I don't have me a rockin' chair yet, but I probably should think about it, because thinking about stuff comes easy as I get older. Recently I found myself thinking about the fact that, fortunately or unfortunately, I managed to miss much of the music that many of you reading this article most love and grew up on. Since I made my living as a music critic (and organizing other music critics) for many years, how did that happen? Actually, it was easy.
I grew up in the 1940s, 1950s, and onward, listening to the best popular music that ever was, certainly the ground or basis on which everything pop we hear today still rests, genres like Doo Wop, Rhythm & Blues, Rockabilly, early Country and, of course, Rock & Roll. I got all that, but began to selectively tune out certain music somewhere in the 1960s. It was simply a matter of time.
I will spare you my "folkies" story (which I have told many times), but I found my roots in folk music and its revival, and hung out with players like Joan Baez, the New Lost City Ramblers, the Country Gentlemen, and the like. I travelled and hitchhiked with Bob Dylan, and so on, and we were all doing the same thing, reviving American folk music, but let me get right to the pivot point for me, in particular when we folkies turned to attempting to revive folk blues. This was in the late 1950s and the very early 1960s. The whole Sixties scene did not take hold until the summer of 1965, so there were all those early 1960s years to account for, and I can account for them.
Blues, unlike most of the folk music from Ireland and England, didn't need revival. It was very much alive and playing just across town in most cities, simply separated by a racial curtain. And we White folk didn't go into Black bars and juke joints. And then we began to go there and got our minds blown, at least mine did. Here was music still fresh and living, unlike the desiccated European folk music we struggled to revive. Blues didn't need reviving. For me Black music was like going to a certain kind of heaven. And it was not just the music, but the minds and life savvy of the great Black blues players. It was like having scores of grandfathers and I never had any.
I could go on being a little formal and sketching out the history of how White America discovered the blues and Black music in general, but I have written this out in books (and many articles) like "Blues in Black & White: The Landmark Ann Arbor Blues Festivals I wrote and which was picked as one of the top 20 books in Michigan in 2011. Here is the link.
http://www.amazon.com/Blues-Black-White-Landmark-Festivals/dp/0472116959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416986472&sr=8-1&keywords=%22Blues+in+Black+%26+White%22
Instead, let me just illustrate how I missed most of rock music's many later treasures. It went in one ear and out the other; it just did not stick. And this was all on account of that Black music I fell into. I never fell back out, but I was happy just as I was. I am kind of like that. Once I find something that satisfies me fully, I am content with that. It was the same with ice cream. Just give me some good chocolate ice-cream on a waffle cone, and you can have the rest.
In other words, White groups (and music) like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Kiss, and on down the line, in my case, fell on deaf ears. I had no patience with it because, for the most part, I knew where most of the licks and hooks these players used came from, and it was, of course, earlier Black music. And just like these groups (in almost every case) borrowed from Black music, I would rather listen to the original roots that inspired these White groups, rather than to what I could easily see was derivative. And I did. It was no sacrifice on my part, but pure pleasure. To my mind, I didn't miss a thing. I was mainlining and hooked on Black music. I studied it day and night for years.
Sure, I played and jammed onstage with groups like Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, but I didn't follow their music because I knew, for the most part, where every influence they played came from. I knew the roots where they worshipped because I went to the same church. I opened for groups like Cream at the Fillmore Auditorium during the Summer of Love, 1967, but I didn't pay that much attention to Eric Clapton and the rest of the group, because where they drew their music and where I did were the same. I also opened for groups like the Shangri-Las and the Contours, but most of you have never ever heard of these groups.
Our band would drive to Chicago and go into the small clubs on the West and South sides and hear players like Little Walter, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Big Walter Horton, Magic Sam, and many others play live. As White blues players, the one group I felt closest to was the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the players Butterfield and his lead guitar player Michael Bloomfield. Here was a racially mixed band that was doing what our band was trying to do, respecting and playing Black music, the Chicago Blues, in particular. Michael Bloomfield was perhaps the best White blues guitarist I have ever heard. Bob Dylan has said the same thing. Moreover, he was a kind person, someone who went out of his way for others. We became friends and it was Bloomfield who, when my group the Prime Movers Blues Band drove out to San Francisco in 1967 found us a place to live (the Sausalito Heliport, and generally looked after us.
Butterfield, on the other hand, who is one of the best harmonica players I have ever heard, and I have heard and studied them all, was not so friendly. He carried a gun and was a little bit mean. I remember one day Butterfield and I were sitting out in a van, either his band's or my own, in some alley in Chicago, smoking a cigarette (or joint) and the gist of his conversation was him trying to tell me that only the left-handed people in this world would every contribute anything. Of course, he was left-handed, etc. Butterfield did say that the Prime Movers Blues Band (our band) was the second-best white blues band in the country. We sounded like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZO5bsagUqY
That is me as lead singer and playing amplified harmonica.
