Album of the month

When the CD player made its appearance in the Woestenenk home (in Eefde), I was about eleven years old. I thought it was magical! The drawer opened and closed, you could quickly click on to any song and be completely surprised by the shuffle function (also called random, I found out later). I was in grade 8 in elementary school and sometimes I would go play at a friend’s house where there was a CD player. If I was very careful, I was sometimes allowed to put a CD in the drawer, but now we had one ourselves. When, after much deliberation, we had selected a JVC tower in Doetinchem, the system stood gleaming in our living room. My parents bought two double CDs with it. One of those thick boxes with a CD on two sides and a protective foam in the middle. CDs were very expensive in those days. I think as much as 40 guilders. Both CDs were by Eric Clapton. We also had them on elpee, so an apt choice. ‘Backtrackin’ (a collector) and ‘Just One Night’: Eric Clapton Live. The cover alone: Clapton with his black Fender Stratocaster up front! I dreamed of such a guitar and also knew immediately that I wanted a beard when I grew up. My parents’ record closet had been a magnet for me for years. The smell, the pictures, the stories on (or in) the cover, the link between the artists…. and most of all, the music. I loved it. There was no Internet yet, so if I wanted to know more besides the information on the covers, I would bike to the library to pick up the pop encyclopedia or a biography of an artist I had rediscovered. Cycling a little further was to Deventer. There was Musica, the music store. There were real Fender and Gibson guitars. With a little luck I was allowed to hold one. On a shopping night my parents allowed me to pick out an electric guitar. I had been taking guitar lessons for some time and wanted nothing more than to exchange my Spanish (rental) guitar for a real electric one. The black stratocaster of the Hondo brand fit the budget exactly, and it came with a red strap, just like Clapton! Once home, I discovered a button on the amp: drive. When I pressed it, my guitar sounded exactly like Clapton. “Sunshine of your Love” and “White Room” suddenly sounded very different from my Spanish guitar. My enthusiasm for Clapton became even greater, because in the same year I was allowed to go with him to see Eric Clapton in the Statenhal in The Hague. There I saw him live. Ten years earlier, when Clapton was 34 and I was still in diapers, he recorded the album ‘Just One Night’ during a tour in Japan. Clapton had already lived a glorious life. Music was his passion, but a life of drugs and booze obscured his talent for a long time. In the late 1970s, he replaced his regular American backing band for a group of English musicians. The fresh wind of new musical friends and especially the input of Albert Lee made Clapton play with more fire again. ‘Just One Night’ is a record where for me a lot of emotion can be heard in Clapton’s playing and singing. I played the album and later so the CD over and over again. I took a self-recorded cassette tape to my bedroom to practice and practice on my own stratocaster. The drive button pressed, of course. To this day, this album is a comfort, inspiration and frustration (because I want to be able to play it myself, just like him). Some nights when I travel through Eric Clapton’s songs with my band Claptunes for another evening, there are moments when I am back in my bedroom in Eefde. Then I dream again that I will become as good as Eric and for a moment it seems like that is really the case. Wonderful! The double CD is still in my parents’ closet. Sometimes I take it out, the yellowed foam is still inside. Funny really, how hearing a sound or seeing a simple CD case opens up a whole barrel of memories.

I was 14 when Led Zeppelin III came out. The first song, Immigrant song, was immediately overpowering (and still is). I thought it was an unearthly sound. And that voice of Robert Plant. Rough without screaming. Great record too to play along to as a young guitarist. Even playing air guitar again I couldn’t resist! It took a while until I realized that the guitar was in open tuning on ‘Bron-Y-Aur Stomp’, which was even released on single. Automatically I reach for my guitar again to fiddle around with it. What fun is that to rediscover his record. Kind of coming home. The cover is a work of art in itself, still, timelessly beautiful with that dial and only minimal information. Music is louder than words they must have thought back then. Damn right. Went to spin III now of course for this piece and am once again captured by the sound. All the songs are etched in my memory, how often I played that record. And yet now I heard different details again. Not played it for so long. What such a piece of writing brings about. Once I bought it on CD, but now when I play it on LP, the magic of playing LPs comes back. It won’t leave my turntable for a while. The song “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” I must highlight separately. A slow blues on which Jimmy Page plays one of the most beautiful guitar solos of all time. Some songs like this were inspiration for Homesick & The Backstabbers, my first band, with whom we also often played in Wijk bij Duurstede. And that rhythm section, such a fat drum (John Bonham) & bass (John Paul Jones) sound. Those 4 together was also part of the magic! In the third year of high school I had one of those army bags, those things were hard to come by, a pimple you called it. On mine, of course, was written in thick felt-tip pen…. Led Zeppelin. Timelessly brilliant and I am years younger again.

