Blues: Atom Heart Mother

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Years: 1900 - ???

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Okay, let's kick off these reviews with the different Rock Eras. Originally, I was going to start with 1950s rock & roll, but I think it would be totally unfair to the blues, as it is the foundation of what we know today as rock. That's why I'm giving this era such an enigmatic title. It doesn't have anything to do with Pink Floyd's fourth album (the fifth if we include More), but the name of that album seemed more than perfect for what I want to highlight about the blues: it is the atom, the heart, and the mother of true rock. Most of the greatest bands in history are heavily influenced by this genre, creating covers or original songs based on the structure of the blues. And the best guitarists in the history of rock are within the blues catalog. There are Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, to name just a few, who were part of the blues rock scene and popularized the genre.

 

When I thought about the review, it occurred to me that the further rock moves away from the foundations of the blues, in its intensity, message, and sometimes structure, the more commercial and vulgar it becomes. They don't necessarily have to be purist blues bands, but I'll take the '80s as an example, where nothing is further removed than the dominant New Wave of that era, and really, the good bands of that decade can be counted on the fingers of one hand... Or it happens with the bands themselves. There's the Rolling Stones, who made perfect records with Mick Taylor's mastery of the blues in the early '70s, and released nauseating garbage when they moved away from it in the '80s. That's why I affirm that it's an atom of rock; it's generally within its essence, you can smell it in the scales, in the twangs, in the sequences of tones, sometimes even in metal... Is anyone going to deny that Tommi Iommi or Richie Blackmore had quite a few roots in the blues?

 

Nowadays, when we mention the genre, the first thing we think of is a) the guitar heroes of blues rock that I mentioned or b) the great bluesmen of the Chicago movement of the 50s and 60s, such as B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley or Willie Dyxon, just to mention the most recognized today.

 

The truth is that it has origins well before the 1950s. The first recording dates back to 1912. It's the song "Baby Seals' Blues" by the musician Baby F. Seals. This is worth considering if we take into account that Robert Johnson, who is usually credited as the father of the genre, was barely a year old at the time. But its roots come from the chants of Black slaves in the southern United States, from the early 19th century. These were performed a cappella and strongly influenced by African roots. It is said that by 1870, the mood generated by gospel songs with sad themes and minor melodic tones was already being called "blues." The truth is that it is a music of Black origin that began to become popular in the Mississippi region and by the beginning of the 20th century, the guitar had already been incorporated as an accompanying instrument, using 8- or 12-bar structures, with the 12-bar being the most commonly used today. At this point, the guitar was treated in a manner similar to country music, with crude riffs and mostly based on strumming, played in a very basic way, similar to some African instruments like the bow, which was widely used by slaves because the masters saw a certain similarity with European instruments and didn't consider them a threat. Thus, African Americans had already mastered some string instruments by the time of emancipation, and the blues began to take shape as a style at the beginning of the 20th century, along with the adjustments of the race that had just been freed from slavery, adopting the blues as their own song, which defined them and created an identity no longer as slaves, but as free people.

 

During this time and for much of the first half of the century (often even today), lyrics are structured in three-line verses, where the first two are identical and the third is a kind of punchline. For example, in perhaps the most famous and most covered blues in history, "Crossroads" by Robert Johnson, we have:

 

"I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
Asked the Lord above, have mercy now, Save poor Bob if you please"

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By the 1920s, the genre began to spread beyond Kansas and New Orleans, where the composers were already more or less respected, and the style began to define itself as a genre, giving rise to Country Blues and even reaching whites through outstanding musicians like William C. Handy. It was already common to find musical groups playing the blues in Southern bars and saloons, and women began to give magnificent vocal performances, as this music lends itself to their vocal range. With the expansion of this music, American Record Co. saw a business opportunity and began recording more artists, bringing to the attention of artists like Blind Melon Jefferson. Incidentally, Blind Melon (the bluesman, not the group) was one of the genre's experimenters, and among his numerous recordings are the first with Slide Guitar. That is, he would pick up a can, a knife, or a bottle neck to make slurred, elastic sounds on the strings of his guitar. Thanks to him, David Gilmour owes many of his best slide guitars. Slide guitar would be a basic element of what is called "Delta Blues," a more technical movement than country, and which first defined this sound that emerged from the Mississippi River in the mid-1920s.

