Bobby "Blue" Bland: S & D

GREAT guitar playing. Wayne Bennett, I think?

GREAT guitar playing. Wayne Bennett, I think?

According to the notes to "I Pity the Fool/The Duke Recordings, Vol. 1," it's not Wayne Bennett on "Wishing Well." Probably Clarence Holloman. But Wayne Bennett is awesome. One Bland LP I have not heard is his "California Album." Anyone know this?

I like his archaic vocabulary, things like 'headache powder', sounds almost Victorian.

I have a friend who went to see Bland a few years ago not knowing about his voice, and he couldn't get past that either, Scott.

The other CD I ordered was this: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2: The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings".

Scott, have you been re-reading Beatrix Potter?!

Still touring. I was away over Presidents Day weekend though and missed his DC show. I bet that snort he does on the high notes is even more pronounced now than it was when I last saw him. Haven't listened to his awesome "Two Steps from teh Blues" in awhile. Need to remedy that.

had no idea this guy was still truckin

the arrangements on his best tracks are super fantastic. just beautifully arranged horn charts etc.

was afraid this revive was going to be the RIP notice - glad he's still out there, even if I wince a little internally in anticipation of the that snort....

Saw Bland headline the FREE Prince George's Community College Bluebird festival Saturday (near W. DC) with Clarence Carter opening. 82-year-old Bland had to be helped on and off the stage. He performed sitting down but was still awesome (yeah, I know the snort instead of hitting high notes). Due to delays and a curfew he had to a do a rushed set, but "St James Infirmary," "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City," Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine", and Bland's 80s era 'hit' "Members Only" to name a few, still showed off a great voice and his fine band. If you're interested in such things, demographically the large crowd consisted largely of 40 and over African-Americans (and the rest old soul and blues nerds like me plus some younger Black folks with families). No Washington Post review of the gig in the morning paper (just of Dierks Bentley). Oh well.

I love what I've heard of him and the textures he uses throughout. Weird pipes etc behind him and some odd guitar sounds.
I was thinking Deadric Malone must be a really great writer since he was behind so much great stuff by the guy. Shame to hear the way in which this was though.

Also love the way that Bobby can veer between SAm Cooke smoothness nad Howlin Wolf roughness.
Oh & the st wave 60s Brit covers of his material, some bits of the Dead too.

RIP

http://www.americanbluesscene.com/2013/06/bobby-blue-bland/

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2013/06/rip_bobby_blue_bland_rb_singer.php

He was a great one. Loved his old records and the live shows I saw

"Deadrick Malone" I see is a name that Houston promoter/producer Don Robey used, and many doubt that he wrote any of the songs he took credit for.

Damn, he was of my faves. Rip

RIP

RIP - California Album has to be one of the most satisfying album-as-album blues albums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i30M4GQa_Tk

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnbybbzn9F1qfz1peo1_500.jpg

Two Steps From The Blues and His California Album are my favorite B "B" B LPs but oooh that ^^ cover. As said upthread, the 2-CD anthologies of his Duke years are all worth getting. Saw him on a bill with Al Green & the Staple Singers, in the late 80s but still...RIP.

http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/in-memoriam/wax-poetics-presents

Nice Spotify playlist

Reading more obits and Facebook recollections. Dude was a titan.

For those in Memphis:

Services for Mr. Bobby "Blue" Bland

First Baptist Church - Broad

2835 Broad Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38112

More Information and Directions

Church Office: (901) 323-2429

*Visitation: 1pm - 6pm

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

*Funeral : 11:00 am
Thursday, June 27, 2013

aw RIP

was bumpin Dreamer last night

His voice was collosal - he could holler with the best of them. Did he influence James Brown or vice - versa?

Muscle Shoal's Dan Penn re Bobby Bland (an old interview reposted)

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2013/jun/25/issue-2728-bobby-blands-influential-voice/

Somehow missed this. My favourite, very string-laden:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twmI4J5qwAs

RIP "Texas" Johnny Brown, co-writer of "Two Steps From The Blues" (the song)

I got to see him perform a couple times, but I got to hear him speak a few years ago. Dr. Roger Wood (quoted in the article) put on a series of talks with area blues legends. Mr. Brown was the first, and was such an eloquent speaker, discussing how to take the blues into the 21st century, stressing the need to find new subjects to write about. "We're no longer in the cotton fields...oppression is not what it once was" he said.

http://www.thesoulbasement.com/Site/Duke-Peacock.html

Article on Don Robey, head of the Peacock label that put out Bobby Blue Bland records

Kinda frustrating article. the excerpt below notes that Bland thrived under Robey, but tried to avoid Robey's hands-on-interference. Wish the article had more on Joe Scott who worked on the arrangements and such for Bland.

There was little evidence in his early recordings that Bland was going to amount to anything special but, within a short period following Robey’s acquisition of his contract, he was transformed from a decent, if undisciplined, singer to one of the great artists of the post-War period.

Bland’s great ability was to create an intimacy with the listener that just gets inside of your head. The velvet tones, the gospel inflections, the sexiness of the vocals, the sophisticated musicality of the sparse arrangements - usually by Joe Scott (1924-1979) - earned Bland a place in the hearts of many Afro-Americans. The album, ‘Two Steps From The Blues’, cut in Chicago (allegedly to avoid Robey’s hands-on interference) and released on Duke lp #74 in 1961, was Bland’s apogee as a recording artist.

There's gonna be a Bobby Bland one hour "Unsung" tv special Wednesday on the TV One network

tomorrow night! Snorting and all

New display name, thank you!

DVRed it and watched part of it. Some good footage and interviews, although you get the sometimes standard "Unsung" soap opera drama approach. But drugs, drinking and running around chasing women was part of his life.

Bobby Blue Bland seemed like man that understands:

"I wouldn't treat a dog, the way you treated me...
I wouldn't do it.
I couldn't do it..."

BBB just could really phrase his voice, makes the line very conversational.

I love those lush early to mid 70s arrangements are like the R&B version of Countrypolitan.

Was just checking out a record store, and one of the only other browsers was this big MF in overalls going over the R&B vinyl. Eventually he starts chatting up the clerks about Duke-Peacock Records. Turns out the guy is Don Robey/Deadric Malone's nephew. Fortunately no shakedowns ensued.

https://vimeo.com/205123584?fbclid=IwAR0Zg7BDUxUoPaIhpbGc_c4vWHvn_og6G3pqNG0ZkawckAZmKbIb1gkotEs

Unsung series doc on him. He was born today in 1930 and died in 2013. Great singer even when he lost ability to hit high notes & snorted instead.

When I first learned about him, he seemed like a big deal. All the Rolling Stone guides etc. and guys like Dave Marsh and Robert Christgau treated him like one of the greats, and Salon even did one of their "Brilliant Careers" essays on him (remember those?) But I've rarely heard him mentioned since his death, and even the critic Bill Wyman rated him as some kind of second-tier or possibly third-tier artist in a recent NYMag feature. So yeah, he's under-appreciated now, hence the Unsung doc, which is a damn shame.

In the over age 50 Black American community he's a bigger deal.

I saw him live a number of times in the DC area, and the crowd was largely Black.

Two Steps from the Blues was the one that was listed in the Treasure Island section of Stranded, iirc.