Post a controversial music opinion

Highly agree with the acoustic vs. electric blues position someone posted upthread. I just cannot summon any enthusiasm for electric blues, shit literally makes me sleepy.

I was disappointed by the elder, it really is some bullshit

Table do you not enjoy e.g. John Lee Hooker or Mississippi Fred McDowell when plugged in?

Try Big Mama Thornton with the Muddy Waters Band or Howlin Wolf’s rocking chair album. If those don’t work maybe electric blues isn’t your thing.

I guess here's what it is: I don't find it remarkable. It's not bad, but I find myself wondering how people can be obsessed with the genre.

I have some Muddy Waters records and CDs, and McDowell or two. I just don't come back to them often!

My own tolerance for a lot of call-and-response electric blues is super low, I don't really listen to Muddy Waters or BB King records, much as I obv respect them...I think my tastebuds for that was burnt out by the best and worst rock and roll.

But I will go through phases of listening for hours on end to hypnotic repetitive electric shit like this suspecting all other music is maybe kind of stupid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URVb-qoMr7o

I didn't think I enjoyed electric blues after listening to several Muddy Waters albums and compilations, but hearing Howlin' Wolf's first two records really made me sit up and take notice.

I will say that I might be exaggerating. I can listen to RL Burnside forever, for example, and have affection for other Hill Country blues artists. Something about the pulse of the music makes it infinitely more listenable to me.

there’s lots of good music in every “genre”

I don't really get much from Muddy Waters other than his late '60s and "comeback" albums, but Howlin' Wolf is amazing. He's legitimately terrifying. And seeing Junior Kimbrough live in 1996 (opening for Iggy Pop) was incredible. It was like a single 45-minute song.

I love the electric blues I've heard and really, really, really need to start listening to more. i've only heard a few albums in full.

I got Howlin Wolf albs, BB King's live album, Robert Johnson (ok that's acoustic blues)...

is there like a seminal "everybody has it" blues album or even better, a "this is a favorite of mine and maybe not every blues' heads" album?

You should check out Buddy Guy's Complete Chess Studio Recordings. It's only a 2CD set, and he did a lot more stuff after that that was more commercially successful (especially on the Vanguard label), but some of it's amazing. Try the long version of "Stone Crazy," "My Time After Awhile," "When My Left Eye Jumps" and "Leave My Girl Alone" and see what you think.

I also really like The Definitive Albert King, another 2CD set that's a great starting point for King, who was an amazing guitar player.

heh i was just eyeing some Albert King. good call!

I'll never forget seeing Buddy Guy open for Tom Petty in 2010 and watching the dude in front of me type "who is Buddy Guy" into his phone. I hope he got an answer that made him happy. The first Guy record I bought - this budget compilation - about took the top of my head off in the ninth grade.

electric blues that is essential to me:

jimmy reed — i'm jimmy reed (or any collection of the mid- / late-'50s stuff on vee jay)
jimmy rogers — chicago bound (or any collection of the early '50s stuff on chess records)
magic sam — west side soul
junior kimbrough — all night long

Thank you for all these great recs

Thx budo, I too have been meaning to dig into the stuff.

Seems like there's a really good 2017 collection of all of Jimmy Reed's Vee-Jay singles that can be had cheap enough. Gonna pick that up. Listening on Spotify and I really like the way his voice is recorded. It has that thing like David Bowie's voice on "Heroes," like he's shouting at you from across the room.

born under a bad sign is an awesome album

(Re Albert king)

I thing peak period Muddy is ill served by available recordings. It seems that his work that crossed over to the folkie market is what sold, but it feels a bit mannered compared to the few recordings that exist of his regular band really cutting loose.

sorry that should be

junior kimbrough — first recordings

xp happy to share !!

listening to Albert King's Born Under a Bad Sign, and yessssss, this is the shit

btw was there anybody else whose first experience with the song "Born Under a Bad Sign" was Homer Simpson on The Simpsons Sing the Blues

Thanks for the Junior Kimborough 'First Recordings' recommendation. Goddamn. This sort of humming, pulsing blues is very much my thing. Sounds close to tishoumaren stuff in places.

