The Blues Thread

[Rovim]

What's it that great blues players do? No offence. Im interested to know.

Music is a language. Many languages. Slash mainly speaks hard rock. What the musician is saying reflects his thoughts and feelings, his personality. Slash could never be great at something he's not fully invested in. He is fully invested in hard rock. That's the main way he communicates musically.

Every genre uses different methods, notes, sounds and phrases. Slash is much more fluid in hard rock. He incorporates blues into it, and can even speak blues with his guitar, but when he does that, it's limited and seems like it's less Slash I'm hearing.

His understanding, interpretation of the blues, the way he plays it reveal his shortcomings as a blues player. I don't even consider him to be one.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Rovim

[Georgy Zhukov]

Much of hard rock is rooted in the blues. It doesn't make them blues players of course. Guitarists like Slash, Jimmy Page and Tommy Iommi can play bluesy riffs and solos but they are not true blues guitarists.

[JeanGenie]

No doubt Slash is not a Blues player but I think his approach to music fits perfectly to this genre since hes a very emotional player. I dont think he lacks the musical tools. In order to feel the blues you need to lead a certain life. Look at Robert Johnson. Slash on the other hand leads a pretty awesome life.

[Rovim]

No doubt Slash is not a Blues player but I think his approach to music fits perfectly to this genre since hes a very emotional player. I dont think he lacks the musical tools. In order to feel the blues you need to lead a certain life. Look at Robert Johnson. Slash on the other hand leads a pretty awesome life.

It's not just about the life you lead. It's what you like. It's the phrases you play. It's where you naturally lean towards musically. Slash's entire output suggests hard rock, bluesy hard rock it's where it's at for him as a guitar player and he has talked about it. Said something like if it strays too much from rock n' roll it doesn't really work for him.

I think he meant hard rock is the musical base for him. He'll add shit on top of it and hard rock came directly from rock n' roll which came from blues.

But there is a difference between what Slash is and what a true blues player is. Joe Bonamassa for example. Or guitar players that can truly be called great hard rock players and blues players like Gary Moore for example.

I think Slash is a rare talent though. Truly unique in his approach and guitar playing.

[DieselDaisy]

Hard rock developed from, predominately British, kids, who began their career playing the blues. Hard rock is basically a beefed up blues. Who were the earliest hard rock bands: Cream, Hendrix Experience, Yardbirds-Zeppelin, etc. It is no coincidence that they all possessed guitarists (Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Page) who originally saw themselves as bluesmen and who grew up listening to the blues greats.

This is the hard rock style that Slash is heir of.

They took the blues, beefed it up in loudness and distortion and included other aspects - from jazz, psychedelia, soul and pop - to produce hard rock. Later this developed into heavy metal.

So in a round-about way, to be a great hard rock player you also need to be a great blues player, or you need at least a good solid foundation.

Edited December 11, 2015 by DieselDaisy

[Rovim]

Hard rock developed from, predominately British, kids, who began their career playing the blues. Hard rock is basically a beefed up blues. Who were the earliest hard rock bands: Cream, Hendrix Experience, Yardbirds-Zeppelin, etc. It is no coincidence that they all possessed guitarists (Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Page) who originally saw themselves as bluesmen and who grew up listening to the blues greats.

This is the hard rock style that Slash is heir of.

They took the blues, beefed it up in loudness and distortion and included other aspects - from jazz, psychedelia, soul and pop - to produce hard rock. Later this developed into heavy metal.

So in a round-about way, to be a great hard rock player you also need to be a great blues player, or you need at least a good solid foundation.

Slash is not a great blues player, no matter how hard you try to excuse his shortcomings as a blues player. He is a bluesy hard rock player. It came from the blues, Jimi was both, Slash is not. It's very simple.

Again: he can play some nice blues, but he is not a great blues player. It's not the path he chose, what excites him musically is what happens to be what sounds the best imo. His blusey hard rock guitar playing. He sounds like himself the most when he plays hard rock.

If he was interested in blues, he would have recorded a full blues album or 2. He doesn't seem to have much to say in those avenues. Only occasional improvisation is enough for him, and when he wasn't in a band Slash's blues ball was a way for him to play some blues which he loves I think. Still not a proper blues player and definitely not a great one.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Rovim

[DieselDaisy]

Hard rock developed from, predominately British, kids, who began their career playing the blues. Hard rock is basically a beefed up blues. Who were the earliest hard rock bands: Cream, Hendrix Experience, Yardbirds-Zeppelin, etc. It is no coincidence that they all possessed guitarists (Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Page) who originally saw themselves as bluesmen and who grew up listening to the blues greats.

