"I'm gazing out the window
Of that old Saint James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell" - Bob Dylan
Like so many other Delta blues musicians of the 1930s and 40s, rock
music owes a debt of gratitude to the works of Blind Willie McTell. Considered one of the finest guitarists and vocalists of the era,
noteworthy for his then unheard of usage of a 12-string guitar, artists
and bands from The Allman Brothers to The White Stripes to Taj Mahal
have listed the blind bluesman as a key influence.
Today's freeload Blind Willie McTell '1927-1933 The Early Years', is an easy on the ears blues album from Yazoo Records, and long a favorite of mine (I bought the original Yazoo release in '68). There's something very special how Willie combines humor and sorrow in a
mixture that can have you laughing at the same time you feel the
presence of that lonesome melancholy. Most of these songs are full of fun, and they don't have the dark, deep themes of death and loss that
we find so abundantly in the work of some of his peers. By
all accounts, Willie was a good-natured man, and it becomes apparent
from the start, he's having fun and wants you to do the same. But make no mistake, this is
real blues music, driven by Willie's excellent and very inventive guitar
work, his high,
wistful voice and a strong knack for story telling. Sometimes he sings, sometimes he talks and rhymes his
way through a verse. But in either case, he is deep inside the heart of
the blues, and his melodic slide guitar pushes the whole production over
the top, making this album one that should be in everyone's music collection.
For the freeload, tell us what's your favorite saying?
To paraphrase Firesign Theatre...If you dig a hole deep enough, sooner or later everyone will jump in.
ReplyDeleteUh, Clem
DeleteIf you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's 1st Law Of Opposition.
Delete"There's a Seeker born every minute".
ReplyDelete"Those who dance are considered insane by those who can’t hear the music." – Anon.
ReplyDeleteFamiliarity breeds contempt - and children - Mark Twain
ReplyDeleteI was once forced to live on nothing but food and water for several days - WC Fields
ReplyDeleteYogi Berra - "It's like deja vu, all over again."
ReplyDeleteGbrand
Thanks Gbrand. I guess it wasn't John Fogerty.
DeleteAnother Yogiism - "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too busy."
DeleteWriting about music is like dancing about architecture - Martin Mull ?
ReplyDeleteNot to put a shade on your wonderful writeups Babs. I do enjoy reviews.
"Even A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day"
ReplyDeleteLove that one.
DeleteSorry I can't think of anything original. And sorry to make so many comments. But Forbidden Planet is on TV and I've seen it too many times. Robbie Robot should be a warning to all the pro AI people.
ReplyDeleteTime flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
ReplyDelete"Tramps like us and we like tramps" - Craig Finn
DeleteThree can keep a secret, If two of them are dead. - Benjamin Franklin.
ReplyDeleteYeah Nah now part of vernacular here in Oz now!
ReplyDelete"May you live in interesting times." Supposedly an ancient Chinese curse which I (much) later discovered turned out to be absolute rubbish... Even so, I like it!
ReplyDeleteYou can wait here in the sitting room, or you can sit here in the waiting room. Firesign Theatre
ReplyDeletePoliticians & diapers must be changed often and for the same reason. Mark Twain
DeleteYou're gonna need a bigger boat! Chief Brody
DeleteI can't think of any great quotes offhand but I drive my family crazy when we watch movies and I tell them something "lacks verisimilitude" when there's a plot element that just doesn't conform to the internal rules and logic of the story (doesn't matter if it's a superhero, sci-fi movie, etc. -- if there's one scene where physics behave one way and another scene that doesn't follow the same rules it drives me crazy. So "lacks verisimilitude" has become a family meme now.
ReplyDeleteLink
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-WFX7Htwavz
I have two favorite sayings and my long-ago established epitaph.
ReplyDeleteIf you could give up tricks and cleverness, this would be the cleverest trick! (Rumi, tr. Coleman Barks)
My beliefs are unbelievable! (Paul Krassner?)
epitaph: He didn't know whether they were laughing at him or with him, but at least they were laughing.
(longtime collector of quotes and quatrains...)
What can you expect from a world in which almost everyone lives simply because they have not yet been able to take heart enough to shoot themselves to death!
ReplyDeleteArthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)
It's much "funnier" in 19th century German language.
I know exactly what you mean. My grandparents (on my mother's side) were originally from Corsica. They told jokes and used phrases that didn't translate well, but were very funny in the Corsican dialect of Corsu.
Delete“Ignorance is the worst prison”
ReplyDelete-Joe Bageant
Here are two more Schopenhauer quotes (my favorite philosopher, by the way):
ReplyDelete"Of course, politeness is a difficult task in that it demands that we show all people the greatest respect, while the vast majority deserve none; then that we simulate the liveliest interest in them, while we must be glad to have none in them."
"A new idea is first ridiculed, then fought against, until after a long time it is taken for granted."
Most people find him depressing, but I find him simply truthful. Well, actually most people, even over here in Germany, don't know him at all.
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." - Tom Waits
ReplyDelete"OUtside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
--Muzak McMusics
"One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know."
DeleteGroucho Marx
DeleteMrMcMusics, I used to hear a song on Dr Demento that said, Me I got a bottle in front of me & Jimmy got a frontal lobotomy,
DeleteCause I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than to have to have a frontal lobotomy.
I don't know witch predates witch, Dr Demento or Tom Waits. Heck, Demento also used to play, I can do whatever I please as long as I've got my plastic Jesus hanging on the dashboard of my car. And of course Shaving Cream.
Praise the lord and pass the snakes
ReplyDeleteJorma Kaukonen ?
DeleteSince we don't know where we're going, we have to stick together in case someone gets there. - Ken Kesey
ReplyDeleteI feel like I've jumped in the hole notBob spoke of. At first I couldn't think of a quote but now...
ReplyDeleteGive a woman enough rope and she will smoke it - George Hayduke (Edward Abbey)
Babs, I'm not trying to compromise your site. I just have nothing to do in the evenings. And you ask questions that bring up memories. Eventually. Thank you for site and insight.
ReplyDeleteSteVe speaks truth. Babs poses thought provoking queries that ping our memories, that we apparently are eager to share with others that we might never meet face to face. Completely enjoyable! Thanks Babs
DeletePlease, by all means, post to your heart's content.
DeleteYour kind words are appreciated, SteVe and mumbles, many thanks.
"I am the greatest"
ReplyDeleteMuhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay)
I'm so bad, I make medicine sick! Muhammad Ali
DeleteWherever I go, there I am.
ReplyDelete"It will feel better when it stops hurting."
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Dylan quote. It's not Dylan's first or only nod to Papa McTell, either. McTell sometimes recorded as Georgia Sam, the guy who had a bloody nose and problems with the welfare department in "HIghway 61 Revisited." Duane Allman once (perhaps apocryphally) said that all his licks ultimately came from McTell.