Who are the top 5 blues music artists?
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M$4 Answers
2) T-Bone Walker - "Cold cold feeling"
3) Leadbelly - "Where did you sleep last night"
4) BB King - "The thrill is gone"
5) Stevie Ray Vaughn - "It's floodin' down in Texas"
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M$Few are living still.
And some blues figures also developed the first Rock and Roll
Eric Clapton? is not that even that good nor original in any aspect IMHO and certainly came way after those who inspired him. Jimi Hendrix, while fantastic (and perfect example of crossing over during "cointel times" and maybe being assassinated for it (there's a lot goes on not so well-known or wrongly attributed as to cause of death in cultural influences). was more so a blues-rock stylist or acid blues innovator, though he did play good blues in the center of that but. his vibe is in the sound more than the statement.
You have to realize that blues to most whites "blues per se" was heard after Brits introduced our blues back to us, and as much that Elvis *copied* blues and rock from the true father of Rock & Roll, Arthur Crudup, who in fact is one of those 5 for both his great blues songs (covered by everyone, not always credited, NEVER ONCE attaining a royalty and never even inducted into the rock hall of fame... though HE invented it
Another is Howlin' Wolf who was likely even more influential than the next one (Muddy Waters) but far less well known due to that he did NOT sell out one iota to "Cadillac" (Chess Records) and other ways most did.
Did you know Chuck Berry was a blues man and even did Hawaiian slack key acidy blues rock very well? well.. anyway...
Son House and Robert Johnson have to be in there. Son House in his prime was indeed his title: father of the folk blues. but to only name 5 is wrong.. so many even some only had a few hits or great songs were able to touch the soul of man. Wolf as Sam Phillips said, was ..."where the soul of man goes and never dies" (that line by the way is from a spiritual. Phillips also said "find me a white man can sing Negro music and have the Negro feel I will be a billionaire" is why Elvis was - luckily heard during a break playing Arthur Crudup's That's All Right (Mama) got going
Elvis said to reporters he got it all from "colored people" and especially Arthur Crudup.
Without those who influenced the 5 being named it would be like saying there's only 5 planets or stars in the galaxy. Rice Miller aka Sonny Boy (II) - married to WOlf's sister and taught him blues harp, as Wolf then taught me, Little Walter, BB King (inspired by Wolf), Charlie Patton, taught Wolf guitar and influenced stylings, just as Wolf essentially "made"early Mick Jagger (admittedly)
Wolf did FINE early rockers..."Hidden Charms" "You Be Mine" "Don'tLaugh at Me" and more..and he evolved Delta to Chicago and BEYOND stylings all his own unique ways of being Himself. Lightin' Hopkins another wonderful blues soloist but also played Rock (*few seem to know this) another to not miss.
and Bo DIddley developed a hugely influential beat .. but that then was Rock. Of course he came from blues
and by the way. I will name myself and when songs come out more publicly (better late than later) in the next year or two you will see (hear) why...
I made two songs with Howlin' Wolf, they will be heard soon after a long time coming.VERY unique stuff. He, Sonny Terry, Paul Oscher and myself taught me blues harp and I played drums with Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup
any race or culture can at times in some show the soulfulness of blues but.. few who only imitate without honoring it's black roots will have a chance to do so..playing the runs or lick or virtuoso sounds does not transmit the spirit within, that has to be kept, then earned maybe even re-attained.
meanwhile... if you go to my profile on FaceBook you can learn much more
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M$
- Robert Johnson/King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 1:
Songs from this album have been covered by Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Cream, Eric Clapton, and others.
- Blues Brothers/Briefcase Full of Blues:
The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) are the truest disciples of the blues and they prove it here. The band includes such greats as Matt "Guitar" Murphy and Paul Shaffer.
- John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers/Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton plays the smoothest guitar of his life on this album. One music reviewer in the late '60s said that Clapton never plays a note that isn't blues. It was intended as an insult, but when you hear Clapton, it's not a bad thing at all.
