I The Michigan Daily - Wet" ce. - Thursday, October 5, 1995 - 78 rom 1VIuCK1'a y James Miller Ay Staff Writer "Theblueshadababy,andtheycalled t rock and roll." - Muddy Waters To understand Picasso, you need to xamine Giotto. To get a better handle n John Updike, it helps to read John ilton. Listening to Beethoven'sNinth nevitably leads to Brahms' First. Ar- istic, musical and literary schools are Ilways rootedin something deeper than hemselves. The mightier the river, the tronger the source. The blues is seen by many people as o inaccessible and difficult music. usik played by men dead for decades bout heartbreak, loss, infidelity and omicide doesn't lend itself to the col- ege ear. Yet more of the blues finds its ay into the music around us than you ight think. For example, T-Bone alker was the first man to plug a itar into an amp. For decades, either ou played guitar like Lightnin' opkins, or you didn't play at all. The blues is a massive thing. If you antuolistentomore ofthe blues,choos- ng fIom the huge amount of recording an b)e difficult. So I've done the hard ork for you. If you want to become a eacon in the church of the blues, the ollowing are albums that will put you on Robert Johnson waited at a cross- roads for the devil and traded is soul in eXchange for singing and ~playing talents., the straight and narrow path. 1) Leadbelly, "The Library of Con- gress Recordings." Leadbelly's music is sometimes strange, even to tradi- tional blues fans. He represents the be- ginnings ofthe blues. Hismusicis com- posed largely of spirituals, work songs, fieldhollers, ballads as well as the more familiar blues forms. Accompanying himselfonthe twelve string guitar,play- ing both rhythmic blues chord patterns as well as booming, piano-like bass lines.Thisstylecombinedwithhishigh, expressive voice gives Leadbelly's music a painful, very emotional tenor. The most notable track is "Midnight Special," which was covered by CCR. y Waters to C People who like a little gospel flavor will dig Leadbelly. 2) Robert Johnson, "The Complete Recordings." Many music writers and music lovers call Robert Johnson the father of the blues. This is for two reasons. First, Johnson's guitar playing was virtually peerless. He displayed a technique and melodic inventiveness unmatched until the blues revival ofthe late sixties. Equally comfortable with bottleneck and straight guitar styles, Johnson set the standard for blues gui- tarists for decades. Second,Johnson wasthe firstmythical entertainer in blues history. It was said thathe waited at a crossroads for the devil and traded his soul in exchange for sing- ing and playing talents. Because of the story,andbecauseofJohnson'sownenig- matic nature, much of his music, like "If IHadPossessionOvertheJudgmentDay" and"MeandtheDevilBlues,"hasaeerie, demonic air about it. People interested in realearthy,nasty,guy-and-his-guitar-on- a-porch blues would do well to pick this one up. 3) Muddy Waters, "Hard Again." For many people, Muddy Waters is the very essence ofthe blues. Brought to the fore- front during the blues revival of the six- ties,hewouldhaveenjoyedalife offame and respect even without the expanded white audience. Muddyrepresents a fun- damentalchangeinbluesstyles.Themusic ofLeadbelly and Robert Johnson,known as Delta blues, migrated up the Missis- sippiwiththepoorex-farmlaborerslook- ing for work. In Chicago this soft country sound acquired a rough urban edge through amplification and the hardships of city life. Muddy's music is the para- digm of the Clcago blues. On "Hard Again" he combines Delta imagery of voodooandslaverywith athickChicago sound creted by distorted harmonicas, rhythmically propulsive solos and aKan- sas City, barrelhouse stylepiano. Tracks like"Mannish Boy"(usedin aBudweiser commercial)and"I Wants To Be Loved" standoutwithperfect solos andMuddy's powerful, grammatically incorrect voice leading the charge. Perfect for anyone with a pulse. 4) Little Walter, "Hate To See You Go." No discussion of the blues is com- plete without a nod to the harmonica, possibly the instrument most identified with the blues. Little Walteris as bad as they come, havingbackedup Muddy for years. Hisharpplayingisunique,encom- passing both the sweetness of a hardly amplifiedDeltamouthharpand theblast- ing scream of a Chicago harmonica Be- sides this, he displays a fluid technique andexcellentsinging voicethatanyblues artist would envy. Likewise, it is hard to nail down one or two good tracks on the album. "HatetoSeYouGo"and"Keyto the Highway" are outstanding, but as far as this album goes Little Walter can do no wrong. 