What Makes Eric Clapton's Tribute to Robert Johnson a Must-Watch for Blues Fans?

[turbo]

At 10pm there is a show featuring Eric Clapton in a tribute to Robert Johnson. I have been playing blues (primarily) for 40+ years and have been following Clapton for at least that long, through the Yardbirds, Mayall's band, Cream, and on and on. He's a great musician with a deep love of the genre. Should be a good show.

 

[LowlyPion]

Are you saying that you don't have a station that pulls in the Olympics?

 

[Evo]

People watch the Olympics?

I just found out that I do not personally know anyone watching the Olympics, including me.

I might watch some of the winter things like ice skating, but that's it.

Clapton is very good.

 

[turbo]

Are you saying that you don't have a station that pulls in the Olympics?

For the most part, I don't give a rat's *** about the Olympics, except for some individual sports. I played baseball in HS, and was a credible 2nd B/Shortstop player. I excelled in X-Country, X-country skiing, Alpine events, etc, and was pretty put-out that we could not have put together a Nordic bialthalon team, since I loved shooting and had good breath control when skiing. I'm glad that Michael Phelps is doing well, but I can't manage to spare the time to watch all the coverage to catch the races.

 

[LowlyPion]

Girls in bikini's capturing the true spirit of the Olympics by cavorting ... I mean competing nearly nude at beach volleyball?

It's not like it's Lawn Darts.

 

[scorpa]

Oh I wish I could watch that! Clapton is beyond amazing. Shame I don't get that channel.

 

[Evo]

Girls in bikini's capturing the true spirit of the Olympics by cavorting ... I mean competing nearly nude at beach volleyball?

It's not like it's Lawn Darts.

Lawn Darts isn't an Olympic sport? It must be the only one. Seriously, they have watered down the events by adding everything under the sun to the point that it has become a bit of a farce.

And what's with allowing professionals? This has always been strictly non-professional.

Sorry turbo for derailing your thread on someone that is an inspirational musician.

 

[turbo]

Oh I wish I could watch that! Clapton is beyond amazing. Shame I don't get that channel.

Darn! Scorpa, with your love of bikes and blues, are you sure we're not related? I worked my way through college providing summer-vacation coverage in wood-products mills, and playing frat parties all through the school year, and buying and selling guitars and amps from other college kids. I scrambled for money every year so I could stay in school. I have had to let gems slip through my fingers, like a '59 Strat, a '70 Fretless Wonder Les Paul, and many, many others. No matter - at the time, I needed the money and did not have the foresight to save the real winners, nor could I have afforded to.

 

[turbo]

Sorry turbo for derailing your thread on someone that is an inspirational musician.

Don't be sorry. It's a short-lived thread at best, but I hope that it would alert some people to Clapton's homage to Robert Johnson. I have tried to cabbage onto everything that Johnson recorded, though the record is thin. Clapton is one of the '60's English blues aficionados that re-popularized blues with US kids and fired a resurgence in the interest and appreciation of the blues. One of my best musical buddies owns a music store about 30 min from here. His name is Doug Wainoris and he is the lead guitarist for the Blue Flames. His favorite guitar is an old Epiphone with mini-humbuckers and he has an incredible ear. His band is the band on Pinetop Perkins' live CD "Live Top". It's killer. Chicago blues being played out in Maine.

 

[binzing]

Oh yeah Turbo, I would love to get into biathlon, but its so hard to find any groups...

Is the show called soundstage? I found a few on just now but it was the end of one about Tom Petty and another upcoming on Bon Jovi...

 

[scorpa]

Darn! Scorpa, with your love of bikes and blues, are you sure we're not related? I worked my way through college providing summer-vacation coverage in wood-products mills, and playing frat parties all through the school year, and buying and selling guitars and amps from other college kids. I scrambled for money every year so I could stay in school. I have had to let gems slip through my fingers, like a '59 Strat, a '70 Fretless Wonder Les Paul, and many, many others. No matter - at the time, I needed the money and did not have the foresight to save the real winners, nor could I have afforded to.

It figures that the only person I know who shares my interests in bikes and good music lives so darn far away. I'm slowly building up my collection of blues, so any suggestions are always welcome. Some that I really like right now are the ones that BB King and Eric Clapton did together, I think they were off of BBs Riding With the King album.

 

[turbo]

The show was wonderful, though some odd things crept in, like the throaty rendition of of Sweet Home Chicago, which is a Freddie King standard (decades too late for the premise of the show). Still, a good package.

 

[turbo]

It figures that the only person I know who shares my interests in bikes and good music lives so darn far away. I'm slowly building up my collection of blues, so any suggestions are always welcome. Some that I really like right now are the ones that BB King and Eric Clapton did together, I think they were off of BBs Riding With the King album.

I don't know where to start, scorpa! My blues library spans a lot of years, and lots of it is patchy, because when I was able to afford to start collecting the music, the record companies had only decided to make certain catalog entries of certain artists available on CD. I have spent $$$$$$ gathering music on LPs and I have always felt that commercial tape formats were inferior, and waited until remastered blues was available on CD, which is at least a durable format, if not entirely accurate.

If you're going to start putting together a nice library of blues, I would suggest that you try getting some some real benchmarks of the genre, and then pursuing the stuff that you really like. There is a two-CD set of the best of Muddy Waters that spans at least a couple of decades, and that is a really great introduction to Chicago Blues. His pianist during that time was generally Pine-Top Perkins, who released a CD about 15-20 years ago with some of my friends (the Blue Flames) called "Live Top". His bassist during that period was usually Willie Dixon, whose compilation (I Am the Blues) contains "Back Door Man", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "Spoonful", "I Ain't Superstitious", "You Shook Me", "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man", "Little Red Rooster", and "The Same Thing" (a variation of Spoonful) is a compendium of race-music hits that were ripped off by rock artists (often British bands like Led Zeppelin) and re-packaged to sell to the 60's and 70's white kids. I'd suggest getting the Muddy best-of set and Dixon's "I am the Blues" first, and as you find favorite songs there, I can try to guide you toward other stuff that I think you'd like. I have a 400-CD Sony carousel CD player, and almost 1/2 of it is blues. I have a couple of nieces (now in their mid-to-late20's) who love mining my CDs and LPs, and when they come over for cook-outs or other get-togethers, we always have to have music in the background, and they are constantly asking "who is that?", "what's the name of that album?" etc.