This follows on from an off-topic aside re: a comment of mine by Jusa Nutter Eejit in a thread below somewhere…
It’s not that I dislike the Blues. It’s the BLooZ I abhor!
I think that Blues- the great American cultural invention- is often played very badly with very little love or understanding by the majority of those who attempt it; much more badly than most who paly Trad Irish (despite what you would think reading this forum!). Thank the gods that one has to have an inkling of what’s happening to contribute to a (Trad Irish or Wotteffah) session.
I’ve been to hundreds of BLooZ Jams and indeed gigs where the “competitors” (who of course are mainly guitar players) make the most over amplified unmusical din one can imagine and they stick to the 12 bar t’ing because it’s the only “tune” they have ever learnt. They don’t know anything else. They can only pentatonically noodle, reiterate the worn out cliches and bend the 4th interval up to the fifth. Loads of them can’t busk or strum the chords to the simplest of songs (that’s why so many six string devil bashers struggle with Trad backing and thus given all backers- strummy and keyboard- a bad name).
The Blues used to be beautiful (and sometimes still is sweet) but on the whole it has been not so much murdered but tortured slowly to death by every bedroom Strat strummer who has ever plugged in (including an awful lot of so called “professional-guitarists”) and turned into the zombie I like to call the BLooZ.
Well, Dave, I could turn your argument round by saying that some of the most complex pieces of music played by the most technically competent players often turns out to be the most unlistenable twaddle imaginable............ but I won't. The only thing you need is soul, passion and experience, the number of notes you play has nothing to do with it. Were SRV or EC better players than Hooker, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell or a host of others? I think not.
Oh, so you want an off-subject posting, do you? Here you go:
In the film "Ghost World" Steve Buscemi plays a nerdy connoiseur of old blues 78s. He goes out on a date with a woman who takes him to a tavern where a rock band she likes is playing. The look of horror on his face when they launch into something they call "the blues" is truly unforgettable.
My early exposure to blues was through its honky-tonk branch and then through the folk revival discovery of the Fred McDowells and Peg-Leg Sams, etc. It was some time later that I first heard electric blues. Nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t even sound like the same planet to me.
You shouldn't listen to noodling, it's bad for you. Main purpose of noodle music is to make merchandising seem relatively un-garish in supermarkets.
In fairness ITM isn't as noodle-oriented. But would be as vulnerable to heartless delivery of hackneyed progressions as "blues". And **blasphemes** can sound as samey to the unfamiliar... In terms of pejoratives, the Diddly-idelly is on the same level as the Honky Tonk, to the disinterested
I appreciate the OP isn't saying blues is crap, or objecting to the structures of it per se. As a guitar player who has done too much pentatonic noodling in his time, I fully share the aversion to it now...
Where's Robert Johnson when you need him? I hear a lot of homage, by blues guys, to him but no one seems to have been influenced in the slightest way by his music. I certainly don't hear the connection. But the same seems true about other genres of music too. As time goes on they are more and more watered down. Even true of punk rock and dare I say, ITM.
To be fair, most white folks in America would never have heard of folks like Robert Johnson if it were not for the plane-loads of English musicians re-introducing their music to us in the 1960's.
And conversely - many new kids today would not have heard of Morrison and McGann if it were not for all the Lunasa's and Flook's of the world either. Sometimes you have to start new and work your way backwards. (There that should sufficiently stir the pot before coming to a boil)
That is a very good point. I came to Robert Johnson through Foghat. I came to Appalachian music through punk rock. But once having arrived at the roots I no longer saw a need for the modern trappings.
Although it was my hippie art teacher in Honolulu that turned me on to Reggae. Another example of a music genre that is very different now than what it once was.
Speaking from experience as a backup musician/sideman at a local blues jam, certain musicians didn't like if I tried to vary my accompaniment patterns just a little bit. Apparently, they were uncomfortable playing anything but overused and abused, hackneyed, watered-down chord progressions.
