Saturday, July 23, 2005
Global Music Scene
Long John Baldry gave up the ghost recently at 64 in Vancouver, BC. He had been a Canuck since early 80s. He's supposed to have been a legendary British Bluesman (oxymoron) but I could never listen to him fake the blues. He toured with the Beatles in '64. His voice allowed such non-singers as Captain Beefheart and Root Boy Slim to have the nerve to take the stage. He helped loose Elton John on us. I guess that's an achievement. He did have one crowning achievement--the story he tells about getting arrested and going to Court in London before he starts the song Don't Try to Lay no Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll (on the album It Ain't Easy, 1971). It is an excellent story and he tells it so well. The song it goes to kinda sucks and it's supposed to be one of his best ones. I've been known, when the song got some airplay on the radio (and I listened to music on the radio) to listen to the story and then change to another station when he starts singing. Still, worth noting. For the next 20 years the music legends, stars and even the trolls of the Great Music Renaissance (1967- 1971) will be dropping like flies. Here was one of them.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 9:11 AM 
