Cali Dude
Friend of Leo's
I do dislike these sorts of lists. My own list would include Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, BB King, Buddy Guy, and Gatemouth Brown
5 most influential blues musicians of all time....
- Thread starter rjtwangs
- Start date
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2HBStrat
Poster Extraordinaire
Influential by generation, maybe?
The earliest group:
Charlie Patton
Lonnie Johnson
Robert Johnson
Blind Lemon Jefferson
W.C. Handy
Next Group:
Muddy Waters
Howling Wolf
B.B. King
Freddie King
Albert King
Next Group:
Eric Clapton
Peter Green
Mike Bloomfield
Billy Gibbons
Duane Allman
Next Group:
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Joe Bonomassa
Derek Trucks
Warren Haynes
Next Group:
Christone Ingram
Samantha Fish
Ana Popovic
Joanne Taylor Shaw
Sonny Landreth
Etc....
The earliest group:
Charlie Patton
Lonnie Johnson
Robert Johnson
Blind Lemon Jefferson
W.C. Handy
Next Group:
Muddy Waters
Howling Wolf
B.B. King
Freddie King
Albert King
Next Group:
Eric Clapton
Peter Green
Mike Bloomfield
Billy Gibbons
Duane Allman
Next Group:
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Joe Bonomassa
Derek Trucks
Warren Haynes
Next Group:
Christone Ingram
Samantha Fish
Ana Popovic
Joanne Taylor Shaw
Sonny Landreth
Etc....
I didn’t look at the article or whatever it is but there’s a difference between most famous and most influential.
There are so many that it's hard to choose only 5 and easy to leave out someone important. So this only my list and the ones I found along my journey of learning about the blues. Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and John Lee Hooker, not necessarily in that order. There are many others, however these are the ones what I came across first.
If you don't know who this is and listed a bunch of players from the late 60s onwards...then may the lord have mercy on your soul.
This is an influential blues musician.
This is an influential blues musician.
chezdeluxe
Doctor of Teleocity
So you know who Hubert Sumlin was. So What.
It doesn’t make other people’s opinions invalid.
His guitar break on Three Hundred Pounds of Joy with Howling Wolf was perfect. Absolutely sublime. But I don’t hear his style as influencing many other players.
Hendrix loved him but I can’t hear an influence.
sadfield
Tele-Afflicted
A complete curve ball, but any list should contain the self proclaimed Bluesologist Gil Scot Heron, he's the link between blues and hip-hop, and as a result most modern popular culture and music. Influencing a whole new genre of music should put you there.
Then after that, I think you are looking at the people like John Mayall, and many others who ignored American racial segregation championing black artists to a white audience.
Then after that, I think you are looking at the people like John Mayall, and many others who ignored American racial segregation championing black artists to a white audience.
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Ok, to do it properly, and impossibly, you’d have to have one delta, one Texas, one piedmont, one Chicago and one English.
Which gives us
Robert Johnson,
Charley Patton? (I don’t think that’s who I mean, but I’ll be corrected. And thanks)
Stevie Ray Vaughn
B B King
Eric Clapton.
Oh and we’ll need Memphis. So… Steve cropper?
But what about the piano players? The harps? The bassists? The drummers? The women? The shouters? The Europeans? Joe bonamassa?
,
Which gives us
Robert Johnson,
Charley Patton? (I don’t think that’s who I mean, but I’ll be corrected. And thanks)
Stevie Ray Vaughn
B B King
Eric Clapton.
Oh and we’ll need Memphis. So… Steve cropper?
But what about the piano players? The harps? The bassists? The drummers? The women? The shouters? The Europeans? Joe bonamassa?
,
Fiesta Red
Doctor of Teleocity
I revisited this thread and the list in the OP today, and I realized something:
Besides the list (and most lists like this) being (at best) highly subjective and (at worst) stupid, it was written by a Sociologist.
My personal definition of a Sociologist is “a person who states his opinion and bludgeons you with academia if you don’t agree”.
I’m not anti-intellectual or anti-academia, but both intellectuals and academics need to realize that just because their perception is based on broader studies and knowledge doesn’t make that opinion any more correct than the person who’s stating their opinion based on personal experience, observation and taste.
