The dismal prospect of the week-long bore-a-thon that is China's National Holiday tends to bring on a heavy dose of the blues.
What better way to dispel that stifling funk than with a heavy dose of the blues? Here are Cream performing the T-Bone Walker classic Stormy Monday, at one of the awesome series of reunion shows they played at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2005. So sorry I missed this - they look to have been some of the greatest concerts ever (for those of us who like blues-rock). Luckily, it seems as though the whole of the high-quality concert film has now been posted to Youtube, so you can browse for any of your favourite songs.
5 comments:
You're just taking the piss now!!!
Yes, indeed!
This wasn't the concert film you referred to as turning you off them so violently, was it? I had assumed that it must have been something much earlier. Just goes to show that there's no accounting for taste!
They're not really a blues band as such, I suppose. It was probably mainly Eric taking them in that direction occasionally; Ginger had more of jazz sensibility, and Jack was getting interested in the more melodic bass playing of the American soul and funk scene. But there was a bluesy feel to quite a bit of their stuff, and I love it when they do a pure blues tune like this. Damn, those cats can play!
I hope you will be less averse to some of the other distractions I've got planned for this week.
It's the very one! Tedious ossified crap - *well-played*, sure. But that matters not one rat's ass. Rock music needs edge and danger or it's nothing. This is nothing.
Well, this isn't rock, it's blues.
And when these guys started out, there wasn't really any 'rock' music: it was only just being created - and it was birthed out of the blues.
So, this kind of stuff - even though it wasn't really the main thing they did - probably would have seemed a lot more edgy and innovative back in the mid-60s.
It seems like your problem is you want them to be Nirvana or The Sex Pistols, and they're not.
You say you're not down on the blues per se, so are you down on veteran artists playing their original material from decades back? Or down on artists revisiting songs or musical styles from an earlier era?
Most folks don't have a problem with that, if it's done well.
It doesn't have to be NEW or FRESH or EDGY or whatever, so long as it's GOOD MUSIC.
And come on, really, how much rock music has ever had that much "edge" or "danger" about them? A handful of standout songs from a handful of standout bands, maybe - but that's not really the general situation. It's just entertainment.
I can quite happily listen to someone playing Muddy Waters or Elmore James or Howlin' Wolf or T-Bone Walker - and I don't give a rat's arse if they're trying to play it exactly like the original artist did and not quite managing it, so long as it still sounds GOOD. And with this music, if it's done fairly well, it is always gong to sound GOOD!!
Also, you like our own Amazing Insurance Salesmen, who are amazingly reminiscent of Cream.
Doesn't compute for me!
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