This is the hard rock style that Slash is heir of.

They took the blues, beefed it up in loudness and distortion and included other aspects - from jazz, psychedelia, soul and pop - to produce hard rock. Later this developed into heavy metal.

So in a round-about way, to be a great hard rock player you also need to be a great blues player, or you need at least a good solid foundation.

Slash is not a great blues player, no matter how hard you try to excuse his shortcomings as a blues player. He is a bluesy hard rock player. It came from the blues, Jimi was both, Slash is not. It's very simple.

Again: he can play some nice blues, but he is not a great blues player. It's not the path he chose, what excites him musically is what happens to be what sounds the best imo. His blusey hard rock guitar playing. He sounds like himself the most when he plays hard rock.

If he was interested in blues, he would have recorded a full blues album or 2. He doesn't seem to have much to say in those avenues. Only occasional improvisation is enough for him, and when he wasn't in a band Slash's blues ball was a way for him to play some blues which he loves I think. Still not a proper blues player and definitely not a great one.

Yet he is doing something none of his influences did, which was to play blues-based hard rock without being a blues player? Seeing as Page, Clapton, Hendrix, Richards, Mick Taylor could all play blues to an exceptional high standard, I do not follow.

[Rovim]

I do not follow.

I'm saying Slash is a great blues player. His blues albums bury and surpass his hard rock efforts. He should have never joined a hard rock band in the first place. A damn shame. Not since Robert Johnson have I heard such a blues talent.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Rovim

[Sixes]

[DieselDaisy]

I do not follow.

I'm saying Slash is a great blues player. His blues albums bury and surpass his hard rock efforts. He should have never joined a hard rock band in the first place. A damn shame. Not since Robert Johnson have I heard such a blues talent.

It would not be that hard to surpass those efforts. Look at what we are competing with here? Apocalyptic Love?

You would have a point if he was putting out incredible hard rock records. Then there would be no need to speculate on what he could be doing.

[Rovim]

It would not be that hard to surpass those efforts. Look at what we are competing with here? Apocalyptic Love?

You would have a point if he was putting out incredible hard rock records. Then there would be no need to speculate on what he could be doing.

You're the one who's doing all the speculation on what he COULD be doing. I can only judge what he did. What he chose to do. What he's still doing. You always dig yourself a hole by talking a "load of bollocks".

You can't even see the difference between Slash and proper blues guitar players. And so...

Fuck this shit.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Rovim

[DieselDaisy]

It would not be that hard to surpass those efforts. Look at what we are competing with here? Apocalyptic Love?

You would have a point if he was putting out incredible hard rock records. Then there would be no need to speculate on what he could be doing.

You're the one who's doing all the speculation on what he COULD be doing. I can only judge what he did. What he chose to do. What he's still doing. You always dig yourself a hole by talking a "load of bollocks".

You can't even see the difference between Slash and proper blues guitar players. And so...

Fuck this shit.

You usually say that when I have defeated you.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Moving on now.

Someone mentioned Joe Bonamassa?

I keep hearing praises but I haven't gotten into him. I just think there's no one who pushed the boundaries beyond Stevie Ray but I will give Joe a shot.

[Len Cnut]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2boFDI4ebw

Jo Stafford does a version of that thats amazing, if im not mistaken it was the first female no 1 in Englands history.

http://youtu.be/zQfF84ackMM

Edited December 11, 2015 by Len B'stard

[Georgy Zhukov]

That was a good one Rovim, but the post disappeared!

[JeanGenie]

Love Stevie Ray Vaughan. His rough playing is awesome. His work on lets dance was great too. Especially the solo on china girl

[Rovim]

Solo starts at the 4:25 mark.

Edited December 12, 2015 by Rovim

[J Dog]

All the beards and sunglasses overshadow these boys actual skills. Billy Gibbons is a bad man.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Stevie Ray Vaughan might be my favorite guitarist of all time (tied with Randy Rhoads) I think he may be the most advanced of all the blues players. Thoughts?

Of all guitarists out there, he seems to be the one most comparable to Jimi Hendrix, probably because he's done some excellent covers of Jimi's work.

[JeanGenie]

Stevies playing is raw and intense. I don't know if hes the advanced but he has a more technical approach of playing the blues. He is one of my favorite guitar players. I agree as a player hes similar to Jimi.

[Snake-Pit]

This poor boy was searching for an easy way out

He stole some poison from the voodoo house...

[Rovim]

Stevie Ray Vaughan might be my favorite guitarist of all time (tied with Randy Rhoads) I think he may be the most advanced of all the blues players. Thoughts?