If this particular PhD happens to be a big blues fan (I don’t know if he is or isn’t), and he is touting his favorite blues artists, that’s ok—in fact, I would celebrate a “Scott’s Favorite Blues Artists List”…whether I completely agree with him or not (I’m still cringing at Leadbelly being listed as a Blues Artist…he was no more “blues” than John Coltrane or Hank Williams), I can understand his reasoning on Ma Rainey and Muddy Waters…but Elizabeth Cotten was 100% an academic/sociologist’s choice, because (although she was very talented in her style and had her own brand of genius and charm), she was a complete unknown until later in life only slightly influential amongst people touting female blues singers and guitarists…he could have just as easily replaced her with Sippie Wallace, who was a contemporary of Bessie Smith and a direct face-to-face influence on Bonnie Raitt and others.
But to definitely state, “These are the most important…” smacks of arrogance, elitism and a touch of purist/purism in art…
Purists destroy art because they don’t allow for growth within a genre or medium.
Remember—artists that we celebrate, such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, etc.—were criticized early in their career or through the entirety of their career because they didn’t stick to “The Rules”—but they thumbed their nose at the critics and either suffered or outlived the criticism.
Purists killed Jazz as a viable art form; I’m not saying there aren’t jazz players now or that a musician can’t make a living as a jazz player, I’m just saying that they limited it so much that growth stagnated sometime in the 60’s and evolution dang near stopped in the 70’s (with Fusion being the last great movement, IMHO). The only thing that has come out of jazz since is either retro, parody and “smooth” jazz (which should be subtitled “Safe Music for White People Who Want To Appear Hip But Are Ironically Less Hip For Liking This Crap”).
Purists ruin music, art, technology, everything.
Back to “College Boy’s Blues Artists I Arbitrarily Think Everyone Should Love and Why Should You Respect Me For Correcting You” list…
It’s ok if he wants to tout these artists as influential—they were, either in their time (or in the case of Robert Johnson, well after their time)—but to label them “The 5 Most Influential…” is misleading, arrogant and self-aggrandizing…and, ultimately, WRONG.
Besides the list (and most lists like this) being (at best) highly subjective and (at worst) stupid, it was written by a Sociologist.
My personal definition of a Sociologist is “a person who states his opinion and bludgeons you with academia if you don’t agree”.
I’m not anti-intellectual or anti-academia, but both intellectuals and academics need to realize that just because their perception is based on broader studies and knowledge doesn’t make that opinion any more correct than the person who’s stating their opinion based on personal experience, observation and taste.
If this particular PhD happens to be a big blues fan (I don’t know if he is or isn’t), and he is touting his favorite blues artists, that’s ok—in fact, I would celebrate a “Scott’s Favorite Blues Artists List”…whether I completely agree with him or not (I’m still cringing at Leadbelly being listed as a Blues Artist…he was no more “blues” than John Coltrane or Hank Williams), I can understand his reasoning on Ma Rainey and Muddy Waters…but Elizabeth Cotten was 100% an academic/sociologist’s choice, because (although she was very talented in her style and had her own brand of genius and charm), she was a complete unknown until later in life only slightly influential amongst people touting female blues singers and guitarists…he could have just as easily replaced her with Sippie Wallace, who was a contemporary of Bessie Smith and a direct face-to-face influence on Bonnie Raitt and others.
But to definitely state, “These are the most important…” smacks of arrogance, elitism and a touch of purist/purism in art…
Purists destroy art because they don’t allow for growth within a genre or medium.
Remember—artists that we celebrate, such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, etc.—were criticized early in their career or through the entirety of their career because they didn’t stick to “The Rules”—but they thumbed their nose at the critics and either suffered or outlived the criticism.
Purists killed Jazz as a viable art form; I’m not saying there aren’t jazz players now or that a musician can’t make a living as a jazz player, I’m just saying that they limited it so much that growth stagnated sometime in the 60’s and evolution dang near stopped in the 70’s (with Fusion being the last great movement, IMHO). The only thing that has come out of jazz since is either retro, parody and “smooth” jazz (which should be subtitled “Safe Music for White People Who Want To Appear Hip But Are Ironically Less Hip For Liking This Crap”).