5) B.B. King, "Great Moments with B.B. King." B.B. King is possibly one of the smoothest, classiest men ever to playthegame. Sincehestartedplaying backintheforties, hismusichasexem- plified taste and style. King possesses a perfect, clean toneand a technique with textbook precision. "Great Moments" is a composite of several live concerts, spliced together. "Outskirts of Town" and "Nightlife" are two of the most outstanding tracks. On these, as well as all the rest of the tracks, King shows off perfect solos andsinging that is both polished and gritty, combin- ingthepowerand emotion ofgospel with theanguishoftheurbanbluestradition.A fine, subtle horn arrangement and excel- pton: Essential blues HUGHES Continued from page 1. obligations, with company people looking over your shoulder? H: "Much easier. After 'Menace,' we had more open doors before us. We met Steven Spielberg ... He's a great guy. We were able to use some of the gunfire effects he did in 'Schindler's List,' for example. If we asked for equipment, we'd get it. We have this strategy now: people whose money is in the film, want to see the product from time to time. So we send them what we call 'missiles' - little scenesafromthe movie we knew they'd love. Usually when somebody kills somebody else. They see it and go, 'Yeah! Fights! Explosions! Here, take more money!"' D: You seem to be pretty open about your influences and points of refer- ence. In "Menace II Society," you said you've used some of the Sergio Leone's inventions. H: "Yes, and for 'Dead Presidents,' the starting point was 'Asphalt Jungle.' And Oliver Stone's 'Born On The Fourth Of July.' And Sergio Leone, of course, when we got to staging the whole heist sequence. If you want to show a good fight,there's no avoiding him. But the movie is not just about the Black experience in Vietnam. I mean, it's like 'Born On The Fourth Of July,' about the Ameri- can dream gone sour. Or, rather, how people who can't fit into this dream, just change it. 'My American dream now is to rob a bank and skip town.' And their goal remains the same - 'get rich quick.' They just gave up on all other methods." D: Almost every director dealing with the aftermath of Vietnam, in- cluding Stone, prefers not to show the war itself, or shows it in flashbacks. But you've decided to have this huge combat section that takes up about a quarter of the movie. What were the reasons for that? H: "You know, we actually thought that we were making a movie about a guy returning from war. We meant to start the story with his return. It would be really cool to make the whole movie about one heist, go through all the planning stages. But then we decided to show the past of this guy, where he is really coming from and why is he driven to this condition he's in. And there wasn't enough room to build up to the heist itself." D: So are you content with the re- sults now? H:"Not really. If we were to start the movie over, we would have spent more time on the script. It's underde- veloped. Four more weeks of preproduction - that's what we needed." D: The film has really gut-wrench- ing scenes, especially the quieter ones. For example, when Anthony (Larenz Tate) starts strangling his pregnant girlfriend .. H: "That scene was conceived as even more violent: he was supposed to beat her up. Then we thought, wait, this is kind of too much. Somebody said, what if he chokes her a little, maybe that's more politicallycorrect." D: Didyoufeel any discomfortdeal- ing with these really grim domestic subjects? I mean, this is nota helicop- ter getting blown up.. H: "Well, we think drama is gener- ally easier to do than any other genre. You know, it's easier to be serious all the time than to try and make people laugh, for example." D: What's .the story behind that Martin Sheen cameo? H: "Oh, man. Originally, it was supposed to be Marlon Brando. He saw 'Menace II Society' and loved it. People say he was going around recit- ing lines from it. Just imagine (a good impression of the Brando mumble follows): 'Give me your golden jew- elry!' Then it turned out, he wanted five days to shoot his scene, and he has about ten lines. And he was gonna need all those earfeed mikes, so that he wouldn't forget his stuff, and prob- ably some huge billboards everywhere with the lines written on them. We just couldn't freeze the production like that. And around the same time we met Martin Sheen at a party with his sons. So he came in and did this cameo. He's a great guy, only really out of touch--I don't think he's seen a single movie in the last ten years. But he was terrific, and he gave the whole movie that 'Apocalypse Now' edge." D: You seem to have overcome the temptation to show up in your own movies, a la Spike Lee. H: "Well, we' re not that good- looking. Also, we can't act. I think we're just about the only directors in Hollywood who honestly realize that they can't act." D: You took quite some time off between these two movies. Did you do anything particularly interesting? H: "Well, let's see ... smoked lots ofhash, did lots ofheroin ... No, no. In fact, we've never done heroin or coke or anything like that. Just alittle mari- juana, never hurt nobody ... But what did we do all this time, seriously? Actually, I have a feeling that we just slept for two years, and then woke up. It was like 'Whoa! It's 4 p.m., 1994! Time to make another movie." D: So what's next for you? H: "Probably a Jimi Hendrix story." D: Wow. A Vietnam movie, then a Hendrix bio - wait, you