I guess people like it because it allows them to jam with other musicians easily. There's not much that's easier than knockin' around cliche blues chords and riffs. They butcher harmonica in the same way. Almost everyone who plays your BLooZ guitar also plays 'a little harp'. But If you enjoy 'ALL THAT' who am I to say anything. At least they're playing music....But I think there's lotsa blues jams in hell....maybe it's just one great big ugly hot/stuffy/stinking blues jam....and week p*ss warm light beer by the bucket loads. And in between jam sessions you can listen to the juke box but all that's on it is modern American Pop country.
We are now in the fifth decade of legions of lousy blues players—but outrage at those legions of lousy blues players is only in its third decade. This reactionary movement was very slow in rising, so it may be too late to stifle the stunted strummers.
I only WISH the hack players infesting our local guitar stores were sloppy blues noodlers. Instead, the stores are infested with Elizabethan-costumed, warbling John Dowland wannabes, who mince their way through their sullen little songs. Here, a fake blues component would improve things: Gotta whole lute of love. Wanna whole lute of love.
Of the innards of the suffering body of Music, the BLooz has got to be the appendix: diminutive, claustrophobic, hard to get out of, and inflicting a vastly restricted musical and life experience on anyone who insists on inserting himself there.
Not to mention appendicitis on the forementioned body of music, whose symptoms include weird tortured groaning and jangling by musos who have no pressing need to do this, but feel they should throw in a few BLooZy elements to gain a bit of cred - though from whom, I'm not quite sure.
ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
This follows on from an off-topic aside re: a comment of mine by Jusa Nutter Eejit in a thread below somewhere…
It’s not that I dislike the Blues. It’s the BLooZ I abhor!
I think that Blues- the great American cultural invention- is often played very badly with very little love or understanding by the majority of those who attempt it; much more badly than most who paly Trad Irish (despite what you would think reading this forum!). Thank the gods that one has to have an inkling of what’s happening to contribute to a (Trad Irish or Wotteffah) session.
I’ve been to hundreds of BLooZ Jams and indeed gigs where the “competitors” (who of course are mainly guitar players) make the most over amplified unmusical din one can imagine and they stick to the 12 bar t’ing because it’s the only “tune” they have ever learnt. They don’t know anything else. They can only pentatonically noodle, reiterate the worn out cliches and bend the 4th interval up to the fifth. Loads of them can’t busk or strum the chords to the simplest of songs (that’s why so many six string devil bashers struggle with Trad backing and thus given all backers- strummy and keyboard- a bad name).
The Blues used to be beautiful (and sometimes still is sweet) but on the whole it has been not so much murdered but tortured slowly to death by every bedroom Strat strummer who has ever plugged in (including an awful lot of so called “professional-guitarists”) and turned into the zombie I like to call the BLooZ.
Cheers!
Dave
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by yhaalhouse
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Troodat... Dey should stick with the Jooz harp
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by fedorastain
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Well, Dave, I could turn your argument round by saying that some of the most complex pieces of music played by the most technically competent players often turns out to be the most unlistenable twaddle imaginable............ but I won't. The only thing you need is soul, passion and experience, the number of notes you play has nothing to do with it. Were SRV or EC better players than Hooker, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell or a host of others? I think not.
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by strayaway
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Well, yes. And then again no. For a given value of 'better'...
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by EnDaC
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
*****WARNING,WARNING*****
Off-subject posting !!!!!
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Oh, so you want an off-subject posting, do you? Here you go:
In the film "Ghost World" Steve Buscemi plays a nerdy connoiseur of old blues 78s. He goes out on a date with a woman who takes him to a tavern where a rock band she likes is playing. The look of horror on his face when they launch into something they call "the blues" is truly unforgettable.
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by John Galt
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Hurry, before Jeremy notices.
My early exposure to blues was through its honky-tonk branch and then through the folk revival discovery of the Fred McDowells and Peg-Leg Sams, etc. It was some time later that I first heard electric blues. Nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t even sound like the same planet to me.
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by Bob himself
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Yhaalhouse - I humbly apologize for my mischaracterization of your musical preferences. It did prompt a rather interesting discussion tho! Carry on.