*raises hand* xp

Haha, I didn't know about that. I knew it from Cream's Strange Brew best-of comp in Grade 8 or so.

Little Walter is a guy I recently got hip to and man he's raw as hell, Boss Blues Harmonica comp

First time I heard "Born Under A Bad Sign" was also the Cream Strange Brew record. Second time was Albert King, third was Homer, and fourth through one millionth was G.E. Smith who played it going into every goddamn commercial break on SNL.

The comparatively recent take on rock history where Black Sabbath was heavy metal but all of their contemporaries (including all the bands they played with or shared members with) were hard rock or progressive rock because Black Sabbath was completely sui generis and solely responsible for an entire genre is extremely goofy and revisionist.

"strawberry alarm clock Homer...no..."

that Albert Collins Born Under a Bad Sign alb with the Stax horns on it is great stuff!

xpost

I'll take it more controversial - despite the fact I really don't like them much - Cream is ultimately the most important band in the formation of heavy rock/metal and neither Zep nor Sabbath would exist without them

cream are cool

feel Iike everybody would like that one Junior Wells album with Buddy Guy

HOODOO MAN BLUES

It's weird. I love electric blues. I hate lots of blues rock

I mean, kudos, that make you the anti-Joe Bonnamassa

I still haven't heard a note he's played, just know he's a meme.

ha lucky you, yeah he’s just talked about in an interview or two how he’s really into British blues rock but actual blues makes him squirm like a bored schoolboy

Urge to kill... rising

I find it 92% impossible to hear Chess-style electric blues with fresh ears, it permeates so many cultural cliches from the 60s through 90s.

Garage-y psych was the first music off the beaten path I that I searched out, in that I'd hear songs like "Break on Through", "Tales of Brave Ulysses", "She's a Rainbow" and "White Rabbit" on the radio and seek out the albums. Thirteen-year-old me would inevitably be bored by the 12 bar blues songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Fm-7N694o

I liked the Bo Diddly ripoffs, or songs where Chess was the template, gloppped up with wah-wah, British folk or acid lyrics. Shortly afterwards, I heard B.B. King's "Thrill is Gone" and thought it was great, much better than the Brit invasion takes on the same. But now I can't hear it.

Blues has a pretty broad spectrum of feels and textures, and I can listen to Louis Armstrong or Charlie Patton or Junior Kimbrough or Ike Turner without prejudice. But it's interesting to me to try to feel what those suburban kids in the early 60s felt that made that subset of sounds so worthy of worship. I know it was bold to them, but they thinned the broth so much with imitation I cannot taste a thing.

feel Iike everybody would like that one Junior Wells album with Buddy Guy

― brimstead, Sunday, November 15, 2020 1:30 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

HOODOO MAN BLUES

― brimstead, Sunday, November 15, 2020 1:30 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

absolutely this, one of the best.

I’d also recommend luther allison to interested parties, and second the albert king and howlin wolf love from upthread

the other kings have lots worth hearing too, but i don’t want to just list canonical blues legends

Bendy, it sounds like you could use some Magic Sam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OlA_JVbQl8

Last electric blues song I listened to was Elmore James - Dust My Blues which still fucking kills fyi

Dust My Broom you mean? If so, the second most imitated lick in all of bluesdom

Elmore's version is called Dust My Blues and its as zingy as standing on a rake

Think Elmore recorded a number of Dust My Broom variants - see also Blues Before Sunrise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2dbLQ9tqu4

there are multiple versions under both titles fwiw

I think a major difference between those blues guys and their imitators is that some of those guys could really sing and in unique and characterful ways. Listen to that Elmore James song or to Smokestack Lightning or John Lee Hooker singing 'I Cover The Waterfront' or whatever - amazing lived-in voices that no amount of copyism is ever going to touch or ruin for me {sorry for rockistness}