Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)

Subject: Otis Rush RIP
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 07:08 AM

The great blues guitarist/singer/composer Otis Rush has died.
Otis is my favourite of all those electric blues men who emerged in the 1950s/60s.
I love his singing and his guitar tone was wonderful.
He was, of course, a huge influence on Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray and countless other performers.

Youtube Otis Rush

Subject: RE: Otis Rush RIP
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 10:36 AM

Sad to see another one go. Unfortunately personally, I don't think his later work ever came up to the standard of his original recordings on Cobra.

I was fortunate to see him live on a couple of occasions in the sixties and seventies.

Subject: RE: Otis Rush RIP
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 10:49 AM

Well, the early stuff was raw and earthy and had fantastic energy but I have a live album from the 7os or 80s which is just fabulous.

Subject: RE: Otis Rush RIP
From: gillymor
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 11:06 AM

When I was an aspiring electric bluesman he was the guy for me (along with B.B.). I even got a cherry red 335 because I saw him pictured with one. Hearing him for the first time on a Vanguard blues sampler doing "Mean Old World" made a seismic impact. I learned his solo on that tune and went on to stealing everything I could off of a live album he did with a pickup band in France. He was a great player but I think he was even a better singer. RIP

Subject: RE: Otis Rush RIP
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 11:12 AM

I'll agree with the singing! His playing could have definite off days but his singing...

Subject: RE: Otis Rush RIP
From: gillymor
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 11:21 AM

Yeah, he wasn't as precise as some of the guys that came along later but he played with such imagination and lyricism that it didn't make much difference to me.

Subject: RE: Otis Rush RIP
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 11:28 AM

His passing makes me realise I've barely heard of him, and never sought out his recordings...

So.. that's what I've been doing this afternoon...

One fan review suggested he was unfairly underestimated...
Did he not get the same music biz marketing push as the 'houshold name' Blues legends...???

I prefer guitarists who express more emotion in one sustained note,
and make it mean more, than a 'viruoso' flurry of 8 or 16...

Subject: RE: Otis Rush RIP
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 02:44 PM

Huge influence on Peter Green in the Fleetwood Mac years.

Subject: RE: Otis Rush RIP
From: gillymor
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 02:54 PM

True, it's particularly evident when you compare O.R.'s All Your Love to P.G's Black Magic Woman.

Subject: RE: 2018 Obit: Otis Rush RIP
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 06:11 PM

"Houusehold name" blues legends? "Music biz marketing" such as who?

Subject: RE: 2018 Obit: Otis Rush RIP
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Oct 18 - 06:10 AM

Sorry - not in a mood for petty arguing in an obit...

If you don't know what I mean - think...!!!

[.. and pay attention to the "Scare quotes"
...]

Subject: RE: 2018 Obit: Otis Rush RIP
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Oct 18 - 06:18 AM

clicky doesn't work...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_quotes

I use single quotation marks to denote irony - that's the 'convention' as I was taught it 50 years ago...

.. now back to discovering more Otish Rush tracks...

Subject: RE: 2018 Obit: Otis Rush RIP
From: gillymor
Date: 01 Oct 18 - 06:40 AM

N.Y. Times obit
Check out the video link to"I Can't Quit You Baby". Classic O.R.

Subject: RE: 2018 Obit: Otis Rush RIP
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 01 Oct 18 - 11:24 AM

PFR

Thank you for referring me to Wikipedia but I don't need their help, I can just go to my shelves.
Unlike you who admit to just dicovering him I discovered the music of Otis Rush many years back and have seen and met him and many other blues musicians here and in their homes and clubs. I would be hard pressed to think of any that got the treatment to which you refer.

I cannot understand why you are unable to reply to a simple question. I was not looking for an argument just wondering which musicians you were referring to.

Good luck in your learning process.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP 1935 - 2018
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Oct 18 - 12:51 PM

I recall an interview in the last ten years with Buddy Guy.

He and B. B. King are amongst the musicians with whom Eric Clapton,
also in recent times, has recorded studio albums and given increased exposure
to the musicians' music and careers.
B. B. King observed that "Riding with the King,"
the album recorded with him by Eric Clapton,
outsold all his (King's) other recordings.

Rush, on the other hand, asked Eric Clapton to give him the same treatment,
"but he managed not to help me."

Buddy Guy, however, pointed out that when he and Otis Rush
converse about their own careers,
Rush would return in conversation to
people who had exploited him when he was a much younger man.

And Guy retorted -- quoting himself to the interviewer --
"What are you gonna do? Dig the guy up from his grave?"
pointing out that the exploiters had died years ago,
and that it was more constructive to move on.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP 1935 - 2018
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 01 Oct 18 - 01:55 PM

To be fair to Eric, from what I've heard, you couldn't be sure which Otis Rush would turn up,
But there again, it might be that because Eric, vocally, took so much from Otis, he maybe didn't want the spotlight to shine too brightly on that fact.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 10:46 AM

Hootenanny - apologies if I misread your intentions...

but mudcat is addled with argumentative miseries who need to take exception to any petty point,
thriving on starting disagreeable rows for the sake of it...

