Muddy Waters, man
See, no harmonic movement.
Just the shading.
The vibe, you know?
There's one chord, right? The upper register becomes the movement.
And the rhythm becomes the movement.
And there's this response. This call-response between the voice and the guitar
which is really the precursor to the kinds of things that B.B. King and all these other people were doing.
Yeah, we see where it comes from, right? There it is.
They were preachers. It was actually church music
It started with guys like Sunhouse and Blind Willy Johnson.
Blind Willy was a preacher and he would play these songs for his parish
and they were too poor to have an organ. So this was his organ.
People often say that we're primitive, ya know, when it comes to those blues.
It's not primitive. It's just really pure, it's to the point.
There was a direct connection between the lyrics of the songs, and the sound of his voice, and the sound of the guitar.
I was just gonna say that the guitar playing is singing.
At all times. It's vocal.
When it comes to the three kings, Albert, Freddie, and B.B.
The guitar, the voice, and the song were one thing.
The guitar was an extension of their voice and an extension of the story.
it's one thing for one guy to do it on his own, but to connect with another person
and say "you're gonna be the extension of my voice," it's like a whole other person.
how's that even possible?
Because Muddy and Howlin' Wolf, they were fine guitar players,
but they were front men, ya know? Band leaders.
Buddy Guy...
Buddy Guy. You can't say Buddy Guy and not say "he was someone."
Buddy was Muddy's hot guitar slinger.
Hubert Sumlin was Howlin' Wolf's hot guitar slinger.
So each one of those guys has a very important place in the history of it
because of their guitar playing, was the extension of Muddy's voice, or Howlin' Wolf's voice.
And so that's the really deep connection. Because it's a conversation.
You know? We're talking about extensions of what?
It's the extension of the voice having a conversation
with the audience, or with the spirits, or with whatever.
Blues, it's storytelling. And then the instruments continue to tell the story.
But the blues is always going to be primarily a vocal medium.
oh of course it'll be a vocal medium.
I don't even know of a blues instrumental album. I don't know of one.
No because... without it being a jazz record. It becomes jazz. Absolutely. I agree.
And it has influenced everything. Rock and roll, country music, everything.