- Led Zeppelin/Led Zeppelin (debut)
This is Led Zeppelin's most blues-influenced album, and, if you ask me, it's what they do best.
- Junior Wells/Hoodoo Man Blues
This album has more harmonica solos than you can shake a stick at. Pure Chicago blues.
In addition to these I recommend you check out Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton's "Unplugged" album (specifically the Robert Johnson covers), and basically anybody whose name starts with "Blind."
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M$
Join us for all you Blues Queries and information of gigs etc. You will find everything you want here.
Gerry's Blues Room Group on Facebook. You can also join all the others in the competitions we host etc.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=126395538453 Or join my Page of the Howlin' Wolf Blues Pages on Facebook.
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M$
Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Son House, Willie Dixon, Elmore James and Arthur Crudup. Yes 6, in fact I include myself though less known so far
As for Arthur Crudup: (father of Rock and Roll) please note
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf#!/DeltaCulturalCenter Elvis started it all?
Well...the one that actually started it all" was what ALSO started Elvis Presley, but was not started BY Elvis Presley.
Elvis had some great and influential or inspiring abilities .. but please never forget this... as so many have in every area of m...usic... national scandal that's come to pass....
Some Interesting Facts About Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup
© Sandy Guy Schoenfeld
ARTHUR "BIG BOY" CRUDUP
It's pronounced (crew' - duhp) people... 'coz there ain't nothing
"cruddy" about the actual true "Father of Rock & Roll"
Arthur Crudup - whom I played drums for and corresponded with -- has NEVER been inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame, under 'Influences', even though so MANY he influenced in one way or another have been! Without Arthur doing all he did there might not even have been a rock hall, or an Elvis as you know him. or an early Elvis ...
This is a matter that should be be a collective cause for all who care about both the actual history of music, especially blues and rock, to make it so that Arthur finally gets the formal and as full-as-possible national respect and admiration he is long due.
It''s very arguable "That's All Right (Mama)" is the first Rock & Roll song. ("Rocket '88" rocks out, sure, but is a fast shuffle-beat blues. Rock is 2/4 time) and based on that Arthur Crudup first began doing his music that way is (if any one-only can be named such) the actual "Father of Rock and Roll." His "So Glad You're Mine" (early version) is a lot hotter than Elvis's fairly-authentic and acknowledged cover, and may also be the first usage of "oo-wee" on a recording.
Elvis's covering Arthur Crudup who made a limlted market "race music hit of this song "That's All Right" and other black artists was much appreciated and had long been sought by Sun Studio's Sam Phillips who'd long said, "Find me a white man who can sing Negro music with the Negro feel and I will be a billionaire."
Elvis's doing them in his seminal days and getting heard by a new audience (in spite of efforts to suppress it) then allowed other black artists to more easily cross over into white markets, i.e. Little Richard, Chuck Berry, etc. as well as for more white artists to add their own ways of what became Rockabilly and then, also with influences of other original blues artists of course, mainly Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Bo DIddley... straight out formalized Rock & Roll, heavy metal, etc. and all of this can be heard today in alternative music and almost any genre at some point.
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Elvis himself told reporters, in his own words in 1956, "The colored folks been (performing) it for more years than I know. I got it from them ... in Tupelo... I used to hear old ***Arthur Crudup*** bang his box the way I do now (~ he wished! ~) and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw."
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Ironically and sadly, "that nobody ever saw" is all too applicable to Arthur Crudup's lack of recognition for both his pioneering early rock AND his very fine, clever, moving blues songs he wrote and performed.
Elvis may well have "made it" on his own, but "it" without the influence of various black blues artists and especially Arthur Crudup he would have been at best if even (despite his fine voice) a Grand Ol' Opry thing (if that too is not - which it often is, of course - also much influenced earlier on by blues.
