Rock My World?

[Adam Blake]

Thanks for your your request but I'm not going to get into an in-depth de-construction of Gary Moore's playing - for the simple reason that in order to do so I would have to listen to it with some degree of attention to detail.

Some broad strokes, however:

First off, I have nothing at all against him as a rock player. I saw him with Thin Lizzy when I was a teenager and he was just fine. I don't listen to that stuff anymore but I certainly don't object to it - and sometimes I even teach it (!)

As a metal player I am sure he is very effective but I could never listen to that even when I was a teenager. (I've learned to stop worrying and love the first two Black Sabbath albums but that's on a cartoon level and we're talking about music).

Blues is a far more demanding form than rock or metal. It demands a personal musical signature which is unique to the performer and effective as music in itself. Sorry if that doesn't make much sense. Perhaps I should just cite examples. I've mentioned before how B B King made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I saw him at the Festival Hall in 1991 - and also how at least half the audience seemed to stand up involuntarily. That's an extreme example by an acknowledged master. Not only was the high note in question a perfect example of BB King's musical signature (nobody else can do it) but it was exceptionally fine considered purely as a musical sound. This isn't always the case. Some blues players are undoubtedly the real thing, with their own signature, but the sound they make is not very pleasing to the ear. It's a matter of taste but I would put most of the Fat Possum artists in this category, for example. It's not even a question of bitter or sweet, more of timbre and attitude to tunings.

But getting back to old Gary. There's a huge sub-text to his popularity that has a lot more to do with sociology than music. He deeply appeals to a certain kind of man (usually British) who likes the idea of the blues but finds the "blackness", the "African-ness", of the real thing a bit too alienating and unsettling. This is the kind of person who own every single thing Eric Clapton has ever recorded but owns nothing by Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters. It's easy to mock such people but are they not human beings too? Of course they are. And they have feelings. They know they SHOULD like Wolf and Muddy et al but they just can't get past the colour bar. They can't EMPATHISE with a black African-American man, no matter how hard they try. But they feel shifty about it so they try to move silly millimetres towards it by comparing and contrasting the relative "authentic-ness" of various white British blues players. Of course Clapton is God, but everybody knows that Peter Green in his heyday was the best, ie, most authentic. (Actually he almost certainly was, but let's not get into that.) Now young teenaged Gary Moore worshipped at the feet of Peter Green and when Greeny went nuts in the early 70s he gave his young acolyte his cherished Black Beauty Les Paul guitar - the one with the pick-ups out of phase, the one with the celebrated "nasal" tone.

THIS guitar is the holy grail of Brit-Blues. And guess who plays something that sounds like blues on it? Loudly? Regularly? You got it.

The fact that his conception of tone and dynamics is limited to the most obvious histrionic melodramatics is neither here nor there. In fact it makes it easier to like him, easier to join the dots if you like:

("Wow, he's really got that 'nasal' tone."
"Yeah, it's cos it's Peter Green's guitar, man."
"Yeah, I know. Doesn't it sound fantastic? Listen to the sustain!"
"Wow, he must have a really good feel for the note to ring that long and wobble that much."
"Yeah! He must be really authentic. Sounds just like Peter Green would have if he'd had no taste or style.")

Sorry about that last bit. But I'm very pissed off with Gary Moore for having the unmitigated gall to appear with B B King at the man's last London show. It's almost certainly the last time the great man will come over and I didn't go because I couldn't face the idea of that dork standing up there with Peter Green's guitar widdling inanities all over the place while B B mugs good-humouredly and the audience clap mindlessly. It's a hard life being a musical snob you know. It involves all sorts of little hardships that ordinary folk will never understand.

Meanwhile, Gary Moore gets rich off ripping off the blues and the ultimate irony of it all is that he probably really thinks what he's doing is real and admirable. Cultural colonialism or theft never occurs to him and he deeply reveres the old guys that are left and remembers those that have passed with nothing but the greatest respect and affection.

Now where's that motherf*cking bottle of whisky and those Little Walter 45's...?

[NormanD]

Thank you Adam for such a well-written piece of blues feeling, which sums up most of my unarticulated moods about Clapton, etc. In fact, this describes many of those nimble-fingered guitar boys you always hear on Paul Jones ' Radio 2 blues show: the notes are all there, but there's no feeling, and certainly no blues.

Now young teenaged Gary Moore worshipped at the feet of Peter Green and when Greeny went nuts in the early 70s he gave his young acolyte his cherished Black Beauty Les Paul guitar - the one with the pick-ups out of phase, the one with the celebrated "nasal" tone. THIS guitar is the holy grail of Brit-Blues. And guess who plays something that sounds like blues on it? Loudly? Regularly? You got it.

Now I heard from a good source recently (OK, rockabilly Rob who has the guitar shop in Penge, and he doesn't like Gary Moore much either) that Gary Moore has sold on this cherished guit. Couldn't he have given it back to Greeny (whose playing, I think it was said, made the hairs on BB King's neck stand up)?

