"When sleep still doesn’t come, certain lines come to mind: T-Bone singing, “I drink to keep from worrying and I smile to keep from crying to keep the world from knowing exactly what’s on my mind.”
Back from 1998-2001, when I was exiled from the “alternative” music biz due to a taxi crash then illness, I didn’t want to listen to a note from the genre I was a supposed expert in. So I listened over and over to the Charlie Parker & Billie Holiday Verve boxes we distroed while I was at Polydor US. I listened to the Robert Johnson box & the John Coltrane ‘Live At The Village Vanguard’ set I’d swiped during a 3-month hospital stay (pearls before swine). Somewhere along the way I picked up a Lightnin’ Hopkins set and a solid T-Bone Walker comp. T-Bone always seemed to play like he was mad. It was all a perfect palate cleanser.
I’d been lucky enough to see Albert Collins, Koko Taylor and others as a teen and Charlie Musselwhite & Robert Cray (in his indie label days) a few years later. But the earlier blues was next-level stuff.
A twenty-something skate dude in a black tee with pink letters spelling out “Home Taping Is Killing Music (And It’s Illegal)” just climbed on my bus. That’s my cue to shut up. My very best to you & yours, David.
PS It was Liars (not my hometown Lyres) that inspired me to get back in the game for a bit.
"When sleep still doesn’t come, certain lines come to mind: T-Bone singing, “I drink to keep from worrying and I smile to keep from crying to keep the world from knowing exactly what’s on my mind.”
"Rhythm and the Blues"
by Jerry Wexler
Back from 1998-2001, when I was exiled from the “alternative” music biz due to a taxi crash then illness, I didn’t want to listen to a note from the genre I was a supposed expert in. So I listened over and over to the Charlie Parker & Billie Holiday Verve boxes we distroed while I was at Polydor US. I listened to the Robert Johnson box & the John Coltrane ‘Live At The Village Vanguard’ set I’d swiped during a 3-month hospital stay (pearls before swine). Somewhere along the way I picked up a Lightnin’ Hopkins set and a solid T-Bone Walker comp. T-Bone always seemed to play like he was mad. It was all a perfect palate cleanser.
I’d been lucky enough to see Albert Collins, Koko Taylor and others as a teen and Charlie Musselwhite & Robert Cray (in his indie label days) a few years later. But the earlier blues was next-level stuff.
A twenty-something skate dude in a black tee with pink letters spelling out “Home Taping Is Killing Music (And It’s Illegal)” just climbed on my bus. That’s my cue to shut up. My very best to you & yours, David.
PS It was Liars (not my hometown Lyres) that inspired me to get back in the game for a bit.
Loved LIARS! What a crazed band!!!!
The Electric Prunes was the first record that I bought for my own listening. (1965?)
The first five Steve Miller Blues Band’s records may not have had big mega-hits but all five were very progressive for their time.
Pre 1970.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSmqA_ISX9E