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Post by blueshome on Apr 3, 2010 21:49:34 GMT
"has the blues never changed or been adapted?"
Course it has! Often (as in this case) to the degree that the essence that made it blues is sucked out of it. As I said, no soul............ There's no other way of saying it I'm aware of. If you don't know what it is......
Blues is a music that is, and has been, subject to change and variety, some better, some worse. I don't think it should be frozen in time but I do know that different does not necessarily equal better.
Again, I would say that no-one has anything against Mr.Carroll's personality, technical ability, professional standing and reputation, or his intent to entertain, just that this performance doesn't cut it as blues - it may not have even been intended to be.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2010 8:34:58 GMT
Hey Gerry
Really nice playin on that one. The only way it could be improved is if you got yerself a hat and played it in the shed ;D
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Post by starboards on Apr 4, 2010 11:43:22 GMT
I can play this tune, like Steverb I learnt it from Stefan Grossman's Teach yourself blues guitar. Willie Brown would be bored to death with my version, but bet your life he would have loved Clive's version. Willie would have recognised that I'm only a guitar player, while Clive is a guitarist!
PS I'd give my right arm to play like CC.
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Post by toom on Apr 4, 2010 15:28:50 GMT
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Post by Gerry C on Apr 4, 2010 17:01:50 GMT
I have Clive's Sound Techniques DVD (in the same series as Michael's - Guitar Maestros) and he plays some dazzling stuff and comes across as a likeable guy. As Phil has said, none of that is in question and is, in my view, irrelevant to this discussion. What we are talking about - correct me if I'm wrong - is taking a great blues song, omitting the words and using the guitar accompaniment as a vehicle for self-expression which strays well over the border into self-indulgence. In itself, that accompaniment is so inventive as to be, as far as I know, unique: I can't think of any other blues song of the time or before it which employs the techniques Willie Brown came up with all those years ago - and at the time I don't think he was even a professional player. To draw an analogy: what Clive has done to MissB is akin to taking Michelangelo's David and dressing it up in Nike hi-tops, a Versace track-suit, RayBans and all the bling it can stand. I seem to recall that another player (it may have been Tommy Emmanuel but I'm not sure) did a similar kind of thing to MissB a while back on YouTube and got much the same reaction: er, yeah, great chops, man, but you kinda missed the whole point... Thanks to all who said nice things about my version. Cheerily, Gerry C PS Steve Phillips once told me that MissB was the single most revelatory blues song he'd ever heard and opened his eyes to completely new ways of playing the guitar. Some forty years on, it's probably the only song he plays which is still as close to the original as he can make it....
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Post by ghnarumen on Apr 4, 2010 21:27:18 GMT
Gerry C your version is as good as any I've heard (excepting maybe Willie Brown, himself). I have it on good authority that CC is a nice guy and unpretentious but, like you, I don't care for that 'You Tube' version, too much. Like others here, I heard it first played by Stefan Grossman on his 'How to Play Blues Guitar' LP; my brother had the album when I was a teenager. For many years since, I haven't had that recording and I tried to play it from memory. I came up with a version in open D but, because it was only half remembered, it's a bit different. I don't care - that's the 'folk process'. Do I sing the words? No. For the benefit of any audience, I don't do singing
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Post by Steverb on Apr 5, 2010 12:13:00 GMT
For me it makes quite a difference if someone else put the clip on YouTube, as Washboardchris suggests. If CC was just mucking about at home with a mate, who then posted the clip, that's very different from deliberately recording an ultra-flash, rather tasteless version and broadcasting it yourself.
As I said, CC is clearly an extremely talented player and I wish I had half of his ability. If I had the effortless chops he has I might be tempted to overuse them myself occasionally.
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Post by bod on Apr 5, 2010 13:34:45 GMT
For me it makes quite a difference if someone else put the clip on YouTube, as Washboardchris suggests.... I can see that. For me it also makes a quite a difference whether Clive Carrol's performance of Mississippi Blues in that first clip is taken to be in earnest or in jest.
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Post by toom on Apr 7, 2010 20:00:40 GMT
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002OW483W/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk3an excerpt of Mississippi Blues from Clive Carroll's CD.I have to disagree with Gerry. The song/tune is not sacrosanct. It is open to personal interpretation. IMO he plays with great feel. He is such a good and well trained musician, that the piece is very simple for him, so he can afford to relax and enjoy playing it.
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