Back then at V&D these albums were 2.50 guilders. I had seen that mentioned in the Saturday edition of the newspaper but was sick and asked a friend of mine to just take 2 elpees at random. One of them was this one. I don’t really like greatest hits, but she knew a lot and this seemed like a safe choice. I often find greatest hits a mishmash but this one was consistent and all the songs fit together perfectly, especially in terms of atmosphere. Such an old United Artists record. Very pure performances, on which the depth of John Lee Hooker’s voice is outstanding. Still the vintage sound without embellishments and great performances that bore right in. Terrible albums they released. I found that out later. When I heard this album I knew it….this kind of music is what gets me. Since then I have never been able to let go of the blues and my tastes have changed forever. Blues, preferably bare and as pure as possible. And that’s what you get with this album. The old Lightning Hopkins albums have that too, just like the terrible, terrible and another terrible Alabama Blues by J.B. Lenoir. But that’s not an elpee. And no matter how many elpees/CDs I have heard of John Lee Hooker that are not greatest hits: this elpee remains unsurpassed. By anyone.

The album you can wake me up at night for is Boogie with Canned Heat. In 1969 I was 15 years old and that’s when the American blues band came to Castle Duurstede in Wijk bij Duurstede. The reason for their coming was that a weekend of filming was being made of their performances. Buses full of hippies came, there was drug use, music and dancing. At that time, I myself also looked like a hippie and it was not difficult to attend the performance at the castle. The Canned Heat performance was my first introduction to the blues/boogie and set me on the path to the blues. I was impressed by the performance and the first thing I did as a fifteen-year-old after the performance was to buy an album by Canned Heat. It became the LP Boogie with Canned Heat. This album is the second studio album by the American blues and rock band Canned Heat. Released in 1968, it contains mostly original material, unlike their debut album. It was the band’s most commercially successful album, reaching No. 16 in the US and No. 5 in the UK. Boogie with Canned Heat includes the top 10 hit ” On the Road Again “, one of their best-known songs. Also “Amphetamine Annie,” a warning about the dangers of amphetamine abuse and was widely played on the radio. “Fried Hockey Boogie” was the first example of one of Canned Heat’s boogies. Canned Heat emerged in 1966 and was founded by blues historians and record collectors Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson and Bob “The Bear” Hite. The Bear took the name “Canned Heat” from a 1928 recording by Tommy Johnson. They were joined by Henry “The Sunflower” Vestine. The band was completed in 1967 by Larry “The Mole” Taylor on bass, an experienced session musician who had played with Jerry Lee Lewis and The Monkees. Adolfo “Fito” de la Parra played on drums. With their performances at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (along with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who) and headlining the original Woodstock Festival in 1969, the band secured a place in the pages of rock ‘n roll history. The band collaborated with Jon Mayall, Little Richard and later blues icon John Lee Hooker, the musician from whom they initially drew much of their musical inspiration. The band achieved three worldwide hits, “On The Road Again” in 1968, “Let’s Work Together” in 1970 and “Going Up The Country” in 1969 became rock anthems around the world, with the latter song being adopted as the unofficial theme song for the movie Woodstock and the “Woodstock Generation.

