The Sad Song of The Blues.
The old Bluesmen of America’s Deep South were extremely influential on music. The first Blues originated from several different styles of music, namely; Slave songs, Spirituals and Chants. Many Blues songs tell stories of poverty, hardship, injustice and unemployment. Being black in America was tough and many songs told it how it really was.
If there had been no Blues then there would have been no Rock and Roll. Without Rock and Roll we would never have had many other styles… Singers such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Lightning Hopkins and Howlin’ Wolf had a huge impact on singers that came along in the following years. The Rolling Stones, for example, started out as singing Blues. Even when they became more stylised with their songs the Blues influence is very apparent.
Many bands in the sixties were inspired by the Blues sound. The Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, The Animals, Cream and The Beatles all felt the pull of The Blues. There is some wonderful footage of Muddy Waters performing some of his songs with The Rolling Stones. People like Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin all took Blues to the next level by fusing it with Rock and Psychedelia. Of course, the evolution of Blues did not stop there. By the time that the nineties came along, bands such as Nirvana used it to create the Grunge sound.
Blues is one of music’s rawest and most basic of styles; it comes from the heart and it is earthy and full of emotion. It is also one of music’s most influential of styles. Blues did not all change into other genres; it also stayed the same. Even today there are still hundreds of new singers and guitarists who choose to stick to the authentic Blues sound for their songs.
Just a bit of news just before I run away, my insane boss is on this whole kick about a day of team building events in london. It would seem that in a couple of weeks time I will be progressing towards deep-rooted work based relationships with all of the people that I go to the office with. Wish me luck everyone (at least I get a paid trip)!