Scissormen's Roll and Tumble

[slide496]

I found this lurking around the Gibson site. thought the variety of slide materials and showmanship in this performance might be of interest to members - my apologies if it's been seen before:

[Michael Messer]

In 2007 I think it was, I spent an afternoon at the home of the Hennessey Cognac family in France, with Ted Drozdowski, Kim Wilson and my band. We were in Cognac playing at the festival there. Ted's a wild one!

Shine On
Michael

[slide496]

I would imagine that he was from his performance. I don't know whether it appears "cocky" or his approach is kind of a one note "look what I can use now, I'm so clever" as opposed to the varied display of acrobatic type skill that I saw with Hendrix and have read that Charley Patton used to entertain. It may detract from the music.

[Michael Messer]

Harriet, you make an interesting point there. Ted's music (in front of an audience) seems to me to be more about performance, than music. He is obviously passionate and knowledgeable about the music, and a good musician, but it is in his wild performances that he excels. When we were in Cognac I saw him just grab a crowd on the street with an electric guitar and what must have been a battery powered amp, by lying on the ground and spinning around in circles (still lying flat on the ground) and playing wild electric blues! It was not articulate or particularly pleasant to listen to, but boy did he grab and hold that crowd. Jimi Hendrix could do the wild performance, and most of the time make perfectly crafted music. I would imagine that from listening to Charley Patton's records, that he also never allowed the music to suffer. Roy Smeck is another musical performance genius, perhaps the greatest of them all.

Shine On
Michael.

[zak71]

I like Ted. He's a very knowledgeable guy, and he is really into the music.
The stuff he plays is an acquired taste...but there's something for everyone out there.
I have loved raunched-out primitive hill country stuff like the later R.L. Burnside stuff, T-Model Ford, or Paul "Wine" Jones for a long time, but the Scissormen are usually a little too "out there" for my ears. Still, much respect for Ted who also happens to be an excellent music journalist.

[slide496]

Here's another one, not gimmicky. To my ear his guitar sound and drive is influenced by Iggy Stooge and similar stylings:

[zak71]

Dec 28, 2013 15:43:00 GMT slide496 said:

To my ear his guitar sound and drive is influenced by Iggy Stooge and similar stylings:

Yep, I hear the Stooges in there, too!

[pete1951]

Playing with a plectrum robs the song of its `bounce`, changing it to a `normal` 12 bar seems lazy, (turning it into a 12 bar often happens when you play it with `rock` players, but theres no bass, etc. here so why do it?)

[blueshome]

"Playing with a plectrum robs the song of its `bounce`, changing it to a `normal` 12 bar seems lazy, (turning it into a 12 bar often happens when you play it with `rock` players, but theres no bass, etc. here so why do it?)"

+1. It becomes rockified and loses "soul".

Plus a Marshall amp usually spells disaster as far as blues is concerned.

Still he is entertaining, but I don't think I could stand to listen to too much of that.



Read more: michaelmesser.proboards.com/thread/6857/scissormens-roll-tumble#ixzz2onI1MQCN

[slide496]

Interesting points Pete and Blueshome, kind of lets me know what kind of criticism there might be of a "rockified" approach from blues musicians so I can look at it from that perspective.

Personally I like the approach, especially with Jumper and am glad to be reminded of Iggy, the punk style music of my youth that I listened to, although my current interest is more in Fred Mcdowell. Now Fred said of Shake Em on Down as a fast number that he didn't play rock and roll but this "sure sounded alot like it" and I kind of took it in that spirit. I like that its reinvented to more of a rock styling in this case, with the drum and shaker percussion.

[pete1951]

He is (to me) no reinventing , but taking the easy way out. We should learn from what came before, and try move forward ,not backwards!
PT
(I love 13 1/2 bar blues)

[zak71]

There's blues-rock hybrids that sound awful to me, and then there's stuff that sounds great - as far as Marshall amps go, the amp isn't to blame, it's usually the user...

[mitchfit]

somewhat a crossbreed of the above "slide materials", and "Hendrix showmanship" observations.

i noticed in the "Hear My Train A-Coming" documentary that Jimi's Marshall speaker cab got
chronologically/progressively more tolex wear on the right, front corner of the top 4x12.
now there is a slide you don't have to worry about loosing when miss-placed. also made me
wonder if dragging the cab from UK to US, and later many points beyond or in between was
cheaper than getting another upon arrival, or just due to scarcity of Marshall amps when
not in the UK during that time frame.

mitchfit

[zak71]

Dec 28, 2013 21:27:43 GMT mitchfit said:

also made me wonder if dragging the cab from UK to US, and later many points beyond or in between was
cheaper than getting another upon arrival

To the best of my knowledge, Hendrix had amps warehoused on both continents, he didn't travel with his backline.

[blueshome]

You are of course right, it's the player not the amp, but……the player chooses the amp and most of the time those who choose Marshalls play rock not blues whatever they claim.