Monday, November 16, 2009

Walking Blues


OK, so it really is a bit late for the Monday Morning Blues in many parts of the world! This post nearly didn’t happen, between a flurry of technical glitches & desultory playing & singing yesterday. But this morning I marched with determination & guitar into the music room—& also with laptop & webcam—& came up with a take I could live with. I must say it was fun recording in the music room, even if there’s a bit more set-up than just sitting at my desk.

It would be hard to over-state the importance of Robert Johnson to the prevailing contemporary vision of the blues; he also has been triumphed as an important innovator shaping the path blues took toward rock-&-roll, particularly with his hard driving boogie style basslines (which I didn’t imitate on this song, but do on some other Johnson songs I cover). It’s interesting, given the legendary status he attained in the 50s & 60s & continues to hold today, that he was a relatively obscure player during his lifetime, & one who didn’t have the popularity of many other bluesmen who now are more obscure.

There are no doubt a number of reasons for this. Most importantly, Johnson was an incredibly gifted guitar player & singer, & his songwriting was first-rate too, tho less original than casual blues fans realize. He often used ideas from his mentor Son House (as in “Walking Blues” & “Preachin’ the Blues”), & his justifiably celebrated “Come On In My Kitchen” is simply “I’m Sitting On Top of the World” with different (& more interesting) lyrics; “I’m Sitting on Top of the World” had been a big hit for the Mississippi Sheiks, & was imitated in several songs. Johnson’s songs also were influenced by Skip James, Lonnie Johnson, Leroy Carr & Kokomo Arnold, to name a few. But “originality” is not necessarily a value in traditional music: what is a value is taking the existing material to a newly individualized level, & Johnson most certainly did that.

“Walking Blues” is a pretty straightforward song, but it does contain a reference to “riding the blinds,” which not everyone will understand. This means: "To ride the train in the spaces between the baggage or mail cars near the coal tender which have no side doors - they can ride without being seen." (definition courtesy of Harry’s Blues Lyrics.)

Hope you enjoy my take on this wonderful song!



14 comments:

  1. Good one. What is an "Elgin movement"?

    Just answered my own question thanks to Google: "Elgin Movement" was a patented name given to a type of mechanical watch movement.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dominic: Thanks, & that's correct! I forgot to mention it in the post, which I wrote a trifle hastily.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wonder why Johnson wasn't as big in his day as he became. Perhaps his sensibilities were too modern? He's certainly not the first major artist of whom that was true.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Or perhaps it's something as simple as being subject to developing and haphazard means of promotion and distribution.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi K: I suspect it was probably a good bit of the latter; & too, he died at age 27, & to put "his generation" in perspective, he was born only 2 years before Muddy Waters & a year after Howlin' Wolf--so he was really of the generation of the great Chicago electric blues players, tho we think of him more in a context of Son House or Skip James, both of who were 9 years older. I'm quite intrigued by Elijah Wald's book on Robert Johnson called "Escaping the Delta," in which Wald really places Johnson in historical context. There's a link to it here

    ReplyDelete
  6. enjoyed it! i do like these little videos. a friend gave me a flip camera for my bday, so i'm trying to get up the nerve to post some video. that is quite a smashing looking instrument, john! it' gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for a Monday evening delight...do enjoy the life you bring to music and words!!

    Enjoy your ventures into the poetic realms. I surely enjoy mine. Do stop by ♪♫•*¨*•.❤.•*¨*•♫♪ ...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Jen: The video stuff is fun to do. Glad you liked this--thanks! & the guitar thanks you too!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Synchronicity time again! We used to feature 'Walking Blues' in Sonny Black's Blues Band, for which I played bass guitar back in the '80s. early '90s. Happy memories. Sonny Black is still going strong - http://www.myspace.com/sonnyblackuk

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi, I enjoyed this lesson on the blues. You continually introduce me to artists of which I'm unaware. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Dick & Lizzy:

    It's been a crazy week--sorry it took me a while to backtrack to your comments!

    Dick: That sounds like fun--it's a great song.

    Lizzy: You're welcome--always enjoy having you stop by!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I really do enjoy listening to the music, John, but I also like your voice very much. I'm not easily pleased when it comes to vocals, so that's saying something.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks Kat--I really appreciate your saying that!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by & sharing your thoughts. Please do note, however, that this blog no longer accepts anonymous comments. All comments are moderated. Thanks for your patience.