Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: Eric on July 20, 2006, 06:10:47 AM
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I've tried really I have. but I just can't get into the blues. It just does not move and or inspire me. I like some music that bluesy roots. But I just can not get into the blues per se. I am alone in the guitar player universe?
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Well you can't make yourself like something just because you think you ought and if you have explored the various avenues then that is fine. Blues , in it's original form, is a basic emotioanl and sometimes raw kind of music. I love blues but I wouldn't say I am and expert and that "if it is blues then I like it" but equally I am not a metal fan ( now that truly is a heresy) so "horses for courses".
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Like 38 says, you can't make yourself like something if you really don't. I can't say that I'm a huge blues fan either, but I am a huge rock & metal fan, but I realise the HUGE debt owed to modern popular music to the blues, especially rock & metal, as they wouldn't exist without it.
Listen to bands like Led Zep & Black Sabbath, their early albums were pure blues, just taken that step or two further. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were huge rock'n'roll fans, which owes it's existance to the blues.
It's good to acknowledge lineage, but like many families, you don't have to like your relatives... ;)
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Eric funny you should say this because I feel exactley the same way. I have never been into blues. However there is a fantastic guitar player who plays hyper blues with killer tone called Blues Saraceno, Ive got his first album which is stupidly good. This guy is disliked by the purists but what the hell do they know, if you want any mp3s I can chuck u some across via e-mail or MSN. listening to Blues play has given me a whole new perspective on blues and I've stole numerous licks off him which helps when i need to Jam out some blues.
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Jeez, he's still around is he?
I remember he was a 17 year old kid or something and all the guitar mags loved him, he had that tartan guitar, permed hair and a moody face. Apparantly Yamaha modelled their neck joint on the shape of his hand, and his dad designed the SeymourDuncan fuzz pedal he uses.
I'm gonna call my kid Fusion.
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It took me a few years to appreciate blues music and actually want to listen to it. I got there by way of Hendrix, Clapton, and other 60s guitarists who were into it. I don't listen to it much anymore, being more of a rock kinda guy, but I still like a fair bit of it. One plus it has for more is that I find more guitar tones I like on blues albums than with any other genre.
I don't think it's heresy to be a guitar player and dislike blues; I think it's heresy to be a guitar player and dislike Hendrix. ;)
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I don't think it's heresy to be a guitar player and dislike blues; I think it's heresy to be a guitar player and dislike Hendrix. ;)
:lol:
I agree. :good:
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^ Lot's of players don't like him and I can't understand it either.
Check out some of Howlin Wolf's music. That man had a seriously good voice! I sort of tried out going back through the time line with blues, over the different decades so to speak. Not all of it as there's a hell of a lot but when you get to Robert Johnson, it's just so raw and honest. I can't listen to it a lot though but it is good stuff, especially when you consider the political climate back then.
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There is no point in trying to educate ourselves to understand or like any music style. Either it just comes and catches you by surprise or not. The key to the highway may rely on listening. Greatings from the Birthplace of the Blues. :)
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Oddly I love acoustic blues guitar (Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Lightning Hopkins, Big Bill Broonzy) but not so much the great electric players like BB King and Buddy Guy. I can listen to them and appreciate the blues they play but they don't have that sound that the acoustic players have.
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Just my two cents, but the Blues is as diverse as R+R or any other genre. Around the turn of the last century African, Jazz, Country, Vaudeville all have their fingerprints in it, and vice-a-versa. You have pre-war, post-war, Texas, Memphis, Delta, LA, North Hill Country, Detroit, Chicago, etc., etc. So to say you don’t like Blues, you discard a great chunk of American music (and we haven’t even touched on the British and their re-introducing it to the US). But that’s all right, we’re all different. All I’m trying to say is that it’s a very wide scope, and I bet there is something out there that you would dig. What do you listen to now, what is it that you do like? Or, what is it about the Blues that you don’t?
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I think it's heresy to be a guitar player and dislike Hendrix. ;)
Looks like I'm a heretic then :lol:
To be fair though, I've not heard huge amounts of his music (mainly because I chose not to after disliking the bits I have heard :P )...I can see the man had talent, and the songs are well constructed, but I was put off by the guitar tone, and his voice - neither of which I got on with.
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^ Christ on a bike, you love the controversial, you! :lol:
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^ Christ on a bike, you love the controversial, you! :lol:
:lol: not exactly, I just don't see what all the fuss is about :P
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You mean apart from the complete reworking of the rules of electric guitar as we know it, basically paving the way for pretty much everything we do now? Don't try to bring up Clapton in response, I like Cream, but honestly he wasn't in the same league as Jimi.
Anyway, there is to be honest a lot of blues I really don't like, but there's also a lot I really do. Some SRV stuff is pretty cool (I especially like his little wing) , Robben Ford is very good, and Joe Bonamassa kicks ass. If you get a chance to see a pub circuit band called Memo Gonzales and the Bluescasters, they put on a good show and the guitarist is super talented.
