*whispers* the blues kinda suck...?!

[Italuke]

Wow, talk about "thread drift."

[CharlieBman]

You lost me at "blues masters like BB King leave me cold, however much emotion they put into it". If you can't feel what BB King poured into his playing, I can understand why the blues kinda suck for you.

But the blues as a historical, cultural, purely American art form, and deeply human need for means of expressing pain, grief, and suffering, surfacing back in the 1860's after a violent and vicious Civil War...doesn't suck.

[Italuke]

Originally Posted by CharlieBman

You lost me at "blues masters like BB King leave me cold, however much emotion they put into it". If you can't feel what BB King poured into his playing, I can understand why the blues kinda suck for you.

There's all kinds of music. From brain, heart, gonads, etc. Much music is a combination of these. The OP only likes brain music. Some people are like that.

[Sadie-f]

Originally Posted by Farlsborough

Just a fun thread to introduce a cat amongst pigeons, I'm not trying to make a serious point here. However, whilst I've constantly heard how the blues are responsible for all pop and rock music ever, the original and the best, how the Beatles and Elvis and the Rolling Stones and Hendrix and everyone in between were intoxicated with the wonderful blues... I rarely see people admitting that they find the blues really, really boring.
...
If a famous guitarist is giving a tutorial/interview and they pick up their guitar and say, "of course, it all goes back to the blues..." and start chugging away on the lower strings, it's an instant turn off.

I'm fascinated by what it is that people find so inspirational, and wonder if I'm really alone in this?!

I find it salient that none of your examples are what I think of as the roots of blues music - Piedmont, Memphis, Appalachian, Acadian (whether New Orleans or Canadian maritimes).

These are things that go back to the '20s in terms of when we hear recordings, and far earlier in their vocal tradition origins.

FWIW, I agree with you that much or what spawned out of those older traditions strikes me as stale .. and the music I like comes from those roots and runs more complex.

[Birdbrain]

Originally Posted by egordon99

Listen to Pat Metheny's "Secret Story" and be prepared to have your mind changed.

Seriously...

I adore that record, but you know, it does have vocals from the first number- a Cambodian children's choir.

[Joe Beamish]

The majority of anything is mediocre.

[@lagatrix]

Ellington, Bowie, Farka touré, Fahey, Coltraine (Alice and John), Ives, Staples, Hendrix, Zorn, Holiday, Hendrix, Khan (Chaka and Nusrat), Gershwin, Marley, Weill, Williams, Santana, Berlin, Reed (Jimmy and Ola Belle and Lou)... and on and on...

Blues is an indelible ingredient, an element, a plaintive echo connecting so much of the last century's music together. To focus on it as a discrete genre seems to be the problem here. I agree with those who aren't inspired by mere appropriation and repetition. Personally, Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn leave me cold... but to dismiss the blues wholesale is like dismissing the oxygen atom in water, or perhaps more appropriately, to dismiss the color blue?

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Joe Beamish

The majority of anything is mediocre.

Well said.

[Mr. Jelly]

I have been working at my stage craft while performing. Part of that is talking to the audience at times. I had to find something to talk about. I started doing this thing where I state or talk about some aspect of the song that I am about to do. So, I have to research the songs. I did one of the first if not the first blues standard the other night. "It Ain't Nobody's Business" What's not to like with that song?

[Bluenose]

Originally Posted by @lagatrix

Ellington, Bowie, Farka touré, Fahey, Coltraine (Alice and John), Ives, Staples, Hendrix, Zorn, Holiday, Hendrix, Khan (Chaka and Nusrat), Gershwin, Marley, Weill, Williams, Santana, Berlin, Reed (Jimmy and Ola Belle and Lou)... and on and on...

Blues is an indelible ingredient, an element, a plaintive echo connecting so much of the last century's music together. To focus on it as a discrete genre seems to be the problem here. I agree with those who aren't inspired by mere appropriation and repetition. Personally, Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn leave me cold... but to dismiss the blues wholesale is like dismissing the oxygen atom in water, or perhaps more appropriately, to dismiss the color blue?

Yes indeed, well put. "There's the Blues and there's Zip A Dee Doo Dah." Townes Van Zandt