I’ve got a thing for old blues.
Especially old blues played on our ancient record player.
I love the crackly, skipping vinyls, their sepia stained paper jackets; I love the stories of loss, heartbreak, possessive love, unrequited love, loneliness, and calamity. I love the well-known blues riff – a piano, simple guitar solos, a random harmonica; gravelled voices putting meaning behind each word.
And there’s just something about blues lyrics too. Being of a writing mind, I love the simplicity of thought, and how that simplicity conveys such meaning. Maybe it’s the weight of the music and the emotion that it’s sung in; but working together, it transforms quite a basic song into a familiar anthem of heartbreak.
My favourites?
BB King’s ‘Don’t answer the door’ because it’s obsessive, heated, slow, mean and deliberate; and because it’s far removed from modern relationships, which are all about independence, equality, and freedom. And Earl Hooker's 'Have you ever seen a one eyed woman cry? because it's such a strange, sad song.
What musical genre do you like?
Do you have a favourite blues song or artist?
Nat
2 comments:
Love BB KIng and saw him at Festival Hall in 1984.
Love The Blues Project, JOhn Myall and Tom Waites.
Especially love Blue Grass Music. My favourite is Gillian Welch. Boy can that girl write a song.
xx
i have only listened to a little blues, but do like it when I do listen to it. My dad had one of Fleetwood Mac's earliest albums (before the girls joined and they were a pub blues band back in London) and I loved it. I think there was a song on there called Albatros which was lovely
Gill xo
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