What all great blues players have in common...

[kelnet]

Originally Posted by stevieboy

Hopefully we can agree that within the world of the blues, that's a pretty good list of the prominent players of the 70s.

Blues is never really big.

I guess that's it exactly. There are always great blues artists out there, no matter what decade we talk about.
However, From the Cradle was really big. SRV was big (double-platinum is big, isn't it?). I can't think of any others, though.

[telleutelleme]

I interpreted "Big" Blues players to mean the ones who generally stood out (as in Sanctified).

If you mean commercial then pick the ones who toured with the big Rock bands like the Stones or with Clapton. Muddy, John Lee, Sumlin, Gary Davis come to mind as semi headliners or festival feature acts then take a jump down to Blues venues. Blues artists were probably much more commercially successful locally or in Europe at that time, or if they crossed over (ex. Lew Rawls, who started out as a Chicago Blues singer).

I was in New Orleans and Houston during the 70's and the clubs I went to see Blues played were packed solid, wall to wall. Guitar Slim, Earnie K-Doe, Gatemouth Brown, Carla Thomas, Irma Thomas, Etta James, Bobby Bland, Otis Rush, Ezra Charles and the list goes on. Not many white guys on Bass and very few of us in the audience, but it sure as hell was big for me. Most of those folks played it because they felt it, not expecting to make much money. I think before YouTube you had to go find the Blues or happen upon a record.

Blues is a lot like traditional country. Serious dedicated audience who know who they are and where they play. Fortunately for Blues it is in a huge revival and half of Mississippi towns have some sort of Blues event going on every weekend. Too bad the "big" ones are dying off so fast now.

[chezdeluxe]

Originally Posted by kelnet

By "big," we're talking about commercially successful. Elton John was big. Little River Band was big. The Eagles were big. Deep Purple was big. Otis Rush was not big.

No "You" might be talking about commercially successful. That doesn't mean you can say "We" are.

[kelnet]

Originally Posted by chezdeluxe

No "You" might be talking about commercially successful. That doesn't mean you can say "We" are.

Okay then. You can define that however you want. But, let me clarify my original question for you, after all I was the one who used the word and was seeking an answer.

Who were the commercially successful blues artists of the 70's? Which blues artists sold millions of records, headlined arena tours, and were at the top of the Billboard charts?

Clear enough now?

[telleutelleme]

Originally Posted by Kelnet:
Clear enough now?

Yep you most likely already knew the answer when you posted. No "big' stars on a level of the pop culture bands and people you listed as measured by commercial success.

What was the point of the question? To see if there was a huge commercial market for Blues in the 70's or if there was some standout Blues guy who made it in the Pop markets?

Except for cross-overs, I can't think of any. Maybe ABB could be defined as a commercially successful blues band. War, Doctor John, 3dog night, Creedance, Van Morrison, Bill Withers and others were heavily influenced by Blues. War had one of the top albums of the 1970's.

For the rest traditional blues artists, a few hits here and there but no seminal albums that cracked the pop charts. If you checked the Billboard R&B charts, there were prominant artists. Some soul artists with Blues roots made some in-roads. Staples Singers, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, Earth Wind and Fire, Chi-lites, Atlanta Rhythm Section all had Blues roots and commercial success, but not at the Pop market levels you cited. Some did quite well in Disco as cross-overs but not doing Blues. Donna Summers was Gosphel Blues before disco.

I'm not raggin you just trying to clarify the question for me. I have a passion for Blues so the subject interests me greatly. I tend not to see the relevance of commercial success as a measure of quality, though I'm sure all the artists do.

[chesire]

The obligatory Hendrix perm...

duly noted.

[Lunchie]

Originally Posted by kelnet

Okay then. You can define that however you want. But, let me clarify my original question for you, after all I was the one who used the word and was seeking an answer.

Who were the commercially successful blues artists of the 70's? Which blues artists sold millions of records, headlined arena tours, and were at the top of the Billboard charts?

Clear enough now?

I would never go see a blues musician in an arena setting.I have only been to a couple blues shows, 2 of which was Blues Boy King (one last march and the other back in 2001) and both times it was a small 1500 people venue's and it was great. A lot more personal, got to see all the equipment everyone was using and it was fantastic!

[Murky]

In discussions of blues bands, I seldom see mention of one of my favorites. If had a negative print, it might fit Kelnet's question, but I'll toss it out there.

The Siegel-Schwall Band was a group of white guys with a black bass player when they caught my ear. I saw them several times in the early 70s with Corky Siegel on harp and piano, Jim Schwall on guitar, Rollow Radford on bass, and Shelly Plotkin on drums.

They played around Chicago and through the upper Midwest, but I heard they spent some time on the left coast doing warmups for other shows. A handful of albums were out there and most have hit the cd format.

They broke up sometime in the 70s, but have been doing a reunion gig regularly for some time. The youtube has a bunch of their recent stuff but little of their original work.

An I one of only a few fans or do they not fit the bill?

[Dr. Pants]

So they all eschewed pedals and owned turntables?

Hmmm. It's odd what you have to do to be a blues player.

