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Do you think the blues is too white?

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(@honeyboy)
Estimable Member
Joined: 12 years ago
Posts: 70
Topic starter  

I know the blues has become mostly played by white folk. Yes there's a few blacks but the players and the fans are mostly white. Here's a web page that talks about how that happened. http://www.bluesguitarinsider.com/blues-guitar-history/hand-me-down-blues-how-the-blues-became-white .

Anyway do you think the blues is too white now or have we white folk began to learn how to play it right?

Rick Honeyboy Hart

"It's about tone, taste, and technique... in that order."

http://www.bluesguitarinsider.com
http://www.rickhoneyboyhart.com


   
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(@almann1979)
Noble Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 1281
 

Personally colour never comes into anything for me. A persons experiences are what count to me when it comes to their musical tastes. :D

"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)


   
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 Cat
(@cat)
Noble Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 1224
 

Although I'd say that all stereotypes are somewhat based on fact...I can't see how it really matters. A good insight was in that movie Steve Martin was in where he was raised by a black family (funny...and spot on). Who's "black", anyway? Without many avatars showing what any of us look like...it's all cool. As for (specifically, as in the question that was asked) "white guy blues"...I'm a firm believer that once life kick's you around for more than you think you deserve...you'll figure out the emotions inherent in 7ths....black, white or plaid. :wink:

Cat

"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"


   
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(@alangreen)
Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

I agree. Colour is irrelevant; it's the musical quality that counts.

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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(@rocket-dog)
Reputable Member
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 296
 

Here's one thought http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ9CS-97KUA


   
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(@vic-lewis-vl)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 10264
 

"Got to pay your dues if you wanna play the blues, and you know it don't come easy...." Ringo, 1970. Not a blues song, but fairly apt, IMHO. The blues isn't the exclusive posession of black people any more - OK, that's where it started, but I still think if you're going to play the blues you have to FEEL your way into the blues.

:D :D :D

(Or should that be :cry: :cry: :cry: while we're talking bout the blues?)

Vic

"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)


   
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(@alangreen)
Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

Time to dig this one out again.

HOW TO SING THE BLUES

If you are new to Blues music, or like it but never really understood the why and wherefores, here are some very fundamental rules:

1. Most Blues begin with: "Woke up this morning..."

2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."

3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes - sort f: "Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she weigh 500 pound."

4. The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch...ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or anywhere in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the Blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the Blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg 'cause you were skiing is not the Blues. Breaking your leg 'cause an alligator is chomping on it is.

9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places for the Blues:
a. highway
b. jailhouse
c. empty bed
d. bottom of a whisky glass

11. Bad places for the Blues:
a. The Mall
b. gallery openings
c. Ivy League institutions
d. golf courses

12. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old person, and you slept in it.

13. Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if:

a. you're older than dirt
b. you're blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis
d. you can't be satisfied

No, if:

a. you have all your teeth
b. you were once blind but now can see
c. the man in Memphis lived
d. you have a 401K or trust fund

14. Blues is not a matter of colour. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the Blues. Sonny Liston could have. Ugly people also got a leg up on the Blues.

15. If you ask for water and your darlin' gives you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are:

a. cheap wine
b. whiskey or bourbon
c. muddy water
d. black coffee

The following are NOT Blues beverages:

a. Perrier
b. Chardonnay
c. Snapple
d. Slim Fast

16. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So are the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken-down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction.

17. Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama

18. Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Jennifer, Debbie, and Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

19. Blues Name Starter Kit:

a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.)
c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
For example: Blind Lime Jefferson, Pegleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")

20. No matter how tragic your life is: if you're rich enough to own a computer, you cannot sing the blues, period. Sorry!!!!!

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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 cnev
(@cnev)
Famed Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4459
 

Alan classic made my day!

"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!


   
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(@s1120)
Prominent Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 848
 

Alan classic made my day!

Ya, thats awesome!!!!!!

Hmmmm.... I need to toss out my computer I guess... :^D

Paul B


   
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(@trguitar)
Famed Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3709
 

Truely a classic! Bravo!

But I think Cripple Kiwi Fillmore is OK. Isn't he the famous New Zealand blues man? :lol:

"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --


   
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 cnev
(@cnev)
Famed Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4459
 

Wasn't it Cripple Kiwi whose dog took his wooden leg and buried it in the back yard?

"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!


   
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(@honeyboy)
Estimable Member
Joined: 12 years ago
Posts: 70
Topic starter  

Well my point was...

White folks pretty much took over likin' and playin' the blues back in the 60's. How come we can't come up with a white guitarist, after 40 years, who is as good as T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Albert Collins, Otis Rush, Albert King, Lonnie Johnson, or Robert Johnson?

Rick Honeyboy Hart

"It's about tone, taste, and technique... in that order."

http://www.bluesguitarinsider.com
http://www.rickhoneyboyhart.com


   
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 cnev
(@cnev)
Famed Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4459
 

Not that suprising white men can't jump either.

"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!


   
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(@trguitar)
Famed Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3709
 

"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --


   
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(@greybeard)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 5840
 

Well, if you're going to bring colour into it, the only people who can rightly play the blues would be the Smurfs. :mrgreen:

I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
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