Blues Britannia: Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?
This DVD is a BBC4 documentary covering the rise of Blues
from it's American roots through to Led Zep.
I think it's on YT but if you want a clean copy, well, here it is.
"Featuring archive performances and interviews with Keith Richards,
Paul Jones, Chris Dreja, Bill Wyman, Phil May, John Mayall,
Jack Bruce, Mick Fleetwood, Ian Anderson, Tony McPhee, Mike Vernon,
Tom McGuinness, Mick Abrahams, Dick Taylor, Val Wilmer, Chris Barber,
Pete Brown, Bob Brunning, Dave Kelly and Phil Ryan."
Many others are referenced including B.B. King, Alexis Korner
and Champion Jack Dupree (who's wiki is well worth a read).
regards
Titus
Thanks a lot, Titus! This seems like something quite interestjng (as usual :-)) when i get the time to watch. As for Champion Jack Dupree, i recall an interview that must have been recorded a few years before he closed shop so to speak. It ran back then just once or twice on the swedish public service television (SVT), they might have produced it, too. Totally old school, as i remember it he told memories of his life as a blues man and churned out a few three-bar blues standards but what i remember best is a rough and fast improv take on a tune that ran something like "Yella Pocahontas comin´round the mountain..." (reading the Wiki it suddenly makes sense as something a bit more than just playing with words from a tall tale) with not much more lyrics if you don´t count some grunts and hard-to-hear mumblings while he played a mean guitar. Captain Beefheart (a k a Don Van Vliet) must have borrowed a lot from this guy. Man, i got to dig into my neglegted collection of VHS tapes... it just might still be there if time hasn´t turned it all into magnetic fog. Btw, i suggest seeking out R L Burnside who played in a similar style of nitty gritty blues ("Ev´rything´s broken" is... a burner).
ReplyDeleteI will check out R L Burnside. Champion Jack was a pianist though
DeleteMy bad. Obviously i got my memory wires crossed with some other blues man, but even bigger reason for me to dig into the VHS trove. I got it half right at least, taking some comfort from finding an old recording by C.J.D. of "Yellow Pocahantas" ("Pocahantas"?) on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXhhDyhBrFg . Yes, check out R L Burnside anyway - i´m sure that you too will like his stuff. That song "Everything is broken" is also to be found on YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI4q5EiNKQU .
DeleteIt's easily done, I actually have some things with R L Burnside so my memory failed too! I'll have a listen at the weekend and if there is anything of decent quality I may post it. Thanks for the links
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