The Blues

Good evening all, anyways all through this semester whenever I'm working on school assignments, I always have music playing in the background.  Music helps me organize my thoughts, even though some of the stuff I listen to is chaotic in its own way.  But this past month I've gone back to some of the classics, the blues especially.  I'm a huge rock'n roll fan, mostly heavy metal, but one has to return to the roots.  The first metal band, Black Sabbath, was originally a blues band called Mother Earth, and their bassist Geezer Butler and lead guitarist, Tony Iommi were blues musicians.  When you listen to Black Sabbath's early stuff, you can hear the blues influence, especially in the guitar solo's.  The main difference at the time was the lyrics.  Anyways during the 60's, there were several great blues bands and musicians who had a major influence on music.  Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton of Cream, Paul Butterfield and even Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.  Cream covered the song Born Under a Bad Sign by Albert King and Peter Green covered Gotta Good Mind to Give Up Livin' by BB King.  The thing about the blues to me is that the guitars don't just simply play the music, they sing it.  Growing up, my Grandpa would play his guitar every night before he went to bed, and it would put us all to sleep because it always so soothing.  He once said to me that when you learn how to play a guitar well, it'll talk to you.  When a guitar sings, it's the musician talking through his instrument.  Enjoy!

Fleetwood Mac: Gotta Good Mind to Give Up Livin'

Led Zeppelin: Since I've Been Loving You

Jimi Hendrix: Red House

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Life by the Drop

Albert King: Born Under a Bad Sign

Muddy Waters: Champagne and Reefer