guys are turning into Oliver Stone! H: "Well, we have great respect for the man. We have the same politics, in case you didn't notice. We're in the same high school with Oliver, so to speak. And Spike [Lee] with John [Singleton] are in some other high school." (Albert suddenly joins in): "They're in a middle school somewhere." (Allen): "For children with special needs." D: Hmm ... So, are you gonna take a couple of years off again? Allen: "We might. I think the rea- son a lot of directors make movies back-to-back is that it allows them to escape the reality for a while. To live in this little world where they are the bosses and everybody does what, they're told. It's an easy way to lose touch with what's going on outside. And that's the last thing we wanna do." lentorganplayinggivethealbum abeau- tiful, gentile flavor. 6) John Lee Hooker, "Boom Boom." John Lee Hooker is one of the most unusual performers in all of the blues. A standardbearer of themuch neglected Detroit blues scene, Hooker combines many genres at once in his music, fus- ing them together seemlessly. First, Hooker's voice is just plain odd. Singing in a register usually reserved for foghorns, he possesses a wonderful bari- tone rumble. In addition, he employs a growlingtechniquethatmakesthe major- ity of his vocals sound more like a roar than a human voice. Tunes like "Jesse James" and "Hittin' the Bottle Again" display this sound as well as highlight another strange component of Hooker's style. His guitar playing has been de- scribed as "rhythmic," "chunky" and "bad." Sometimes it sounds as if Hooker is playing in a different tempo than the rest of the band. When he accompanies himself, he plays the chords in bizarre, convoluted rhythms. But when he's in there, he's in there like swimwear. On "Boom Boom" and "Boogie at Russian Hill"hisplayingissmoothandevocative. For sheer emotion, it's hard to beat John Lee Hooker. A must for those who are looking for the hardest of the hard- core blues. 7) Otis Rush, "Mournin' in the Momin'." When the blues and funk collide, you will find Otis Rush standing on top of the wreckage. You will never findanotheranalbumwithstraight-ahead bluessingingandplayingwithmoresoul- ful swagger. The funkhasdefinitelypaid a visit to Otis Rush. The four-piece horn section, which plays on nearly every tune, sounds like it just fell out on a Parliament album. The drummer is definitely not a blues drummer, putting enough funk behind tunes like "Gambler's Blues"to make it sound like a whole new song. To prove the soul connection even more fully, Rush plays an instrumental version of Aretha Franklin's famous cover of "Baby I Love You." "Can't Wait No Longer" is by far the most powerful song on the album. Possessing an amountofgroovethatoneusuallynever sees on a blues album, it's tight and on the money. Otis displays his strong, lyric tenor and his tasty southpaw gui- tar over a full-on soul explosion. Call- ing all funksters, this album is for you! 8) Eric Clapton, "From the Cradle." Often in the world of blues, the word "white" is used as a handicap. For ex- ample, artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Paul Butterfield are sometimes called good whiteblues musicians. The validity of this judgment notwithstand- ing, Eric Clapton is a good blues artist. Clapton has never really gone far away from his blues roots. Even on his more pop-oriented albums like "Jour- neyman" their has always been at least one or two solid blues tunes. Plus, it's rare to find a Clapton solo, anywhere, that doesn't have the flavor in it. Clapton outdoes himself with the blues covers on "From the Cradle." His singing has a maturity and depth previ- ously unknown in his work. The guitar work still displays the old Clapton tech- nical grace, but this time he seems to have more of the feeling of the blues that lacked in the middle, post-heroin days of his career. The rest of the band acts as a foil for Clapton. Both the harmonica and the piano play well, but rarely solo, vamp- ing behind his vocals and solos. Tracks like "Five Long Years," "How Long Blues" and "Sinner's Prayer" are the most admirable. Each one boasts fine singing and solos beyond reproach, bearing true allegiance to the Chicago bluestradition. On the otherside ofthe spectrum. "Motherless Child," with its Dixieland kick drums and dobro over- dub, is a fine duplication of an old fashioned Delta porch jam. If you're looking for an accessible introduction to the blues, this is your album. This list is woefully incomplete. Many artists of great talent and signifi- cance have been omitted for space. However, any one of these albums would be perfect for someone inter- ested in a lesson in learnin' the blues. Continuethetradition,thisisAmerica's one true indigenous art form. 9 ' _ VILLAGE CRNER E t PAT ' E o'.-Thurs. BarnVlam Fri$'. - Sa.8m -4 S. Forest S,. Univ. 995-1818 Send Anyone/Anywhere A norn Ai% r I I[ r i A Fresh <1* Flowers G reat F i -A - tOreasions Organize Your Files in a Day! 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