 

 

 

Robert Johnson belongs to this movement, and is mistakenly credited with creating not only Delta Blues, but Blues in general. This is like saying that Louis Armstrong was the creator of Jazz. The truth is that Robert Johnson created a legend with his few recordings for his aggressive sound, songs that were tremendously original for the time, his distinctive guitar tuning, and his impressive technique. He only left a handful of recorded songs, but they are the most covered in the genre. In those 29 recordings, with terrible sound, you can hear a man singing and two or three guitars playing in the background. The curious thing is that it's just Johnson with one guitar, with no overlapping tracks. This guy knew how to make his guitar sound like two or three, that's how good he was. Legend has it that he sold his soul to the devil at the intersection of Highway 69 and Highway 41 in Clarksdale so he could play the blues better than anyone else in the world. This is what the song "Crossroads" speaks of, later taken up by Eric Clapton for his sublime version with Cream. Johnson died in 1938 at the age of 27 (the first in the club?) in a still-uncanny situation. Some say he was killed by a cuckolding husband; others say the devil returned for his part of the pact and took him, guitar and all.

 

In the late 1930s, Memphis Blues emerged around this Tennessee city, incorporating previously unfamiliar instruments such as the violin and mandolin. Bessie Smith, one of the best vocalists of this era, belongs to this branch. In the 1940s, Jump Blues emerged, incorporating trumpets and brass typical of the Big Band. Many of the musicians of these two genres migrated to Chicago in the mid-1930s.

 

In the mid-1940s, the other dominant movement emerged: Chicago Blues. Thanks to the great musicians who migrated north during World War II, other styles began to merge, and electric guitars, drums, and harmonicas began to be used. Blues was no longer for dives and dive bars; it reached the large white casinos of Chicago and was the latest trend; it was an art form. From Chicago Blues emerged Jazz Blues, which incorporated the elements of the blues guitar with syncopated arrangements of drums, piano, saxophone, and other brass instruments, creating jazz structures. But we won't go into that story any further.

 

From Chicago Blues, Modern Blues also emerged in the early 1950s, retaining electric instrumentation but eliminating the brass section of the Big Bands and remaining only with drums, bass, and harmonicas as accompaniment. This is when the classic figures we're perhaps most accustomed to were born: Howlin' Wolfe, Willie Dyxon, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James, with some of the genre's classic compositions.

 

 Perhaps you've never heard these musicians in your life, but you've probably heard songs like "I Just Want To Make Love To You," "Little Red Rooster," "Back Door Man," "King Bee," "Hoochie Coochie Man," "You Shook Me," or "Before You Accuse Me," which became famous during the 1960s through covers by bands we've already reviewed and that you're surely familiar with: The Doors, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Creedence, Cream, among others. No way?

 

We'll mention in passing the leap that took place in 1955, when Bill Halley took representative elements of the Blues and mixed them with features of Swing to create Rock & Roll, which Chuck Berry would perfect. We'll look at this classic era in detail next month. I simply wanted to get to this point to demonstrate how the blues literally gave birth to 1950s rock & roll.

 

 

Rock is an entity in itself, and as such, it was born, grew, developed, matured, rebelled, became complex, returned to simplicity, died, and left behind a legacy that some bands still reclaim here and there in the final throes of rock. We'll analyze each era in detail, but the blues are important because they are undoubtedly the mother of rock, giving birth to it back in 1955 and continuing to nurture and influence its offspring throughout its growth.

