{"id":2263,"date":"2020-07-29T07:57:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T06:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=2263"},"modified":"2020-07-29T08:19:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T07:19:45","slug":"tangled-up-in-the-blues-part-3-sidetracks-detours-dylan-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2020\/07\/29\/tangled-up-in-the-blues-part-3-sidetracks-detours-dylan-week\/","title":{"rendered":"TANGLED UP IN THE BLUES part 3 Sidetracks & Detours Dylan week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TANGLED UP IN THE BLUES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

part 3 Sidetracks & Detours\u00b4 Dylan week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Norman Warwick with Steve Bewick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This episode of the Sidetracks & Detours Dylan serial leads us Beyond The Blues, offering us a glimpse of Robert Johnson, the legendary blues man  accused believed by many to have made a deal with the devil down at the crossroads. We looked at that whole Johnson story in an earlier post this week, Dylan Dealing With The Devil and discussed the film inspired by that story and two of seemingly scores of books since written about him, telling one biography or another. As quickly as Dylan has not only acknowledged the myth, but in so doing has also perpetuated it, Johnson\u00b4s sister has written a book that seems to reclaim Robert Johnson as a loved and still-missed sibling. In the same post we also looked at Dylan\u00b4s reference to the famous song. St. James Infirmary Blues, thinking of connections to Johnson again. Whether Dylan\u00b4s reference serves only to further muddy waters of the blues that are already opaque is uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dylan, however, clearly acknowledges John Lee Hooker, as we pass him in the shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Known to music fans around the world as The King Of The Boogie, John Lee Hooker<\/strong> remains one of the true superstars of the blues genre: the very definition of cool. His work is widely recognized for its impact on modern music \u2013simple, yet deeply effective songs transcending borders and languages around the globe. Each decade of Hooker\u2019s long career brought a new generation of fans and fresh opportunities for the ever-evolving artist. He never slowed down either and as he stepped into his seventies, he entered the most successful era of his career. He reinvented himself yet again, and energized as ever, toured and recorded up until his passing in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The son of a sharecropping family, his<\/strong> earliest musical influence came from his stepfather, William Moore, a blues musician who taught his young stepson to play the guitar, and whom John Lee<\/strong> later credited for his unique style on the instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the early 1940s, Hooker<\/strong> had moved north to Detroit by way of Memphis and Cincinnati. He paid his way by working as a janitor in the auto factories, but by night he entertained friends and neighbours by playing at house parties. He became known as The Hook and gained fans around town from these shows, including local record store owner Elmer Barbee. The music vendor was so impressed by the young musician that he introduced him to Bernard Besman, a producer, record distributor and owner of Sensation Records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1948, <\/strong> now honing his style on an electric guitar, had recorded several songs for Besman, who, in turn, leased the tracks to Modern Records. His first recordings included Boogie Chillun, which became a number one jukebox hit, selling over a million copies. This success was soon followed by a string of hits, including I\u2019m In The Mood, Crawling Kingsnake and Hobo Blues. Over the next decade and more, John Lee<\/strong> signed to a new label, Vee-Jay Records, and maintained a prolific recording schedule, releasing over a hundred songs on the imprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the the late-to-the-party young bohemian artists of the nineteen sixties had \u00b4discovered\u00b4 Hooker, he and other notable blues originators were already taking on a new diretheir careers on a new trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With one of those fairly regular high profile folk revivals underway, Hooker<\/strong> returned to his solo, acoustic roots, and was in strong demand to perform at colleges and folk festivals around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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British musician Keith Richards (left) backstage American musician John Lee Hooker (1917 – 2001) on the former’s ‘Main Offender’ tour, early 1993. (Photo by Paul Natkin\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, across the Atlantic, emerging British bands were idolizing Hooker\u2019s work. Artists like the The Rolling Stones, The Animals and The Yardbirds introduced Hooker\u2019s sound to new and eager audiences, whose admiration and influence helped elevate him to superstar status. By 1970, the blues man<\/strong> had relocated to California and was busy collaborating on several projects with rock acts. One such collaboration was with Canned Heat, which resulted in 1971\u2019s hit record, Hooker \u2019n\u2019 Heat, <\/em>that became John Lee Hooker\u2019s<\/strong> first charting album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, John Lee<\/strong> toured the U.S. and Europe steadily, and when he even appeared in the legendary Blues Brothers movie he enjoyed a heightened profile once again. It was at the age of 72 that he released the biggest album of his career, The Healer<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> The GRAMMY\u00ae Award-winning 1989 LP paired him with contemporary artists (Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Los Lobos and George Thorogood, among others) on some of his most famous tracks. The Healer<\/em><\/a> was released to critical acclaim and sold over one million copies. The Hook rounded out the decade as a guest performer with The Rolling Stones, during the national broadcast of their 1989 Steel Wheels tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following such successes, John Lee<\/strong> entered the 1990s with a sense