Topic: Saying Goodbye to the Blues
I laid in my bed last night, unable to sleep. I was excited for the new day, the new change, but then I thought about the musical genre that has fueled me for so many years, and my disappointment in it. I have felt disappointed by the blues for the last 5 years at least. Both locally and nationally. I have had to write a lot about the blues for work, before that I worked at a blues club, and was the president of blues society, and I have a friend who plays blues music.
I have decided that I am going to put the genre down now. In gratitude, and disappointment for what it has become, I am putting it down.
I thinnk that when three men, Magic Slim, Buddy Guy, and BB King pass away, the voices of the blues are so diluted and thinned, that it lacks any sort of coherent sort of strength.
This is not to say that your blues band is not amazing, but it is to say that I have not seen your blues band.
Even the crown prince of the blues, Joe, has become a disappointment in controlled imagery, and over intellectualized music. On this forum I had someone edit a post because I mentioned the reason for the season having a few too many. The reference was not graphic, not negative, not anything. But the idea that 'gotta control the image' of an under 40 guy playing a guitar, is a bit silly. The music has transformed from something that came from a guy level, to something that is an abstraction in the clouds. Do not get me wrong, I think Joe is the best guitar player in America, but I think it has become like math, and not art. At least to watch. Classical arias, crescendos that are part of longer compositions, have walked away from song format, and have become composition.
BB is done I think. This might be the final lap of celebration, and joy. Sitting on a stool, telling stories, hanging out with 10 thousand people a night, and no one minding that the band plays about 40 minutes. Personally, I think it is fine. He could read me a chinese take out menu for all I care.
I think now more than ever, Buddy is going to hit the road, and stomp down the walls for a few years. His health is still good, but aside from that, who knows. After Junior passed, maybe it changed.
Magic Slim, well, he might be the last ragged edge.
But, I look at what the world is selling me. What records are being made, and I think that it leads me to despair. The last thing KWS did with the DVD, GOD THAT SUCKED!!! That was literally a tour of his poor friends, it felt like. It was so insulting an patronizing.
I look at Alligator, and Blind Pig, and they stink.
Keb M was on the west wing last night, playing at a fake innaguration. His music was elevation like, transcendant.
I think the blues are done now. For me at least.
We are left with pale imitations, copies of copies. It feels like the touring company of a big broadway show. I mean I live in a small town in Wisconsin, but the cast of Cats that came here, is not the cast from Broadway, it is not the same group. They tear down, and go on to the next night. They do just enough to get to the next show.
I think that the blues are the same way now. We have guys just sort of getting by. Playing enough Hendrix, enough SRV, enough Little Walter, enough Magic Sam, just to keep getting themselves on Blues Cruise, or to keep them in good with the Festival circuit.
Blues, you have let me down. I gotta turn my back on you.
There will be good days and bad.
