PBS Blues

[Robb Bingham <robbingham@xxxxxxxxx>]

PBS Blues.

I?m nuts to even read any posts about
~Origin/advancement of the Blues~ type posts- - - but
I did. 

All my life I?ve heard about the white middleclass,
often junkies, who so selflessly and nobly advanced
~black music~ by covering their songs, writing books
about them or touring with them. It?s as if a whole
overeducated segment of the population is suffering
from a kind of shame and seeks redemption by being
accepted into the world of drifters, alcoholics and
the under-educated. I know of one case where a
red-headed jazz man actually tried to get addicted to
heroin but, concluded wistfully, ~It just wasn?t for
me~. I know of a more contemporary case where our
dreadlocked, skateboarding artiste makes constant
mention of his taste for oxycottons, his hatred for
the USA and his noble struggle with crack. No one
seems to see the inherent insult in such flailings- as
if to say, ~Ok, I?ve shot myself in the foot, can I
limp like Walter Brennan now?~. 

I?ve always been amazed at how folks seem to imbue
these activities with some kind of altruistic
motivation. As if Chess records wanted to elevate
anyone but themselves. As if the guys who wrote
dreamily about using whores and drinking rotgut wine
in ~Kansas City~ [without ever being there] wanted
anything other than to invent a hit ~crossover~.

But I can relate with the gratitude many feel toward
some of the biographers and entrepreneurs. All I know
is that Cream and Butterfield were music to get very
stoned to [I?m so glad. I?m so Glad. I?m Glad I?m Glad
I?m Glad. I?m- - -]. I had no idea these guys were
tapping the deep pool of The Blues. I played Diving
Duck Blues for years without know I was playing Blues-
and don?t feel like I ever encountered any Blues at
all [despite many a blacklight/all-night of Robert
Plant guilding the Blues lily and WAY over emphasizing
every inch of sexual innuendo in LZ?s metalflake
Blues]. I didn?t encounter Blues until a Kansa Bikers
gathering [my 850 Yamaha safely hidden behind my
friends worthless, but revered, Hardtail], where John
Lee Hooker was plucking his E string on his E tuned
guitar with one hand. ~Gee. This guy sounds a little
like ZZTop~ [Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha]. Something about his guy
opened up a whole world. From him to Freddie, and
Albert, King- that was all the Blues I needed. I could
no longer even listen to Canned Heat or wimpy British
guys making every song sound like music-to
shop-for-bell-bottoms-to. Nevermind that Mick would
throw in his accounting degree and learn to walk like
a teenage Detroit project dweller- whatever milks that
crossover market baby. I need room to move. Come into
my kitchen so I can pick your proverbial pocket.

But  what gets me is the oft heard comment [and
typical PBS] that us yokels in the US didn?t
appreciate our talented performers- and Europe did.
Ha!  This is EXACTLY analogous to a 2nd rate
basketball player, unable to get work here,- and 
later telling us that they  ~appreciate their athletes
more in Crotia~. I can?t tell you how many acts tour
Germany and France, billing themselves as something
big in the USA- when the truth is most teenagers in
San Fernando Valley could out Bluesify their sorry
butts. It?s a typical marketing strategy to go to
Europe when things slow up in America. Yes, Billie and
Satchmo had some regular venues there, but, believe
me; their managers thought of it as one step worse
then the Poconos, and, more often than not, it was a
dry-out [laying low] period following broken
contractual obligations or appearances. You don?t KNOW
~being patronized~ til you?ve been ~appreciated in
Europe~. Women weren?t allowed to vote and nappy hair
wasn?t allowed in a couple hotels in Switzerland.

I?ve played the Blues in Europe. Say what you will.
And I?ve seen and sang with people who exploit the
idea that they are under appreciated at home [never
mind that their petty thief husband went awol from
Ramstein and they CAN?T go home]. Many a bar is
thrilled to peeing themselves just to have an
overweight person of color playing their club- and
don?t see the freaking racism in their enthusiasm.
I?ve been kicked out of a job because our second
singer [that they?d never heard] was replaced at the
last minute by a white person. ~Do hast gesagt du
haettest DREI Schwarze!~.   I?ve played Blue ~Clubs~
[and I do mean ~Clubs~] where the members hold that
Robert Johnson was ignored by Americans ? and they all
but roll around in the grass at the notion that they
are carrying on a Holy Tradition of nurturing what
boarish Americans have missed [Yeah!? Well, why can?t
they keep a beat if they?re so goldang soulfull???].
No. If anything we, here in America, have OVER honored
our pop heroes, and Europe is consistently one decade
behind us on jumping on the Warholesque postmodern
bandwagons [ala The House Musik that the poor
college-age kids now think so modern: American DJ and
Techno from 15 years ago- stripped of any funkieness].
Be it Jug Bands, or Gansta Rap; Europe finds out eight
years late [French kids on vacation listen now to Bob
Marley and Jimmy Buffet, btw- as well as the required
Cop Killing, I-wann-be-like-inmates stuff].

But I digress [Moi???].  Did you hear that PBS blurb
about how all the Biscuit Hour type bands had a
guitar, a drum and a ~wind instrument~???? Excuse me,
it was a saxophone if they could afford/find one, and
a harmonica more often than not. Can?t think of too
many with a clarinet or oboe [I guess the more
Delta/Dixieland stuff had a tuba/horn or two].

Okay. I feel better now. Talk to you after the next
pompous, never planted a pea, pundit tries to prove
how downhome he is. I just need a waft of air every
once in while. No offence intended.

Rob Big Ham

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