I tend toward the same blues artists you do. You might want to check out
Lightning Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt (esp. Hopkins' early work)
if you haven't already. Big Mama Thornton, too, come to think of it.
A pretty good Rocker-Getting-Back-To-His-Blues-Roots recording is Eric
Clapton's _From the Cradle_. I don't listen to quite as much blues as
I used to, being semi-caught-up in "Alternative" (cringes as he uses the
non-term for lack of a better one) music. Right now I'm listening to
Soundgarden's _Superunknown_ (best album I've heard in years, IMHO)
Pearl Jam (just completed my collection of PJ, thanx to Xmas gifts from
friends, & yes, I know Eddie Vedder is at least as self-absorbed as
Natalie Merchant), Beck's _Mellow Gold_ (a true non-conformist who
wouldn't do what the industry & the market told him to and subsequently
slipped out of public memory), ZZTop's _Antenna_ (good rock & roll, no
thinking required--not that they're "new music" by any means), & so
on and on...
Thanks for the Waldrop recommendation, too. :)
Tony
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Tony said, on Wed, 27 Dec:
> (I'm a big fan of Delta Blues)
such as??? you know, i used to be rather heavy into blues 15 years
or so ago; Albert King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, that kind of thing,
but these days i tend to get the different styles of the blues mixed
up a bit. so why don't you give us all a short lecture on the blues,
Tony? history and genealogy, short but comprehensive, eh? ;-)
today, i hardly listen to any blues at all... eh, except for Robert
Johnson, and some Bessie Smith. and an old John Lee Hooker album
i've got.....
>
> There's an SF work (short story, maybe) similar to the one you're
> talking about. Recording industry capitalists are sending talent scouts
> to alternative timelines to get recordings from dead rockers who (in
> the alternative timeline) never died tragically. I think the story ends
> up with the talent scout being disappointed at Jim Croce's "later
> career" or something like that.
think there must be more than one, or two SF/fantasy stories on that
topic. hell, so much of present day mythology is connected to the
history of rock'n'roll, it would be strange if the one kind of
literature that tend to be most interested in myths and legends didn't
write about rock'n'roll from time to time (check out Howard Waldrop,
he's one of the best contemporary american SF/fantasy writers, and
his stories are filled with rock and pop mythology). and of course,
most of todays sf-writers grew up with rock'n'roll being an important
part of their lives. and since all important writers really write
about themselves most of the time, there you go.... ;-)
and since SF is the litterature of "what if?", naturally questions
like "what if Robert Johnson hadn't been fooling around with that
woman, or if her husband (or whatever) hadn't found out?" has to come
up, from time to time (actually, t h a t story has been written, by
Colin Greenland, i think, published in Interzone a few years ago...)
have a nice day :-)
tb
yeah, and do try some Howard Waldrop. he's a delightful read, imho!
* ----------------------------------------------- *
\ Trond Buland \
\ e-mail: trond.buland@ifim.sintef.no \
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