I grew up listening to all the (now) rock legends who cut their teeth and cultivated their chops in the "psychedelic" bands of the 60's. Surprisingly enough, I don't idolize these players now as much as I did then; it seems like they deconstructed themselves over the years. People like Clapton who, although he still claims he's nothing more than a blues guitarist, have remade themselves in the image of pop icon. I think he played better thirty years ago. Less finesse, more raw feeling and power. I started reading liner notes and discovered, like EZ, that these guys were borrowing heavily from "old timers" like Robert Johnson et al, as well as from more modern practitioners like Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf, and John Lee Hooker. I am still amazed at the influence these guys had on rock music - how the essential, "raw" feeling imparted to the music by the old blues artists combined with the amplified, high volume chops of the hard rockers. I was listenin' to a Howlin' Wolf compilation of greatest hits or some such, and realized that every song on that cassette had been covered at one time or another by some rock band. I still seek out the emerging groups who like to keep it simple: just guitar, bass, drums, and stacks of amplifiers cranked up to about 110 db; musicians young enough to still have the stamina to play as well as listen to set after set of music so loud as to actually be physically exhausting, who are not worried that the music they play and style of life they have chosen to lead will make them old way before their time, or cut them down in their prime. Like Janis Joplin, who poured a little part of her finite self into blues arrangements like "Summertime," or Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain," until eventually she used herself up. For me, Blues is an existentialist-driven attitude; a relentlessly hard and apathetic approach to life; a grim acknowledgement that we were kicked out of The Garden Of Eden a long time ago, on our own and clawing our way up the walls of a godless universe. With our "there-ain't no-guarantees" commandment shadowing all our intentions and purpose.

In other words, I like the uplifting and inspirational message of the blues ;-)

Regards, Neil (who forgot to take his medication)