I've had too much of their negativity lately, and it might be rubbing off on me...

I defer to your experience and knowledge [with some envy...]

I was just making a simple point that a UK music lover of my age and enthusiasm,
may not be as familiar with Otish Rush as his talent deserves,
because it seems he was not dealt the luck, career management, and big star's patronage
that boosted the profiles of his more well known contemporaries...

I've obviously known his name, and most probably heard his music on Blues compilations since I wasa a teen in the 1970s...

.. and I'm sure hardcore blues experts might be dismayed by the ignorance of less obsessive music lovers..

Just, he wouldn't be the only artist who never broke out of relative obscurity,
in terms of recognition by wider UK audiences...

I've listened to as much as I can on streaming,
the quality is variable.. [like much blues..]
Though I've discovered one track that I now play several times a day
and am working out how to do my own version..

Not gonna give away which one it is..
but I love the blend of guitar and sax...

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 10:52 AM

.. though it could be very deep growly harmonica, or perhaps sax and harmonica..

Hard to tell on little pokey portable speakers...???

either way it's a great raunchy sound...

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 12:31 PM

PFR

I quite understand your apprehension and I think I know which recent threads you might be referring to, and the biggest culprit.

And, in case you think I was trying to score points forget it. I was just fortunate to work and be in a position where I could get to meet and know a number of blues artists. It is my opinion that most of the more well known of them took about twenty or more years to become an "overnight success".
As is suggested by Tunesmith above, Rush did appear to be somewhat unreliable and difficult to deal with. Which was a great pity.

If you don't already know the work of Magic Sam, I recommend his 1956 recordings on Cobra the same label as Rush around the same time. He also did a storming live recording of "Sweet Home Chicago" at an outdoor blues festival. Off the top of my head I recall it being Ann Arbour. Sadly he died very young.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 12:37 PM

I'll second Magic Sam!

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 12:51 PM

And for that matter,
Otis Rush himself, in a joint interview with Buddy Guy for Guitar Player,
said that the younger generation ought to "get a lesson"
from Magic Sam's guitar playing.

joint interview, Guitar Player, by Jas Obrecht

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: gillymor
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 12:55 PM

Magic Sam's West Side Soul is about my favorite blues LP. It's so intense I can only listen to it every so often.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 10:04 AM

There is an obituary by Tony Russell in to-day's Guardian which throws some light on his career.

My understanding is that he wasn't the easiest of people to get along with but that is not surprising bearing in mind the treatment some of these guys had to suffer.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 10:31 AM

Otis was all right but let's get real, as a blues singer he wasn't in the same league as Brits Robert Plant and Steve Marriott.
Or, at least that's what some people would have you believe.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: gillymor
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 10:32 AM

I remember seeing him at Antone's in Austin, TX back in the mid-80's, I was alerted to what turned out to be a great, soul-wrenching show by a story/ interview that appeared in the Austin Statesman. Otis came off as kind of bitter and frustrated in the article but hopeful that a recording project with Clapton would be coming soon. The author seemed to indicate that Otis was not nearly the "businessman" that some of the other bluesmen were whose careers were revived in that era and that he was somewhat indifferent to touring and never kept a band together for too long. All this from my leaky memory. At any rate we were lucky to have him and what he's left behind.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 11:04 AM

Tunesmith - come on, keep it in your other thread.. not in an obit.. please...

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 11:12 AM

No! No! punkfolkrocker you're besmirching the memory of Otis Rush - as a great blues singer - by not condemning The Blues Magazine for rating Steve Marriott higher than Otis when you know that such a claim is downright silly.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 11:22 AM

At this point you now confirm you have clearly gone off your rocker...

..turn back now to the land of calm rationality...

The only condemning I'll be doing [if I have to make that effort.. ]
is folks who work themselves up into daft indignation...

Anyone with any sense knows best of lists in magazines are esentially meaningless..

Aside from the helpful function of jogging memories..

ie.."crikey.. I remember them.. haven't played their records for ages.. must have a look in the attic..."..

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: gillymor
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 11:27 AM

If you keep feeding him, pfr, he'll keep coming back for more. Now please take this back to that other thread where it belongs.

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 11:35 AM

gillymor - I'm still chuckling at the word "besmirch"...

but you are absolutely right...

sorry mudcat mates...


Btw.. listened to Magic Sam yesterday... not a single dud track.. some weaker than others,
but mostly right up my street...

Fairly sure I found some of his tracks on the internet 10 to 15 years ago..

I love the sound of amp tremelo, and use it myself to excess...

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 02:14 PM

You know, I think it's ok to say critical things in an obituary thread. It's inappropriate to be nasty, but I think it's certainly appropriate for an obituary to be an honest discussion of the pros and cons of a person's accomplishmentS.
So, don't get irritated at each other - just talk about the guy and his music.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Obit: Otis Rush RIP (1935-2018)
From: gillymor
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 01:25 PM

Finally got around to the obit mentioned above by Hootenannny.
Here's a link- The Guardian