Norman

[Adam Blake]

Thanks Norman, perhaps he was tempted by the 150 grand-plus that it's undoubtedly worth. But of course he should have given it back to Greeny, who'd'ave probably looked at him funny, and then given it to the nearest charity shop...

[Ted]

Thanks Norman, perhaps he was tempted by the 150 grand-plus that it's undoubtedly worth.

This must be some new meaning of the word "worth" of which I was previously unaware. Its a piece of wood with some strings on it and some wires inside for gods sake.


TW

[Adam Blake]

The price of old guitars has gone through the roof! They're not making any more of them and rich people are using them as investments. It's all rather depressing...

[taiyo no otosan]

Thanks for that, Adam. Exactly what I wanted to read. I think I do know stuff like that, but I know I never think it.

I guess the "personal signature" part is a key element. I seem to remember it was Howard who complained previously about all blues sounding the same, and that's the problem, I suppose. Finding your own sound and perfecting it, without getting repetitive and boringly predictable.

Then again, I love Billy Childish's work, and he has been playing the same tune for decades now. What a great tune.

[howard male]

Yes, nicely put, Adam. However there was one point I'm not sure I agree with.

Adam wrote -

This is the kind of person who own every single thing Eric Clapton has ever recorded but owns nothing by Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters. It's easy to mock such people but are they not human beings too? Of course they are. And they have feelings. They know they SHOULD like Wolf and Muddy et al but they just can't get past the colour bar. They can't EMPATHISE with a black African-American man, no matter how hard they try.

I don't think it's anything to do with colour or race - at least as far as that white male audience you describe. It's to do with the records themselves - the way they sound. It's like when Marley had strings and rock guitar added to make it more paletable for rock fans. Clapton and his ilk make pop-blues designed to be popular. Surely it's the industry that was racist in not promoting a black blues artist back in the 70's and steering his music in the way that Marley's was redesigned to fit the market?

Old blues records are scratch and tinny and aren't filled-out with string sections or funky brass - they don't come to meet the listener half way. That's why the white male 'blues' fan of a certain kind turned to those white players who had superficially perfected the style you so expertly describe.

[Adam Blake]

I don't think it's anything to do with colour or race - at least as far as that white male audience you describe. It's to do with the records themselves - the way they sound. It's like when Marley had strings and rock guitar added to make it more paletable for rock fans. Clapton and his ilk make pop-blues designed to be popular. Surely it's the industry that was racist in not promoting a black blues artist back in the 70's and steering his music in the way that Marley's was redesigned to fit the market?

Old blues records are scratch and tinny and aren't filled-out with string sections or funky brass - they don't come to meet the listener half way. That's why the white male 'blues' fan of a certain kind turned to those white players who had superficially perfected the style you so expertly describe.

Fair comment. But I think we'll have to agree to disagree. A lot of blues records in the late 60s and early 70s DID make those kind of concessions - like Albert King or B B's "The Thrill Is Gone" - but the Clapton/ Green audience didn't take them to heart like they took to heart the white boy's efforts. It IS a race/ colour thing, I think. But, as a white boy blues player myself, I know that most of the players had their ears firmly set on black America, despite their often laughable efforts. It's the audience that are the problem. When I would play these blues-rock festivals with Errol in the late 90s, we would get a lot of automatic kudos just because Errol is black. But when we would play reggae, a lot of the audiences just turned right off. It was a bridge too far for them. They can't help it, they are fundamentally conservative - as is reflected in the music they respond to. Ironic, or what? They have given blues a deeply conservative rep, when in fact it is anything but. This music is about honestly expressing as best you can how you feel about your life!

[Gordon Moore]

I can't take it!

[garth cartwright]

H, the blues records that Moore, the Stones, Clapton and pretty much everyone else grew up on in the 60s weren't old and scratchy. No way. They were wonderful sounding contemporary Chess releases, played brilliantly and arranged/produced for the most part by the godlike genius of Willie Dixon. The scratchy old blues you mention ie reissues of Charlie Patton and such from 1920s era 78s where the masters were lost is much more of a hardcore thing that most rock musicians never went into. I mean, the Robert Johnson reissues sound great as John Hammond took them from the original masters - no hiss on them!

Adam, as ever, is right: most blues is too black and too intense for the general public and thus the reason why John Lee Hooker only sold in huge quantities when joined by rock stars and Buddy Guy, who once cut some of the most intense Chess blues ever, keeps making bad blues-rock records in the hope of picking up some of Clapton's audience. I once went to see Buddy at Shepherds Bush Empire and it was so-so, definitely trying to please the white audience with lots of rock histronics, and then Clapton joined him on stage and it was like Allen Toussaint with Elvis Costello, just sad - this great black musician humbling himself before a lesser (yet more famous) white musician.

That said, i like some of Clapton's records - stuff he cut with Cream and Derek And The Dominoes, certain tunes display a huge talent, a blues feeling. A pity he let it all go to waste. But as Adam has noted the kind of intensity needed to play blues was obviously just too much to expect. Alan Wilson, of Canned Heat, was a real natural (I think) and he killed himself - i believe Clapton might have come near selfdestruction in the early 70s so perhaps he chose to just walk away from the music in order to live a more peaceful life.