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Okay, so we've got the reason why she's the Mother. But why is she the beating heart of Rock? The need to return to this origin was fundamental to the evolution of the spoiled brat called Rock. Thus, after his first babblings and steps into 1950s Rock & Roll, we have the Rolling Stones, the Yardbids, and the Animals revisiting the foundations to create Rhythm & Blues in the early 1960s, along with a greater maturity of Rock & Roll by other bands like The Beatles, the Kinks, the Beach Boys, etc. The boy was beginning to become more independent, and by 1966-68 he was already in his teens, rebelling, taking political stances, trying drugs, and becoming a devilishly creative young man during the psychedelic Summer of Love. This era saw the rise of the first Guitar Heroes, such as Eric Clapton with Cream, Pete Townshend with The Who, and Jimmi Hendrix, who produced a tremendously powerful guitar sound based on the power and structure of the blues. However, other guitarists of the time also borrowed elements. Robbie Kriegger of the Doors is an example, Janis Joplin returned to the school of female vocal blues, especially with Big Brother Co., and more subtly, Syd Barrett borrowed some nuances for his astral rock with Pink Floyd.

 

In '68, after three years of hallucinogenic partying, our boy settled down a bit and returned home to his mom, ushering in an era of returning to a more rootsy rock style that gave way to Blues Rock and Hard Rock, dominated by Led Zeppelin, Ten Years After, Steppen Wolf, Guess Who, Jeff Beck, Deep Purple, Santana, Creedence, the bluesier Stones era, some magnificent songs from the Beatles' later years, the Doors' final couple of albums, ZZ Top...

 

By the early 70s, Rock would mature, wear glasses, take on an intellectual stance during the day, and turn to Progressive, where the guitars of Gilmour, Genesis, and King Crimson would constantly return to the sounds of the Blues. At night, our intellectual would take off his glasses and don a leather jacket and chains to go wild, staying up all night to the sounds of Black Sabbath, a heavier Deep Purple, AC/DC, Judas Priest, and others from the realm of Metal and Proto-metal.

 

Finally, he would fall seriously ill around '75, weakened by the disco virus and idiotic, commercial pop. Guitarists would move away from the Blues, with the last great era of Rock being Punk, where he made his political testament (along with the reign of Bob Marley and Reggae, which also had a strong political and social charge and constituted an era in their own right). This would be his final act of rebellion, vowing to die young and fulfilling it, completely estranged from his blues mother, but returning to the simplicity and strength of his early years.

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In the 80s, some bands like Dire Straits, U2, and Queen still borrowed from the blues, but in general, the New Wave and Synth Pop that dominated this decade had little or nothing to do with not only the Blues but also with Rock. There are more elements to support the belief that Rock died in 1980. In general, the death of major musical figures coincided with musicians becoming more driven by money than by the music itself, supported and pressured by record labels. Although Rock is dead, and "Video Killed the Radio Star," where MTV forced music to be more visual than auditory, this doesn't mean we won't talk about the New Wave of the 80s, from that Bronze Age to the early 90s, where there is a very interesting musical movement not only in English but in Spanish, in addition to Grunge and Brit Pop; and the Indie of the new millennium. Although they no longer carry a blues influence and haven't really contributed anything new to the world, these latest genres, which are recyclings and fusions of previous genres, sometimes bring quite interesting things.

 

Anyway, without going too deep into what the Blues is, and aware that many names are still missing (B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rory Gallagher, Steve Vai, Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Ottis Redding, Alvin Lee, and countless others), this is just a brief note to highlight the importance of this genre, which, even if we don't realize it, continues to filter through and nourish our ears through countless bands that carry it in their atoms.

 

This Pre-Age also served as a general overview of the Rock Eras, which we will detail month by month. I insist, I'm not trying to make a definitive compendium, and I certainly think there won't be enough time and space to say everything I'd like about each era, but I've had this thorn in my side since the BBC-VH1 programs The Seven Ages of Rock. Besides the lack of genres and eras, each program seemed to me to be commissioned by record labels or whatever. The Beatles, Hendrix, or Led Zeppelin, to name a few, weren't mentioned. Here, we'll try to review history, the way music became part of the same culture, and the most important names that should be considered in each era. And in the process, it will help us better label future album reviews.

 

Rock is an entity in itself, and as such, it was born, grew, developed, matured, rebelled, became complex, returned to simplicity, died, and left a legacy that some bands here and there still revisit in the last throes of rock. We'll be analyzing each era in detail, but Blues is important because it is undoubtedly the mother of Rock, giving birth to it back in 1955 and continuing to nurture and influence its offspring throughout its growth.

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By Corvan 

May/15/2009

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