After our discussion in class on wednesday about new music, orgionality, etc., I was struck with a thought. I decided to go home and cinduct an experiment. Although it was completely subjective, i found out some things about origionality in “new” music. My experiment was centered around the blues. If you are not inttimately familiar with the blues, it is a style of music where all of the songs are comprised of essentially the same chord changes. The origionality is in the style of playing, the lyrics, the rhythms, the soloing and the tambres of the instruments. In my experiment, i took this form of music and caused further similarities to be compaed in order to test for origionality. I took five diferent recordings of Stormy Monday, one of the most famous blues songs, and compared them. I listened to B.B. King, Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Muddy Waters with Johnny Winter, The Allman Brothers (a recording hich I have discussed in aprevious post), and Howlin Wolf. Aside from Howlin Wolf, these are guitarist’s recordings. All are playing the same song, in the same keey, with virtually the same chord. However, they are all different recorings.
In our discussion we asked if there could be “new music” or true origionalty with the overwhelmingly present influences of the past. I realized thorough my listening, that true origionality, in terms of playing music, comes not from the chords or the lyrics (although those are aspects of origionality that many musicians are known for), bt from the heart and soul of the players themselves. On these five recordings o the same song, there is nothing that is creatively repeative. All of the musicians are vastly different muscians who utilize their incredible talents to create a true origional out of the most common blues song of all time. It is like reinterperiting the Mona Lisa so that everyone loves it for what it is, and not what it came from. It is my belief that the origionality of music is dependant on the players themselves. A song can be origional even if it is a cover. The musical possibilities are endless and although there is no doubt that inspiration is a blueprint for many music today, the origionality of induvuduals should not be underestimated. I think we should clearly define what we mean by origionality in our contnuation of the discussion so that we can clearly delineate how we see the origionality and its potential in music today.
I love the blues. From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, i have studied the histories and the musicians. The genre of blues takes up at least a quarter of my ipod. How is it then that i can listen so muc and so often to he same 12 bar chord progression? How can i listen to the same pentatonic lines from albert collins, albert king, B.B. King and others? I love it. Plain and simple. One recording I have been listening to a lot lately is the allman brothers recording of Stormy Monday (a blues traditional song witten by T-Bone Walker). The lyrics are debated but many belive that it is a metaphoric outline of a slave living through a week. Everyone has recorded this song. Muddy, Howlin Wolf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton, the list is endless. Yet, the best recording i can think of is from the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore East. The tune is starts off slow in 12-8 as most slow bluses are. It all seems normal until the last four bars of the form where they change chords and make it their own progression. After the lyrics are sung, Dwayne Allman comes in with a beautiful blazing solo for two choruses. Then, the band seems to pick up, but in reality, they keep the same exact tempo with a double time feel. Herein lies one of the Allman Brothers’ greatest powers. Their ability to play with time is unmatched and their ability to communicate onstage and pull off some seriously difficult groovechangs and polyrhythms in the two drumsets is amazing. The organ solos for on chorus over this fast feel and then Dickey Betts comes in withy the sweetest four notes he ever played. B B G F. He playes these notes with such a beutiufl eeling and with a tone that is both satiny and satany. He solos to the best of his ability (which is pretty incredible) and the lyrics come back. The song ends in a traditional blues fashion and its over. Tom Dowd’s engineering of te piece is perfect. The mix is outrageiously good…and its live. The solos are perfect the chords are cool. It truly is one ov my favorite recordings.
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