Of all guitarists out there, he seems to be the one most comparable to Jimi Hendrix, probably because he's done some excellent covers of Jimi's work.

Actually, I think Stevie's way of playing didn't stray too far from mainly Albert King's way of playing in many ways. (also other blues players he liked) His technique was flawless, and he was capable of playing amazing covers of Jimi's work.

But it pretty much ends there. Jimi combined the roots of the blues, real proper blues playing like Albert and some elements from Curtis for example and many other musical sources with his own brand of psychedelic hard rock. And it obviously sounded like nothing that came before it.

Jimi's arsenal was extensive, brimming with new original ideas that came together to form great songs, but also it was all over the place and employed many different approaches that all worked surprisingly well. Jimi was sloppy, but inventive and it seems he could do anything. Try anything, and he had the interest and talent to do it perfectly.

His music sounded totally new, even though the blues had a lot to do with it. You could definitely hear the blues, but it also sounded like it was from space, shedding any old musical restraints with a producer that had the ability to make it happen, using new recording techniques that Jimi could realize his vision with.

And for it's time, his sound was something no one has ever heard. The way he used pedals, feedback, (though explored by others before him like Jeff Beck and Townshend) and just his playing all created again, something great but also new. So his guitar tone, the way he and Eddie Kramer recorded and used the studio as an instrument even back then, and the songs Jimi came up with all created something much bigger in scale and just way more original and imaginative than SRV's music.

SRV didn't have that much to say musically in comparison. Going forward, breaking new ground. It wasn't him, and he didn't have the creative ability nor the interest. At least if we compare to Jimi, it wasn't on that level at all.

Stevie incorporated jazz elements here and there, he could rock, but he was always more focused on the blues and playing it like only he could. He always had a lot of covers in his albums but he expressed the ideas in a fresh and powerful way that felt authentic.

What sold it for me, personally, was his raw emotion and almost always inspired playing on the instrument. It was great, and he brought the excitement back to the blues for many players when he made it.

But Jimi was something else entirely. He was lying on the couch and imagining songs a lot of the time, always exploring new territories. For Stevie it was more retro.

It's no surprise he could cover Jimi, when he had the blueprint, Stevie could work magic, and his original material is great, but nothing is truly new there except SRV's playing really which is enough cause he interpreted the blues in a very exciting way. He injected his excitement into the material and live performances and it was electric.

But Jimi saw the future. He was the future. Stevie was happy doing his thing inside the formula, taking it to new heights inside many boundaries he respected and followed. He expanded the blues vocabulary by playing in a way that was unique. Jimi took the foundation of the blues and broke the mould with it. Stevie built upon it and perfected it and it sounded like him which is a great fuckin' achievement in my book. Nothing like Jimi though.

In many ways, Stevie Ray to blues is what Slash is to hard rock. No one sounds like Slash, and his interpretation of hard rock is exciting or at least was at one point. (still exciting to me)

Same thing with SRV: no one sounded like him, he talked the language of the blues his way and it was unique as fuck. But he didn't add much to it beyond that.

Jimi invented a language. He... invented...a language. From everything he embraced that came before him and his instinctive connection to whatever was inside of him. It was fuckin' spectacular and this is why Jimi will always be the best that ever was.

Edited December 19, 2015 by Rovim

[Georgy Zhukov]

Man that was brilliant. I used to be one of those jerks who thought Jimi as overrated but I never understood why he is always ranked number one. He was the innovator, creating new sound. A shame he was taken from us. Who knows what brilliant music he would have gone on to came up with.

The SRV and Slash comparison was brilliant. When I listen to Stevie Ray, I sometimes compare him to Slash because they both have their unique sound, though it remains familiar but still feels new. They both have that unique tone. They are instantly recognizable.

I always love that story about that night Hendrix went to play with Cream and blew Clapton off the stage. Clapton was like "You never told me he was that good!" a huge compliment because Clapton was one of Jimi's heroes. When he died, Clapton did not want to talk about him. He was very upset that such talent was wasted. Same thing with Duane, the sound they created together was inspiring. Sweetest guitar sound I ever heard.

We are lucky Slash and Clapton are still with us. Too many of the greats are gone.

[Len Cnut]

[classicrawker]

Sorry if this has already been posted............never before seen photo of Robert Johnson. which includes Robert Lockwood Jr........... who he gave lessons to...........this would make one of only 3 photos of the blues master known to exist.....

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/news/a40614/robert-johnson-new-photo/

Edited December 22, 2015 by classicrawker