Anyway, H, go get a good selection of Chess recordings from the 50s/60s and marvel at how almost all British rock from the 60s arises from that seminal Chicago label. Maybe your response to it will be able to inform us of why most white rock fans in general don't buy black blues.

I think another point here is that the UK and US general public prefer musicians who look and talk like them - thus the success of endless dull rock bands (Stereophonics or Morrissey or The Shins f' example as types people relate easily to).

[Adam Blake]

. I once went to see Buddy at Shepherds Bush Empire and it was so-so, definitely trying to please the white audience with lots of rock histronics, and then Clapton joined him on stage and it was like Allen Toussaint with Elvis Costello, just sad - this great black musician humbling himself before a lesser (yet more famous) white musician.
.

I was at that gig!! I thought it was extraordinary the way that, when Clapton walked on, Buddy Guy cut the crap immediately (musically speaking) and played really well. Clapton played exceptionally well too, I thought, and then I heard later that his house had just burned down with most of his guitar collection in it. So he had the blues that night, all right. When Clapton went off, Buddy Guy went back to the bullshit. Sad indeed. Anyone else see him with Junior Wells at the Forum in 1988? Best blues gig I ever saw...

[Con Murphy]

I think another point here is that the UK and US general public prefer musicians who look and talk like them - thus the success of endless dull rock bands (Stereophonics or Morrissey or The Shins f' example as types people relate easily to).

Twas ever thus, of course, and not just in the UK and US. It might be frustrating on a day to day basis, but I think we have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to people’s desire for music by musicians who look and talk like them – to borrow Ian A’s analogy, imagine wandering round a souk in North Africa or an East European mahala to the sounds of world music acts like the Spinners and Gordon Giltrap*.

A note about Costello: you’re right to point out the disparity between the relative worth and fame of EC and the likes of Allen Toussaint Garth, but Elvis has had an important role to play in the promotion of American roots music. As you imply, most people start from a position of liking what’s familiar and (arguably) safe. In the late ‘70s Costello had the option of playing it safe and becoming the British Springsteen, but decided instead to follow his musical nose, effectively risking commercial suicide with albums heavily influenced by blues and soul, like Get Happy!! He took a lot of his fans with him on that path, and his recordings and gigs were a major ‘in’ to all that great Chess and Atlantic stuff being discussed here at the moment, and a whole lot more besides. He’s one of the good guys, and it’s no surprise that people like Toussaint show respect towards him.



*I just know I’m going to get into trouble about the latter. No doubt he’s still very good, I only picked on him because he’s playing a gig locally so his name’s fresh in my mind.

[Ted]

[Sad indeed. Anyone else see him with Junior Wells at the Forum in 1988? Best blues gig I ever saw...

I walked out of a Guy/Wells gig at the Forum at about that time for the reasons you mentioned above. Was it the one where Little Milton was supposed to be supporting, but didn't show?

TW

[garth cartwright]

Con, agreed elvis has taken chances and is truly passionate about music - i certainly first heard about George Jones via Elvis. but that doesn't make up for the fact that i find most of his music unlistenable - saw him acoustic once in the 80s (with the superior T-Bone Burnett) and a lot of his songs appeared just clever wordplay. It's like Bobby Gillespie - a much lesser talent, admittedly - going on about Dion or Gram Parsons or Stax: one thinks "this guy has great taste. His music must be good" and then you hear PS's limp attempts to make music...

Adam, were we at the same Buddy gig? My one he did "here's a bit of Jimi, here's a bit of the Hook" etc blues for beginners and when eric came on almost did a minstrel show of "I loves Eric more than i loves my own brother" (I am not making that up). I couldn't stand it and left. But maybe i missed some good playing.

[Adam Blake]

Oh, he did all that minstrel jive routine, for sure. But Clapton remained admirably poker-faced and, as I said, played very well. Buddy Guy also played very well - while Clapton was on-stage. After he'd gone, Guy just went straight back to the crap. Damn shame.

The gig at the Forum in 1988 was a complete contrast. No, it didn't have Little Milton supporting - either in abstentia or in person (I'd have remembered - I was reviewing it for Music Week.) Junior Wells had gotten himself a bad reputation for public drunkenness and seemingly had a point to prove in that he was stone-cold sober and in complete command of himself and his music. He played the best blues harp I've ever heard live and sang his heart out. Buddy Guy responded by playing superbly throughout the two hour set which passed in what felt like twenty minutes.

I saw Junior Wells and Buddy Guy several times and this was the only time when they actually lived up to their potential. Other times were an embarrassment. But I did once have the pleasure of seeing Clarence Gatemouth Brown "cut" Buddy Guy fair and square on a long, epic version of "Stormy Monday" at Birmingham Town Hall. Somewhere, I still have a bootleg tape of it...