I came across a 1978 MM interview with British blues godfather Alexis Korner recently and thought this quote might kick off an interesting discussion…
AK: ‘You have to keep moving and good music is always fluid music. that’s what I objected to in the Blues Boom (68-69). I objected to the 12-bars and five BB King licks as being the badge of the bluesman. That’s why I left the scene – there was far more to it than that. What about field hollers, work songs, gospel? It wasn’t down to 12 bars and three chords, and that’s why I split in 68. It had become a very bad joke and I didn’t want to be part of that movement I’d sooner play with jazz musicians who have a blues feel.’
So, @Johnny_Concheroo – what do say? Do you concede that, one or two original talents aside, a huge splodge of the British blues boom were meat & potatoes three-chord merchants with five or six borrowed licks? Or was Alexis missing something that ‘the kids’ were getting?
Attached is a great clip from German TV in 1978, featuring Alexis doing his kind of blues, then The Pirates, Dr Feelgood and Chicken » Continue Reading.