of renewed inspiration. The decade became a sustained period of celebration and recognition for the legendary artist, but it was also a highly productive era. He released five studio albums over the next few years, including Mr. Lucky, which once again teamed up Hooker<\/strong> with an array of artists; Boom Boom, which aimed to introduce new fans to his classic material; the GRAMMY\u00ae Award-winning Chill Out; and a collaboration with Van Morrison, Don\u2019t Look Back, which also garnered two awards at the 1997 GRAMMYs\u00ae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the decade, Hooker\u2019s great body of work and contributions to modern music were being recognized not only by his peers, but also by a younger generation. He became a familiar face in popular culture, with appearances on The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1990, a massive tribute concert took place at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden, featuring Hooker<\/strong> and an all-star line-up of guest artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year later, John Lee<\/strong> was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, while in 1997, he was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000, shortly before his death, John Lee Hooker<\/strong> was recognized with a GRAMMY\u00ae Lifetime Achievement Award, and just one week before his passing, ever true to form, the bluesman spent his final Saturday night playing a now-legendary show to a packed house at the Luther Burbank Arts Centre in Santa Rosa, California..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hook continues to live on: His music can regularly be heard in TV shows, commercials and films, and many of his tracks have also found a second life sampled in new songs by the likes of R&B star Brandi, hip-hop legend Chuck D and French electronic musician St Germain, among many others. Most recently, his iconic recording, the 1962 Vee-Jay Records single Boom Boom, was inducted into the 2016 GRAMMY\u00ae Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lyrics of Dylan\u00b4s Murder Most Foul could almost be argued as a hall of fame in its own right, too, such is the legendary status of the artists mentioned. However British blues artist Eric Clapton is conspicuous by his absence from the lines of Dylan\u00b4s song<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eric Clapton<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>The enigmatic talent of Eric Clapton is a mark of pride for British music. The singer principally became known as the dynamic guitarist in Cream before a string of other projects which would quickly ascend Clapton to be known not as a guitar hero but a bona fide God.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being born in the United Kingdom, Clapton\u2019s influences come from the other side of the pond and it is there that he draws most of his collection of favourite songs. The perfect playlist, below, of fifteen songs of Eric Clapton\u2019s choice, includes both Robert Johnson and John lee Hooker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019ve been in the music business as long as Eric Clapton has then the chances are you\u2019ve been asked what your favourite song or album or musician is or was many times before. It means that no list is truly definitive and each list is likely consistently evolving. However, if you\u2019re happy for a CD compilation to be made of the selections then the chances are you\u2019d be willing to stand by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in 2005 that Clapton was asked, as part of an on-going UNcut Magazine feature, to provide 15 songs which he\u2019d call his favourite. With indie music peaking the charts once more and a return to the garage rock of the sixties already being firmly adhered to, Clapton reminded the audience of exactly the inspiration behind all those bands that were then doing the inspiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is also pretty much what Dylan does in Murder Most Foul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By listening to more or less any successful band of the sixties in the British music scene we can often identify roots which reach to the delta blues. The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks and The Who were leading the way in music for a long time but they were doing it off the back of the blues. Singing, perhaps, something about pouring new wine from old bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clapton picked fifteen songs that may not all be firmly labelled as blues but are certainly all imbued with a degree of soulfulness that highlights Clapton\u2019s own place on that podium. All of the musicians and genres on the list performed with power and passion. Yet, Clapton\u2019s heart is in the blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clapton had previously submitted a similar list during his 1989 appearance on Desert Island Discs<\/a> where he spoke a little about Robert Johnson and Freddie King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a8I was into the blues form a very early age,\u00b4 remembered the artist, \u00b4I went on a pilgrimage to record shops and bought every R&B record I could buy and I would study them at home and learn as much as I could by ear\u00b4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4In fact,\u00b4 Clapton recalled, \u00b4that\u2019s been my method all my life. I decided that I was gonna be a blues player. It had the most profound effect on me, the most dramatic effect of all on the music I listened to. I felt in a way it was something I could pick up.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The universal nature of the blues meant that even a young Clapton could connect with the source of hardship or woe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2005, Clapton was keen<\/a> to ensure the memory of the blues was fresh in everybody\u2019s mind as they continued to cherry-pick pieces of the sixties subculture as their own. While the blues will never go away it is worth remembering that The Blues isn\u2019t a single genre or style but is a state of mind that comes with letting your soul into your art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all the wide range of music Eric Clapton has selected as his favourite songs, all of them have a soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n