Recently we had a fascinating interview with Magic Frankie. After several years of silence, he is picking up the threads of his blues life again. There are plenty of plans for a new band, gigs, recording new songs of his own writing, in short he wants to get back into the spotlight on stage. The Gangster of Blues is back in full force. His first single ever is “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang. This record actually contains everything: R&B, Soul, HipHop, Disco and Rap. Actually, everything is right in this song and it has a great groove. But finally everything falls into place when he sees a program on TV about the origins of the blues in which an American man and woman perform. This performance comes in like a thump, as raw as it sounds. Frankie is totally in shock, his love for the blues is born and will never leave him. In record stores he goes in search of more music. On that search for more wonderful blues music, he discovers James Cotton, a bluesman he had already seen perform in his hometown then, Breda. From this artist he buys the album ‘Live And On The Move’ 1976 (Buddah Records), an album with classic songs like ‘Got My Mojo Workin’, I Don’t Know, ‘Help Me’ and especially the beautiful performance of ‘Blow Wind Blow’ a song by Mc Kinley Morganfield aka Muddy Waters. So when we ask Frankie about his album of the month, he doesn’t hesitate for a moment with this album, one of the ones that started it all for him back then.

Hoodooman Blues is an album by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells and this was the eye opener for me in the 70s. You see, this was so good to hear that it was put directly on the record in the here and now without studio tricks or over dubbing. And that’s what real music could be too. Genuineness and immediacy. Nothing to the detriment of music that is overthought and overdubbed and arranged, that remains but to me the immediacy of the moment really appeals. Like a Zen master smashing a calligraphy on the canvas in one motion. But another truth is. You can’t expect authentic intimate music to be brought to a large audience. People go out to laugh, drink and dance. We give them a piece of freedom that they lack in their work. Every musician would rather have a full house of nice people than a few critics with a notebook to write on. And you have to find the magic yourself, a DJ can’t help with that, he wants to become famous himself.

It is Sunday morning and I have just returned from a nice party on the beach in Scheveningen (read… broke), I walk to my grandfather’s wooden fruit auction box to pick out an LP as I normally do every Sunday morning with a cup of coffee. Yet this time is different, I now want to pick an LP to write an ode to for the website of Blues in Wijk. Doubt, doubt, doubt… Which one shall I choose? Ries already has “the London Sessions”, Wim has Elmore James and Bo chooses Muddy… Shit! Let’s see, how do you determine your favorite LP? Oh well, I’ll have to choose anyway. I go for a real modern classic “Blues Singer” by Buddy Guy from 2003. Back to basics! Jos du Floo once gave me this wonderful record as an audio file “you really should listen to this”. I think it’s a wonderful record, beautiful acoustic blues with a wonderful relaxed atmosphere that makes me feel very relaxed and where my thoughts wander away to a world of 100 years ago, a world without hurry. Somehow I find it a very exciting record, when you hear the song “Crawlin’ Kingsnake” together with BBKing and Eric Clapton. What a groove you say! The song “Moanin’ and Groanin’” gives me the feeling of a couple of guys along the Mississipie River making music with each other. Maybe it is my feeling of being broke. But what a fine record to listen to with an espresso!

This LP is not really my favorite, but whenever someone asks me about it, this is always the one that comes to mind first. That’s probably because of the unparalleled versions of Little Wing and Red House on this album (both of which I think I’ve listened to about 300,000 times). So maybe this album has had more influence on my musical development than I realize. It is a “Live” album which is composed of songs from various concerts and two different band formations and has a bit of a messy history (which suits me). My first copy (LP) I played gray and where other people sometimes made a scratch on such an LP while moving the needle, I branded mine with a burning cigarette while turning it over (I think still with heavy Van Nelle) so that was careful while turning it over because otherwise I could get a new needle. As far as I’m concerned, this album is still highly recommended, especially for musicians. Just make sure you listen to the original, from before 2011. Jimi Hendrix- guitar, vocals; Mitch Mitchell- drums; Noel Redding- bass guitar (1968-1969 tracks and Billy Cox- bass guitar (1970 tracks) On the 1st release of the album (1971):   The album’s credits misrepresent “Little Wing” and “Voodoo Child” as being recorded in San Diego, but in reality they were recorded at the Royal Albert Hall on February 24, 1969. All songs were written by Hendrix, except where noted. The album details are from the original 1971 Reprise LP record labels. The original UK Polydor release reverses the sides, with “Johnny B. Goode” as opening side one and “The Queen” side two. Both the Reprise and Polydor album liner notes list the tracks in a different order than the actual LPs. 2011 reissue: Hendrix in the West was reissued on September 13, 2011, as part of Experience Hendrix’s project to remaster Hendrix’s discography. Because the rights to the Royal Albert Hall performances featured on the original LP are in dispute,[8] the reissue replaces the recordings of “Little Wing” (3:52) from Winterland on October 12, 1968, and “Voodoo Child” (10:40) from the San Diego Sports Arena on May 24, 1969.