[kelnet]

Originally Posted by telleutelleme

What was the point of the question? To see if there was a huge commercial market for Blues in the 70's or if there was some standout Blues guy who made it in the Pop markets?

Yeah (though probably the rock market, not pop). But I was genuinely curious. The blues that I mostly heard in the 70's were white bands like Downchild Blues Band and The Powder Blues Band, which went double platinum here in Canada. I did buy I'm Ready, by Muddy Waters, but it wasn't really until Clapton's Just One Night and then SRV that I really started paying attention to blues. After SRV and later Clapton's From the Cradle, there really was a resurgence in the 80's and 90's, but the 70's were a blank to me.
I know who the legends and icons are, but I just couldn't think of any that were doing really well in the 70's. After the list was posted above, I did some reading, and I found that some of those guys branched out into other styles, suck as funk, rock, and R&B, which I thought was quite telling of where blues went in the 70's. Nowadays, it's seems there's a new blues guitar ace around every corner, from Joe Bonamassa to Derek Trucks to Tommy Castro.
But yeah, my original question was truly just wondering if any of those big name blues guys did well in the 70's.

[cband7]

Originally Posted by Dr. Pants

So they all eschewed pedals and owned turntables?

Hmmm. It's odd what you have to do to be a blues player.

Finally found an example of someone using 'eschewed' in an actual sentence! Be still my heart!!



.

[Drubbing]

They all had dogs that tended to die.
They all got a bad bad feelin.
They walked down the street a lot.
They never have no money.
Women leave them.

Hardly surprising, the dudes are jinxed.

[kelnet]

Originally Posted by cband7

Finally found an example of someone using 'eschewed' in an actual sentence! Be still my heart!!
.

I eschew obfuscation.

[Murky]

Obfuscation made me think of obscure, but only slightly....Ride, Captain Ride was a minor hit by a blues band from back in the day.

Blues Image. Several albums of semi-mediocre stuff with some cool numbers tucked in here and there.

[elicross]

Originally Posted by kelnet

Who were the commercially successful blues artists of the 70's? Which blues artists sold millions of records, headlined arena tours, and were at the top of the Billboard charts?

Clear enough now?

"Clear as mud."

Kel, you know I respect you, but you've been adjusting the question all along.

At first, you simply wanted to know who the big blues artists of the 1970s were. Now it's the "commercially successful blues artists of the 70s." And you choose to define "commercially successful blues artist" as being only those artists who sold millions of records, headlined arena tours, and topped the Billboard charts.

Those are your criteria for a "commercially successful blues artist"?! Who in this thread was supposed to intuit that from your original question?

(I'm trying to think how you could make those criteria more unrealistic with regard to blues artists, and I'm drawing a blank. I think if someone asked me to define "commercially successful blues artist" -- of any time period -- I'd say "a guy who can live comfortably on just the money he makes playing the blues.")

Next time, instead of asking a question and challenging everyone to guess what you're really getting at, just say "No blues artists were huge commercial successes in popular music during the 1970s." Then everyone can ask you what that has to do with the original topic.

[DaBender]

Originally Posted by kelnet

Who were the commercially successful blues artists of the 70's? Which blues artists sold millions of records, headlined arena tours, and were at the top of the Billboard charts?

Clear enough now?

I'm not sure about millions of records, but James Cotton certainly did well on college campuses in the seventies, and the J. Geils Band had a pretty good run with the first album arguably being "pure blues". Taj Mahal sold pretty well, and I don't think the Johnny Winter And - Live album was exactly obscure.

Oh, and BB King seemed to thrive during that decade as well, with hits like "The Thrill Is Gone" and "Hummingbird". Again, the numbers might not compare with someone like the Stones, but the music certainly was Alive and Well.

[chezdeluxe]

Originally Posted by elicross

"Clear as mud."

Kel, you know I respect you, but you've been adjusting the question all along.

At first, you simply wanted to know who the big blues artists of the 1970s were. Now it's the "commercially successful blues artists of the 70s." And you choose to define "commercially successful blues artist" as being only those artists who sold millions of records, headlined arena tours, and topped the Billboard charts.

Those are your criteria for a "commercially successful blues artist"?! Who in this thread was supposed to intuit that from your original question?

(I'm trying to think how you could make those criteria more unrealistic with regard to blues artists, and I'm drawing a blank. I think if someone asked me to define "commercially successful blues artist" -- of any time period -- I'd say "a guy who can live comfortably on just the money he makes playing the blues.")

Next time, instead of asking a question and challenging everyone to guess what you're really getting at, just say "No blues artists were huge commercial successes in popular music during the 1970s." Then everyone can ask you what that has to do with the original topic.

Please refrain from feeding the Troll.

[aehn]

Originally Posted by Tony474

What all great blues players have in common...

They woke up this morning...

roflmao

[Big_Bend]

They'd also have their women sleeping six feet under ground rather than sleeping with another man.

And if she gets unruly and thinks she don't wan' do
Take my 32-20, now, and cut her half in two

[elicross]

She got a .38 Special, but I b'lieve it's most too light.