Purists ruin music, art, technology, everything.
Back to “College Boy’s Blues Artists I Arbitrarily Think Everyone Should Love and Why Should You Respect Me For Correcting You” list…
It’s ok if he wants to tout these artists as influential—they were, either in their time (or in the case of Robert Johnson, well after their time)—but to label them “The 5 Most Influential…” is misleading, arrogant and self-aggrandizing…and, ultimately, WRONG.
Fiesta Red
Doctor of Teleocity
Also, we must remember that in Academia, you achieve a BS, an MS, then a PhD.
We all know what BS stands for.
MS = More of the Same
PhD = Piled Higher and Deeper
We all know what BS stands for.
MS = More of the Same
PhD = Piled Higher and Deeper
BB King
Muddy Waters
Robert Johnson
Howlin' Wolf
John Lee Hooker
Muddy Waters
Robert Johnson
Howlin' Wolf
John Lee Hooker
Fiesta Red
Doctor of Teleocity
My personal list:
Son House
Influenced Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, contemporary of Charley Patton, Honeyboy Edwards and Willie Brown.
Muddy Waters
Influenced everybody who played electric blues and blues/rock. Created the template/prototype of the rock band.
Big Mama Thornton
Influenced by Ma Rainey and Mamie Smith, influenced a lot of later male and female blues singers
Willie Dixon
He really did write the songs (not Barry Manilow)
Buddy Guy
Influenced by Muddy and Wolf and Guitar Slim, but created the prototype of wild-[Biblical Donkey] guitar-slingers like Hendrix, early Clapton, Johnny Winter and SRV
Son House
Influenced Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, contemporary of Charley Patton, Honeyboy Edwards and Willie Brown.
Muddy Waters
Influenced everybody who played electric blues and blues/rock. Created the template/prototype of the rock band.
Big Mama Thornton
Influenced by Ma Rainey and Mamie Smith, influenced a lot of later male and female blues singers
Willie Dixon
He really did write the songs (not Barry Manilow)
Buddy Guy
Influenced by Muddy and Wolf and Guitar Slim, but created the prototype of wild-[Biblical Donkey] guitar-slingers like Hendrix, early Clapton, Johnny Winter and SRV
sadfield
Tele-Afflicted
Sadly, I never got to see Son House. He might have been dead. I wouldn't want to see him, then.
Only thing is, I have a real hard time neglecting RJ on a list of influential bluesmen. I hear a lot more than just Led Zep owing him a lick or two.
Fiesta Red
Doctor of Teleocity
Saying Purism is bad and Leadbelly isn’t blues is not mutually exclusive.
Huddie Ledbetter was a folk singer with bluesy inflections.
Hank Williams was a country and western singer with bluesy inflections.
John Coltrane was a jazz musician with bluesy inflections.
But none of them were specifically blues musicians.
How's this for irony? The most influential guy on the Chess Records roster doesn't count because he crossed over to white radio.
Fiesta Red
Doctor of Teleocity
Chuck Berry?
But he was a rock and roller who dabbled in blues…
Influential as can be though…
So the first published fully-formed twelve-bar recorded blues was this:
Iva Smith and Cow Cow Davenport
so that's one
if you want to count published sheet music, there was this 1908 piece by Anthony Maggio
I don't know to differentiate this from rag-time
Iva Smith and Cow Cow Davenport
so that's one
if you want to count published sheet music, there was this 1908 piece by Anthony Maggio
I don't know to differentiate this from rag-time
butterswolf
TDPRI Member
Electric blues or blues rock:
Robert Nighthawk
Earl Hooker
John Mayall. Mayall kind of spawns Clapton, Beck, Page, etc.
Maybe these guys are considered more rock or soul than blues?
Robert Nighthawk
Earl Hooker
John Mayall. Mayall kind of spawns Clapton, Beck, Page, etc.
Maybe these guys are considered more rock or soul than blues?