I did an interview with the legendary Howlin' Wolf at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival. There I was backstage talking with Wolf. I am told by blues experts it is the probably the best interview ever done of the Wolf. It was just the two of us standing in the open sun and it was not your normal interview.
As I stood there listening to this huge man, I flashed back to some years before when I had seen the Wolf performing live in a small bar at the north end of Chicago late one night. There was no one in the place, just Howlin’ Wolf and his guitarist Hubert Sumlin. My brother Dan and I stood somewhere at the back of the place and it was very dark. Wolf was way up to the front, with one small light playing on him. He was sitting on an old wooden straight-backed chair. It was all light and shadows.
And Wolf was singing as only he can sing, and his music not only filled the room, it actually took over all sense of time as his laser-like voice penetrated deep into my brain. For a while, I lost all idea of who or where I was. The walls of the room just went transparent, as did my body, and I found myself suddenly thrust outside of time, beyond any sense of myself that I knew, somewhere out there on my own in this vast universe, just a bodiless mind floating out there. This was more than just music. This was a life initiation, as I believe you will get a sense of from reading my interview with this great bluesman.
http://spiritgrooves.net/pdf/articles/Music/INTERVIEW%20WITH%20HOWLIN'%20WOLF.pdf
Somewhere in the mid-1960s my brother Dan Erlewine and I would drive into Detroit, Michigan to hear blues greats like B.B. King. There we would be in some old smelly high-school gymnasium, usually the only White people there. On a little raised stage would be B.B. King and his whole band, laid out more like an old swing band, with featured performers, etc. Players like Duke Jethro on the Hammond Organ, Sonny Freeman on drums, and Bobby Forte on tenor sax.
They would play their asses off to a crowd that adored them. There was B.B. King and then beer and fried chicken. That was it.
Later I got to know and interview (audio or video) many of the great Black blues players. I include some photos of me back then interviewing some of my heroes. Anyway, I could go on and on, of course, but no room here. As some of you know, I went on to found the All-Music Guide, even today still the largest collections of music biographies, discographies, reviews, and ratings on the planet. Below are a few articles on music for you die-hards, plus a list of just some of the many blues players I interviewed or met back in the day.
The Folk Music Revival in Ann Arbor
http://spiritgrooves.net/pdf/articles/Music/THE%20FOLK%20MUSIC%20REVIVAL%20IN%20ANN%20ARBOR.pdf
Ann Arbor Blues Festivals
http://spiritgrooves.net/pdf/articles/Music/THE%20ANN%20ARBOR%20BLUES%20FESTIVALS.pdf
The Perfect Blues Storm
http://spiritgrooves.net/pdf/articles/Music/THE%20PERFECT%20BLUES%20STORM%20II.pdf
BLUE PLAYERS
Stan Abernathy (trumpet) Otis Rush Band, Dave Alexander (vocals piano), Luther Allison (guitar vocals) & the Blue Nebulae, Willie Anderson (harmonica), Carey Bell (harmonica), Fred Below (drums), Big Joe Turner (vocals), Bobby Blue Bland (vocals), Juke Boy Bonner (harmonica vocals), Cassell Burrow , Leroy Campbell (bass), Clifton Chenier (accordion), James Cotton (harmonica), Pee Wee Crayton (guitar vocals), Arthur ‘Big Boy’Crudup (guitar vocals), Jimmy ‘Fast Fingers’Dawkins (guitar vocals), Doctor Ross (harmonica vocals guitar), Sleepy John Estes (guitar vocals), Lowell Fulson (guitar vocals), Paul Garon (blues writer), Ernest Gatewood (bass) Otis Rush Band, Buddy Guy (guitar vocals), Phillip Guy (guitar) Buddy Guy Band, Ted Harvey (drums) Hound Dog Taylor Band, John Lee Hooker (guitar vocals), Howlin’ Wolf (guitar vocals harmonica), J.B.Hutto & the Hawks (guitar vocals), Bruce Iglaur (Aligator Records), John Jackson (guitar vocals banjo), Calvin Jones (bass) Howlin’ Wolf Band, Albert King (guitar vocals), B.B.King (guitar vocals), Freddy King (guitar vocals), Bob Koester (Delmark Records), Sam Lay (drums vocals), Hopkins Lightnin’ (guitar vocals), Manse Lipscomb (guitar vocals), Little Joe Blue (guitar vocals), Robert Jr. Lockwood Junior (guitar vocals), Lazy Bill Lucus (piano), Magic Sam (guitar vocals), Jim Marshall (photos), Mississippi Fred McDowell (guitar vocals), John Meggs (tenor sax) Otis Rush Band, Little Brother Montgomery (piano vocals), Muddy Waters (guitar vocals), Charlie Musselwhite (harmonica vocals), Louis Myers (lead guitar harmonica), Paul Oliver (blues writer), Jim Oneil (Living Blues Magazine), Tom Osterman , Papa Lightfoot (harmonica vocals), Junior Parker (harmonica vocals), Brewer Phillips (lead guitar) Hound Dog Taylor Band, A.C.Reed (sax), Jimmy Reed Jr. (vocals guitar) Hound Dog Taylor Band, Bob Reidy (piano vocals), Freddy Roulette (guitar steel guitar), Otis Rush (guitar vocals), Roosevelt Shaw (drums), Johnnie Shines (guitar vocals), Harmonica George Smith (harmonic vocals), Son House (guitar vocals), Victoria Spivey (vocals), Chris Strachwitz (label owner), Hubert Sumlin (guitar vocals), Sunnyland Slim (piano), Roosevelt Sykes (piano vocals), Eddie Taylor (guitar vocals), Hound Dog Taylor (guitar vocals), Big Mama Thorton (vocals), Jeff Todd Titon (guitar) Lazy Bill Lucas Blues Band, Johnny Twist , Eddie Cleanhead Vinson (vocals sax), T-Bone Walker (guitar vocals), Sippie Wallace (vocals), Dick Waterman (manager), Junior Wells (vocals harmonica), Big Joe Williams (vocals), Robert Pete Williams (guitar vocals), Johnny Winter (guitar vocals), Little Johnny Woods (harmonica), Johnny Young (guitar vocals mandolin), Mighty Joe Young (guitar vocals), Abernathy (trumpet) Otis Rush Band, Dave Alexander (vocals piano), Luther Allison (guitar vocals) & the Blue Nebulae, Willie Anderson (harmonica), Carey Bell (harmonica), Fred Below (drums), Big Joe Turner (vocals), Bobby Blue Bland (vocals), Juke Boy Bonner (harmonica vocals), Cassell Burrow , Leroy Campbell (bass), Clifton Chenier (accordion), James Cotton (harmonica), Pee Wee Crayton (guitar vocals), Arthur ‘Big Boy’Crudup (guitar vocals), Jimmy ‘Fast Fingers’Dawkins (guitar vocals), Doctor Ross (harmonica vocals guitar), Sleepy John Estes (guitar vocals), Lowell Fulson (guitar vocals), Paul Garon (blues writer), Ernest Gatewood (bass) Otis Rush Band, Buddy Guy (guitar vocals), Phillip Guy (guitar) Buddy Guy Band, Ted Harvey (drums) Hound Dog Taylor Band, John Lee Hooker (guitar vocals), Howlin’ Wolf (guitar vocals harmonica), J.B.Hutto & the Hawks (guitar vocals), Bruce Iglaur (Aligator Records), John Jackson (guitar vocals banjo), Calvin Jones (bass) Howlin’ Wolf Band, Albert King (guitar vocals), B.B.King (guitar vocals), Freddy King (guitar vocals), Bob Koester (Delmark Records), Sam Lay (drums vocals), Hopkins Lightnin’ (guitar vocals), Manse Lipscomb (guitar vocals), Little Joe Blue (guitar vocals), Robert Jr. Lockwood Junior (guitar vocals), Lazy Bill Lucus (piano), Magic Sam (guitar vocals), Jim Marshall (photos), Mississippi Fred McDowell (guitar vocals), John Meggs (tenor sax) Otis Rush Band, Little Brother Montgomery (piano vocals), Muddy Waters (guitar vocals), Charlie Musselwhite (harmonica vocals), Louis Myers (lead guitar harmonica), Paul Oliver (blues writer), Jim Oneil (Living Blues Magazine), Tom Osterman , Papa Lightfoot (harmonica vocals), Junior Parker (harmonica vocals), Brewer Phillips (lead guitar) Hound Dog Taylor Band, A.C.Reed (sax), Jimmy Reed Jr. (vocals guitar) Hound Dog Taylor Band, Bob Reidy (piano vocals), Freddy Roulette (guitar steel guitar), Otis Rush (guitar vocals), Roosevelt Shaw (drums), Johnnie Shines (guitar vocals), Harmonica George Smith (harmonic vocals), Son House (guitar vocals), Victoria Spivey (vocals), Chris Strachwitz (label owner), Hubert Sumlin (guitar vocals), Sunnyland Slim (piano), Roosevelt Sykes (piano vocals), Eddie Taylor (guitar vocals), Hound Dog Taylor (guitar vocals), Big Mama Thorton (vocals), Jeff Todd Titon (guitar) Lazy Bill Lucas Blues Band, Johnny Twist , Eddie Cleanhead Vinson (vocals sax), T-Bone Walker (guitar vocals), Sippie Wallace (vocals), Dick Waterman (manager), Junior Wells (vocals harmonica), Big Joe Williams (vocals), Robert Pete Williams (guitar vocals), Johnny Winter (guitar vocals), Little Johnny Woods (harmonica), Johnny Young (guitar vocals mandolin), and Mighty Joe Young (guitar vocals).