BluesinWijk’s LP of the month feature has already produced a nice collection of albums by Blues giants from home and abroad. That, combined with the fact that there is such a rich history of fantastic Blues albums to choose from, makes it no easy task to come up with one LP of the month. Still, I was missing an artist who should definitely not be missing from this wonderful collection. When I was born, he had been dead for 63 years. As the first member of the infamous club of 27, he wasn’t granted a long life, but fortunately his music lived (and still lives) on. I am of course talking about Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues singers. The work of this pioneer of the Blues, which consists of only 29 songs, is a must-have in the collection of every Blues fan. With his howling voice and virtuoso guitar playing, to me he is truly one of the first great Blues legends and his music manages to touch me time and time again. He recorded first versions of many Blues classics and there are many of them on this posthumous 1961 collector. Outside of Johnson’s great music, which would become an inspiration for many music legends from Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix, Johnson was very important to the Blues in another way. His life, about which little can really be said with certainty, has been eagerly used by many as material for myth-making due to his young death. In doing so, he has become the epitome of the Blues. The stories, which undoubtedly have very little to do with reality, have fascinated Blues fans and historians around the world for decades. From his alleged encounters with the devil to the wild conspiracies over his mysterious death via the story that he allegedly sold his soul to the devil in exchange for superhuman skill on the guitar. This story is supported by rock solid songs on this album such as Me and the devil Blues and Crossroads Blues. The iconic cover of this album also tells a fascinating story in all its simplicity. For me, the mysterious and dark aspect is an important part of the charm of the Blues. Listening to the Blues brings you very close to a time long gone, with all its secrets and beauties, and that is what is so wonderful, exciting and fascinating about this music. Robert Johnson is still unsurpassed in expressing this story comprehensively and aptly with minimal means, and so he certainly deserves a spot in this fine column.

I was 12 years old when I saw Hendrix on TV, it was a rainy day and on TV( Belgium 2) there was a concert, that was namely Jimi plays Berkeley. My mother tipped me to it, knowing that I was (and still am) very interested in guitar music. I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture…this was unbelievable, this was how it had to be and this was the sound I liked. That’s where I saw the Marshall stacks, just like AC/DC. A love of life was born. The Fender stratocaster and wah pedal did the rest. Unbelievable what a sound. After a week, not sleeping from excitement hahahaha I took the plunge and went to a friend of my father’s. My father said go and see him, he has a lot of LPs. Saturday afternoon I rang the bell and he (Pierre was his name) let me in. I asked about the music, Hendrix! Oh boy, sit down, he said, and I’ll let you hear some. That’s where it started, that afternoon my future was formed, we went from Freddie King, to Rory Gallagher, from Allman Brothers to Litlle Feat, from Howlin wolf to ….alles that I didn’t know but he let me hear. This was my music, in addition to the rock and metal I already had at home in small numbers, like Quo, and AC/DC and Motorhead.After 4 hours I said to him, I saw Hendrix on TV! What do you have from that? What of it! was his answer, but he said, I actually have to go somewhere, but I’ll give you an LP. That album was the Band of Gypsies. When I got home I went to my bedroom and put the record on the turntable. What a sound, freedom and improvisation….that record, like Irish Tour by Gallagher, shaped my musical thinking…. from the first notes of Who Knows to the last sounds of We gotta live together…..unbelievable. But that one note of the solo of Machine gun…is the highlight of the record for me. By now I am a big music collector myself, of all kinds of styles, from Jazz ,blues to metal and prog, psychedelics, sixties etc. Over the years I have collected all versions of the Hendrix Band of Gypsys recordings, bootlegs, extra tracks somewhere on CDs, etc., until finally two years ago a boxset appeared with all the tracks from those evenings……. it was complete, just like my search…. Once gaaien I found myself listening to the music, the intensity and the freedom……..it still is for me….Band Of Gypsys changed my musical life permanently….timelessly inspiring musical document of a legend……..Hendrix……Gorgeous