And yes, I know influence goes in all directions, and about other than black or white only or even just USA-based music having a part in this process at some points, and about the Celtic-origin (allowable to be sung by slaves) folk and gospel music being then combined with African tonal form and resolving chords.
I do know about Howlin' Wolf and country star Jimmy Rogers' yodel influencing Wolf's howl, etc. After all, I have Wolf's comments about that on tape and can myself yodel as well as howl.
And this is what I want to howl about here: There's no way to imagine Elvis's career without his - fortunately during a break in his earliest recording effort - having "fooled around" playing "That's All Right (Mama)." He also had at least two other early hits, both covers of Arthur's material, "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine." Both very approximately accurate covers in melody and lyrics, unlike "Hound Dog" which saw some adjustments but clearly derived from the original which he got rights to for $500.
I am talking about early Elvis here, not when he was established or (shudder) Colonel-ized.
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Arthur Crudup's songs were further popularized by stars such as (the short list) Etta James, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Johnny Winter, Paul Butterfield, Tina Turner, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater Revival and BB King, Blue Cheer...
BUT ARTHUR NEVER GOT PAID ANY ROYALTIES - despite his efforts and others on his behalf, who, a few years before he died achieved a $60,000 court award for back royalties - but it was never released to him!
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In 1968, I took a dozen nice and very personal portraits of Arthur (unlike the nearly unrecognizable one of him on Wikipedia about which I might add is not entirely untypical of Wiki's eschewing visual values even when significant "right-in-one's-face aspects" of reality and "fact" are in such ways, best revealed).
PLEASE NOTE: PART OF ANY MONEY I MAKE BEYOND THE SIGNIFICANT EXPENSES OF CUSTOM PORTRAITS BEING MADE FROM MY VINTAGE NEGATIVES WILL BE USED FOR EFFORTS TO GET ARTHUR CRUDUP INDUCTED INTO THE ROCK HALL OF FAME
STILL.
DUE TO CURRENT IMMEDIATE CONDITIONS ANY FUNDS ATTAINED IN ANY FASHION GO (ONCE VERY BASIC NEEDS ARE COVERED ~ AND SOMETIMES EVEN WHEN NOT) TOWARD MY YEARS-LONG EFFORTS TO RESCUE TRAFFICKED WOMEN AND TO ASSIST IN PROTECTING OR EMPOWERING ENDANGERED/AT-RISK WOMEN .
(please feel free to donate to these causes via my PayPal)
howlingsandy@hotmail.com
GREAT ARTHUR CRUDUP OR HOWLIN' WOLF RELATED GIFTS FREE
FOR THOSE WHO DO (VALUE IN PROPORTION TO AMOUNT DONATED)
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I played drums with Arthur Crudup (just us) at his gig when he was out here in late 1968 . Was so disappointed that tape recorder which seemed to be working( (same one I had gotten the two songs Wolf and I made done on and the interview which birthed his bio's chapter 1 "in his own words" and disclosed why (more than "tired of" his need to stay alive) he fled his sadistic uncle at 13 to get to Dockery Plantation, his father and Charlie Patton)
Arthur was as good as ever in his late 60's a very sweet quiet-spoken man who I only spent 2 days with but miss him for his depth of strong and unquestioning camaraderie, we corresponded a while but i was so wrapped up in social change efforts and he too had many changes going on... I wish I'd kept in much better touch, new things were happening I had to find how to deal with them inside and out... blues now from knowing I could have done better and from how he has been overlooked. Of course he is beyond it now. or.. is he?
it's frankly amazing how MUCH he got the shaft more than almost any significant blues and rock guy (I have been there as musician and beyond, in such wrongful ways and regularly still, but....considering all who used his work and in how many ways and also prospered from it he's got the crown there too, though many of course share it. So when we celebrate Elvis coming on strong let's never forget who cut his path long before.
Best Regards,
Sandy Guy Schoenfeld
Yours in Music and Truth
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