My big bugbear with the blues is guys like Clapton who seem to feel that the way to ensure the survival of the blues is to play it as it was 50 years ago, rather than letting it evolve as a living artform. The reason that the blues survives in as good health as it does is because of the new spin that Clapton, Richards, Hendrix, Green et al gave it in the sixties after all :roll:
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Lol I know that Hendrix is a big influence on a great many people, and that most of the music I listen to may well have been different had he not existed. But I also find that, I don't particularly like the music.
Now that's not saying I don't admire him as a guitarist, because I sure as hell can't do things he could with a guitar. I have great respect for the man's talent, it's just that it isn't the music I would choose to listen to - I hope that clears up where I stand on this matter, and that you can forgive me for my heresy :lol: :drink:
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no we cannot forgive - you must do pennance by playing a clip of All Along the Watchtower with your new pickups - or else the Guitar Inquisition will find you and give you the fluffy cushions treatment :shock:
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Lol okay, when I get them in and get me some recording gear I'll get a recording of something Hendrixy up...I can't promise Watchtower as I forget which one that is and may not be able to actually play it - but I'll find one of the easier ones and do that instead.
Then I'll get the obligatory Dio covers going as well, and maybe some of my own compositions (god save you all) and I could even contribute to the now fizled out BKP Album :P
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I love blues, listening to and playing it, and although I'm really a hard rock guitarist if I'm honest with myself I'm probably a much better blues player than anything else. I think blues really is the first thing a rock guitarist should learn, even metal guitarists, as it's the whole foundation for the rest of these rock genres. If you understand the blues, you start to understand a lot more about the other types of music you're into.
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The fruit never falls far from the tree.
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The fruit never falls far from the tree.
Unless someone picks it off and throws it :drink:
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Why would you throw away a nice juicy apple, or a pear, etc? :lol:
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I think it's heresy to be a guitar player and dislike Hendrix. ;)
Looks like I'm a heretic then :lol:
To be fair though, I've not heard huge amounts of his music (mainly because I chose not to after disliking the bits I have heard :P )...I can see the man had talent, and the songs are well constructed, but I was put off by the guitar tone, and his voice - neither of which I got on with.
His tone? His tone?! The guy had one of the best electric guitar sounds on the planet--ever! Well, in the studio he did, anyways. His live stuff was a bit thin and trebly at times.
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To be fair, I've only really heard live recordings - maybe I should experiment more
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The problem with Hendrix live is he was so off his tits on drugs and experimenting on the fly so much that half his live stuff really sucked :cry:
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Deg0ey you must be tone deaf mate!
Check out the live version of 'Killing Floor' and listen to the intro. It's a fast, percussive sound, with little fills thrown in. That tone for me is (in the dirty Strat tone area :wink: ) is the ultimate. Also have a go at trying to play it in in time with the rhythm section complete with the fills and all the other Hendrix tricks and then you may see what all the fuss is about. :)
It's in Ab :wink:
Oh yes, whilst your doing that you have to sing it too. Whilst on LSD. It all seems a bit beyond me so that's why I love Hendrix! :lol:
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:lol: I wouldn't say tone deaf...Like I said, I don't think I've heard any studio recordings, it's all been live stuff which is probably why I don't see the same as you people.
I'll see if I can get a hold of his greatest hits or something and listen to him properly.
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The track i was talking about is live, hence the love!
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Yes, but I've never heard of it so I can't comment on that one :P
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But you said you've only heard his live stuff :P
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Yeah, and the live stuff I've heard I haven't liked...Other people have said his live stuff wasn't as good which I thought maybe was why I didn't like it...But I haven't heard the track you mentioned, and maybe I would like that one if I did hear it :drink:
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'a bit thin and trebly at times'
er - isn't this the definition of a stratocaster? Isn't that why people either love it or hate it - as opposed to Gibsons, which are a bit thick and clumpy at times :P
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Jeez handags at dawn (again) ;)
Get a good Hendrix compilation (that covers the majority of his career) and give it a try you may be surprised (I hate the Starspangled Banner version he did, but adore the 'jam' the band had during the same set)
As for bluses theres so much variation, you will probably find somthing you like (but it may take a while), personally I like the Chicago blues (for the aggression) and acoustic blues, though I find Robert Johnston too hard to listen to as it's too angst ridden and personal for me.
As for Clapton, I agree that Hendrix was in a different class, but I loved his playing up to the end of Blind Faith (Cream wasn't Clapton it was the three of them).
Remember Hendrix redefined what you where 'allowed to do' on a guitar and to me the only other player that was near the same level was Jeff Beck who is still redefining guitar playing, but if you heard the 'wrong' album first you probably wouldn't think much of his playing style.
Give almost every form and of music a listen (except for that JD sh1te & Emo of course)
Rob...
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I think ima have to agree with you there Mr Kilby...
I don't know what you mean by JD shitee, but I sure as hell prefer Laphroaig when going the whisky direction...
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I think ima have to agree with you there Mr Kilby...
I don't know what you mean by JD shitee, but I sure as hell prefer Laphroaig when going the whisky direction...
I meant DJ sh1te but came out as JD (hmmm JD & coke) though JDis the only whiskey that I will add anything other than water to.
After arriving back in London @ 06:00 and back into work @ 16:00 I could do with a nice single malt from the islands.
Rob...
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you've got to listen to the electric ladyland LP, that is some pure electric guitar genius