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
You shouldn't listen to noodling, it's bad for you. Main purpose of noodle music is to make merchandising seem relatively un-garish in supermarkets.
In fairness ITM isn't as noodle-oriented. But would be as vulnerable to heartless delivery of hackneyed progressions as "blues". And **blasphemes** can sound as samey to the unfamiliar... In terms of pejoratives, the Diddly-idelly is on the same level as the Honky Tonk, to the disinterested
I appreciate the OP isn't saying blues is crap, or objecting to the structures of it per se. As a guitar player who has done too much pentatonic noodling in his time, I fully share the aversion to it now...
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by Plasterboard
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Where's Robert Johnson when you need him? I hear a lot of homage, by blues guys, to him but no one seems to have been influenced in the slightest way by his music. I certainly don't hear the connection. But the same seems true about other genres of music too. As time goes on they are more and more watered down. Even true of punk rock and dare I say, ITM.
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by shanty
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
To be fair, most white folks in America would never have heard of folks like Robert Johnson if it were not for the plane-loads of English musicians re-introducing their music to us in the 1960's.
And conversely - many new kids today would not have heard of Morrison and McGann if it were not for all the Lunasa's and Flook's of the world either. Sometimes you have to start new and work your way backwards. (There that should sufficiently stir the pot before coming to a boil)
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
That is a very good point. I came to Robert Johnson through Foghat. I came to Appalachian music through punk rock. But once having arrived at the roots I no longer saw a need for the modern trappings.
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by shanty
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Although it was my hippie art teacher in Honolulu that turned me on to Reggae. Another example of a music genre that is very different now than what it once was.
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by shanty
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Fair comment, shanty.
# Posted on September 15th 2009 by strayaway
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Speaking from experience as a backup musician/sideman at a local blues jam, certain musicians didn't like if I tried to vary my accompaniment patterns just a little bit. Apparently, they were uncomfortable playing anything but overused and abused, hackneyed, watered-down chord progressions.
# Posted on September 16th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
I guess people like it because it allows them to jam with other musicians easily. There's not much that's easier than knockin' around cliche blues chords and riffs. They butcher harmonica in the same way. Almost everyone who plays your BLooZ guitar also plays 'a little harp'. But If you enjoy 'ALL THAT' who am I to say anything. At least they're playing music....But I think there's lotsa blues jams in hell....maybe it's just one great big ugly hot/stuffy/stinking blues jam....and week p*ss warm light beer by the bucket loads. And in between jam sessions you can listen to the juke box but all that's on it is modern American Pop country.
# Posted on September 16th 2009 by shanty
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
And to think Talk Like A Pirate Day is coming soon.
I am in total disgust in the butchering of 17th-18th century English.
Or maybe it's just the site of Capt. Slappy!!?
...er, make that the website as well.
# Posted on September 16th 2009 by Lint - upon - Tweed
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
We are now in the fifth decade of legions of lousy blues players—but outrage at those legions of lousy blues players is only in its third decade. This reactionary movement was very slow in rising, so it may be too late to stifle the stunted strummers.
I only WISH the hack players infesting our local guitar stores were sloppy blues noodlers. Instead, the stores are infested with Elizabethan-costumed, warbling John Dowland wannabes, who mince their way through their sullen little songs. Here, a fake blues component would improve things: Gotta whole lute of love. Wanna whole lute of love.
# Posted on September 16th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
I meant to say the sight of Cap'n Slappy and good 'ol Chumbucket. It would do me good not to stay up all nite.
# Posted on September 16th 2009 by Lint - upon - Tweed
Re: ITM, BLooZ and Six String Devil Bashers...
Of the innards of the suffering body of Music, the BLooz has got to be the appendix: diminutive, claustrophobic, hard to get out of, and inflicting a vastly restricted musical and life experience on anyone who insists on inserting himself there.
Not to mention appendicitis on the forementioned body of music, whose symptoms include weird tortured groaning and jangling by musos who have no pressing need to do this, but feel they should throw in a few BLooZy elements to gain a bit of cred - though from whom, I'm not quite sure.
# Posted on September 18th 2009 by nicholas