One Step Ahead of the Blues

So I'm typing this up late sunday night because I know i'm gonna to be busy at work this week and I figured I might as well write this now so I don't run late at work. I'm actually sitting at home watching my taped adult swim and everything's just tip top.
I was listening to this great Van Morrison show from the late sixties at the Fillmore and it's just incredible, the way he belts out those songs with with such vigor and stride that it's just incredible the way his voice sounds with that band behind it.
But I was not always of this opinion. You see, I was once a serious Van Morrison hater for awhile. It was pointless and stemming from when, in my late teens, I purged my music collection of all things that once bore the tag or likeness to the tag; "blue-eyed soul". I had grown up with Van Morrison in the house, and I could sing along with many of his records, but like anyone who becomes a little obsessed with an artist or a genre, you do your research and look into who this artist that you like is and who they draw their inspiration from. Then you go and check those albums out. and then look into who their references are. I swear it's incredible, it's like peeling layers of an onion. with each layer getting more compact and functional as you work your way to that tiny little sprout of an idea.
Sometimes, it can be a near religious experience. It's peeking in to this whole universe that you were never aware of, one that's filled with pirate treasure. When I first picked up on Stax/Volt I wouldn't even sleep some nights, just going through hundreds of perfect recordings. I still had to go bac past though, through Chicago and Memphis and shit, even Texas. and back to the Mississippi Delta. I whittled away at the blues for what seemed like years, and maybe was.
On the other hand, though, you can sometimes have downright creepy and awful experiences when going to the roots of a genre. I had a lot of trouble when so many bands pointed me to the Smiths. or when Ministry made me go out and buy a bunch of industrial hardcore albums. Bad idea jeans for me.
Anyway, so like I was saying, I really took to the blues. I had what can only be construed as a typical suburban introduction to the blues if my age which was, aside from owning a John Lee Hooker album when I was 10, The Blues Brothers. Oh, shit, the Blues Brothers! I loved that movie, and I knew who some of the people in there were, like Ray Charles and Aretha, but I really had no idea how tiny that scratch on the surface and so for a few years I became a blues purist. I wouldn’t listen to Eric Clapton or Steve Winwood, because they were just aping the first guys. I wouldn’t listen to Alexis Korner and John Mayall, or even the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who were more dedicated to the blues than most of the was still listening to. I began to look at all of these artists as watered-down, blues substitute, and yes, a lot of it was. I looked at Van Morrison as yuppie placeholder music for people who had forgotten what the blues had sounded like or never cared enough to find out in the first place.

Of course, it was foolish and wrong in a lot of ways. And while I still think Van Morrison can qualify as yuppie music, that doesn’t mean it’s without a soul, or not enjoyable. Because when he wants it to, his voice just carries triumph. And it reminds you that everyone –everyone- has problems. And that everyone has a time when they pile up on our doorstep and you find yourself overwhelmed with desperation. So much so that you can’t even figure on which problem to address first. But then out of effort, or blind faith or sheer luck something might happen to right just one of those problems. Just one minor glitch is fixed and, despite all of the other issues going on in your life, you’re just soaring with relief and for one night the rest of life’s problems can fuck off. Everyone has that feeling, and it can be a destructive feeling, and it can be a pointless self-gratification, but damned if it isn't sometimes the sweetest therapy I might ever have received.
So a few years ago I started accepting those guys back in, the American rocksteady bands, the British blues albums, the french rock records, I've taken them all back over the years and they often sound better than I remember. Shit, I’ve even listened to a few Rod Stewart songs that I didn’t hate immediately, and I always hated Rod Stewart.

You have to remind yourself sometimes that music, once recorded, once it is created and out there, becomes the ownership of anyone that listens to it. Our interpretations, and the slight differences and perceptions we might hear belong to us, and we are fit to do what we will with them, renounce them, disclaim the, or bring them back into the fold. Wow. When I started typing this I had no idea it was going to result in something this ambitious.
and here are two posts, a mid-60s Irish soul band and a late 90s hip-hop sounding track from some Scottish guys.

"Here Comes the Night" - Them Buy Them featuring Van Morrison here
"To You Alone" - The Beta Band Buy Rarewerks here