
Slipping into my life were Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, Led Zep and Fleetwood Mac (yes they started out as a blues band). This was bringing me closer to the roots of rock and roll.
Let’s not forget The Allman Brothers. I have a vivid memory of my friend Robert playing me Idlewild South when I was 13 and my ears were blown off.
Hot Tuna turned me onto Reverend Gary Davis. The Yardbirds and Cream also planted some blue seeds into my soul.
The first taste of the Blues for this young white boy from Long Island was The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop, Sam Lay, Michael Bloomfield, Jerome Arnold and Mark Naftalin turned me onto Elmore James, Willie Dixon, and Junior Parker.
Michael Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981). He was a shooting star, gone too soon, at the age of 27 he stopped playing for a while because heroin was a bigger pull than his Les Paul.
"Michael used to say, 'It's natural. Black people suffer externally in this country, and Jewish people suffer internally. The suffering's the mutual fulcrum for the blues.
Steve Miller, his band was originally called The Steve Miller Blues Band, shortly after lit up my life with “The Key To The Highway”. I was not even a teenager and these records were found in my brothers’ room. I also found what looked like cigarettes without filters in some old shoes in his room.
What the fuck was that about?
Who puts cigarettes out in their shoes?
And what was that sweet smell? I opened the old toy chest that was in his room and there was a gallon bottle of dirty-looking water, a funnel, and some rubber hoses connected to it.
WTF?
I certainly would find out later, courtesy of the same brother, what he had been up to.
So the doorway to the Blues (and reefer) was thrown open and it stands ajar to this day.
To start off on this blues highway, here are some of the ones that turned me on first and then I discovered the originals soon after. We will visit some more blues in a later post.
Enjoy!
PS-And the track “East-West” opened up my mind to a plethora of ideas.
The tune was inspired by an all-night LSD trip that "East-West"'s primary songwriter Mike Bloomfield experienced in the fall of 1965, during which the late guitarist "said he'd had a revelation into the workings of Indian music."
In some ways, this was the spark for psychedelic rock and roll and the songs that were longer than 3 minutes.
Check this out from 57 years ago…..it still has all its power and glory.
Fantastic playlist, Paul. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, East-West, YouTube piece was amazing too. I have never heard that. Thanks for sharing.