Re: [Harp-L] the difference between funk and blues; a response to JR Ross

[Mike Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>]

From: Mike Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re:  [Harp-L] the difference between funk and blues; a response to JR Ross
To: "mfugazzi67" <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, August 25, 2008, 3:23 PM

1.  Blues is a feeling.
2.  On many of these songs, he's playing blues licks.  While the progression may not be a standard blues, much of his phrasing and scale choices are deeply routed in blues.
3.  I also wrote that in many cases he went into the studio and was collaborating with others.  
4.  For as famous as Clapton is, he bolted on many of his bands when they drifted from their original path.  This includes the Yardbirds, Derek and the Dominos, Cream, etc.
5.  As he got older, Clapton undoubtedly drifted from roots based music.  Like many of our harp heroes, he adjusted to the times to make a career.  Now he can sit back and play whatever he wants to thousands.

I can never bash anybody for playing multiple types of music...especially veering away from straight blues.  Let's face it,
 Little Walter made a lot of money playing pop music in the streets on guitar.  There is no such thing as a purist past the very first generation.  Even then the music was "compromised".  Labels were created and like humans do, it had be organized into a solid object.  However, all music, even blues, is a continuation of sound.  It was never original...it always existed and has always been changing since the creation of time.  That's what makes it so great.

I have a much harder time understanding why somebody would go to the well for a whole career (this happens all the time in any genre) then let themselves evolve.  It is always those that let the path take them where it may that go down as legendary.





Mike Fugazzi

Harmonica/Vocals

http://www.myspace.com/niterailband

http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi





"Music should be healing; music should uplift the soul; music should inspire. There is no better way of getting closer to God, of rising higher towards the spirit, of attaining spiritual perfection than music, if only it is rightly understood."

-Hazrat Inayat Khan

--- On Mon, 8/25/08, mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fwd:  Re:  [Harp-L] the difference between funk and blues; a response to JR Ross
To: mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Monday, August 25, 2008, 3:13 PM

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Tim Moyer"
<wmharps@...> wrote:

Mike Fugazzi wrote:
Finally, if [Eric Clapton] was good enough for Muddy...who loved
EC...than he's blues enough in my book!

I think my favorite blues piece of his is "Lay Down Sally"...  No,
wait, "Wonderful Tonight"...  No, wait, "Cocaine"...  No,
wait...

-tim



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--- End forwarded message ---