Robin Trower: Godfather of Goth?

Still, when it came to slow, minor-key, epically miserable self-indulgent gloom in the early 70s, where else could you go?

It's not as minor key as you think it is. "Bridge of Sighs" is white boy blooz with a uni-vibe, billowing distortion, and a great bending technique. Are the heavy electric blooz Goth? Trower's '74 live set, at his peak, was definitely not Goth in the flavor mentioned. "Too Rolling Stoned," "Day of the Eagle," "Lady Love," "Alethea," and "Little Bit of Sympathy."

epically miserable self-indulgent gloom in the early 70s, where else could you go?

Black Sabbath -- plus a lot of early 70's hard rock bands that were never very successful.

I'd like more Goth if it sounded like Robin Trower.

... add 'blind' to that list if they actually fancy Robin Trower

The Sab has the Xtian/Satan imagery, but they were too proactive and perky.
Sabbath were cocaine.

Trower was heroin, And heroin is Goth.

No shit. But Trower was savvy not to mar those early records with his iffy visage.

Wasn't hard, was it?

Sabbath = too pro-active and perky. Heh, good joke, you make it sound like a power pop band.

Try and imagine Andrew Eldritch playing guitar on "Day of the Eagle." Now that's hard. It's also hard to imagine singing anything as well as Jimmy Dewar.

I seriously don't know what "goth" is when describing music? Are any of these bands goth?

-early Cat Power
-Palace (will oldham)
-the CURE's "pornagraphy"

There was the rockin, bluesy, post-Spooky Tooth, Hendrixoid Trower, who did things like "Day of the Eagle."

Clearly, I'm not addressing that Trower. I'm talking about the guy who, on "Hannah", with its buidling multi-track wash of high agita wretched guitars set the foundation for something like Pornography (don't hit me, Ned).

Listen to it. The only thing truly missing is gender confusion--which is why he'd be a godfather of goth, and not the direct link.

Really, if you found a pic of some guy with sunken cheecks, sallow mien and long black hair, played this stuff to a Hot Topic regular and said whaddaya think, you'd get a CD sale pronto.

This is insanity, unless you're talking very-end-of-the-first-era Sab (Never Say Die, whose title track btw is fucking awesome). Black Sabbath is quaaludes-n-beer. Yes, in fact, they did have a song called "Snowblind." This does not make their jams any more coke-approprioate. Ludes. Ludes and beer. Please, man.

Ludes = US
Mandies = UK

Not too goth though.

It's also hard to imagine singing anything as well as Jimmy Dewar.

May he rest in peace.

Been listening to a couple of late-'70s Trower albums lately--In City Dreams and Caravan to Midnight. They're quite good. Dreams still has traces of Bridge of Sighs in it but some of the songs have more of a Santana vibe, and some point towards a cool Hendrix/disco vibe.

Caravan is even better; I've been playing "I'm Out to Get to You" in outloud and people have been going nuts for it. It's not entirely clunker-free and there's no trace of the "goth" sensibility anymore, but its got lots of slow burner jams.

Plus, Jimmy Dewar is the shit.

WHY SO UNFORGIVING
AND WHY SO COLD
LONG TIME CROSSING
THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS

I got curious about what he might have done beyond Bridge of Sighs and it turns out he has a new album and it's really good - he really does love an ominous vibe!

All of Trower's recent albums (he's released 7 in the last decade, including one that comes out tomorrow) have been shockingly strong. He's aged into this autumnal blues vibe that I'm not hearing from anyone else except maybe Buddy Guy (check "Done Got Old" from Sweet Tea, way back in 2001, or "A Few Good Years" from last year's The Blues is Alive and Well, or "Crying Out of One Eye" from 2015's Born to Play Guitar).

yeah he's on a roll. then again I love all his 70s albums and a fair number of his 80s ones

I love the old stuff too, but I really feel like Trower is really interesting for having aged gracefully in a way I don't see anybody else doing (though I admit I'm not following Bob Dylan or Van Morrison or whichever old country guys are still alive, maybe they're in some kind of similar mode).

Check this one out, an unexpected new collaboration with Maxi Priest. Unexpected and pretty good. It's got that mix of strings and blues restaint like some of those classic early 70s tracks by BB King or Bobby Womack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBpd_3kIW-Q&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD15RrE9v54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y8XVuRG0Gc

In my mind, I'm kinda loving the idea of a 75 year old Robin Trower calling up his pals to 'check out my new band dudes'. That "Are We Just People" track is good too. Production is really lush.

Cool.

Trower's got a new album out this week, with a female singer, Sari Schorr, on the whole thing. It's called Joyful Sky, which is weirdly optimistic for him: his last two were called Coming Closer to the Day and No More Worlds to Conquer. Anyway, I'm listening to it now and it's really good if you like what he does. Schorr's voice suits the material.

I saw Robin Trower played his first gigs in like 4 years last week or so ago.

It's been almost 20 years since I saw him play with Davey Pattinson, but he was great. At least as a few years ago, he could play as well as ever.

I was listening to the records Trower did with Jack Bruce quite a few times this past winter. That was a good pairing.