Fathers and Sons in Post War Blues Forum

0 Points

Add Reply New Topic New Poll

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Fathers and Sons

Author

Comment

MaskedMarvel

Fathers and Sons

Lead

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 6919

Sep 30 09 12:36 PM

Tags : None

Before listening I already read reviews about this album for a long time, I wanted it despite the reviews. I was curious. And after listening, there are great numbers. Mean Disposition, for instance, is a fine Blues from the first rate. So, I'd say it is a good album for me.

All the above written is in my opinion unless it is someone else's opinion, or a fact.

Location: Zur Moshe, Israel

Reply Quote

Muddylives

#1

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 5137

Sep 30 09 1:49 PM

It is a good album, a very good album, in fact. I can't recall seeing any of the negative reviews that you speak of.

Muddy

Reply Quote

richard ray

#2

[-]

Posts: 1365

Sep 30 09 2:09 PM

One of the 1st blues albums I bought as a teenager. Muddy, Butterfield, etc. What's not to love?

Reply Quote

rshurman

#3

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 3244

Sep 30 09 2:17 PM

Agreed, I'm not aware of any controversy about its quality. I was at the live show.

Chicagoland

Reply Quote

MaskedMarvel

#4

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 6919

Sep 30 09 3:10 PM

This review http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gnfyxqugldke

QUOTE

Without question, the highlight of Fathers and Sons is the live performances which are incessantly fuelled by the explosive nature of the musicians on stage as well as the audience. "Long Distance Call" and the two-part "Got My Mojo Working" are the finest pieces on the album. They likewise rate among the most complimentary marriages of Chicago R&B with rock & roll.

The last line especially had me thinking it is more like if Michael Jordan had decided to finish his career in one of the European basketball leagues. 3 stars out of 5 rate added to the general feeling I had about after reading the review. In the link you don't see the rate but it is in the book I have.

In The Penguine Guide To Blues it got this rating : **(*) (I think it is like 2.5 out of 5) which means by the book's definition "Reasonably good, but in some respects disappointing". And the book summarize it as follows: "There's nothing musically amiss with Fathers and Sons, but nearly everything on it has been done as well, or better, before."

I don't think the reviews are negative, but not something recommended, or good. it's like something ok+-.

All the above written is in my opinion unless it is someone else's opinion, or a fact.

Location: Zur Moshe, Israel

Reply Quote

nighthawk

#5

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 9270

Sep 30 09 4:25 PM

I wouldn't get too excited about that All Music Guide review, heck they list Butterfield as a guitar player. This was one of the very first Blues records I bought along with Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign in the early 70's. I was still several years away from really delving into that music, but the combination of folks like Booker T & The MGs and Mike Bloomfield backing bluesmen that I'd heard of pushed me towards those releases when I got interested because acts like Cream, The Allmans, Yardbirds, Derek & The Dominoes and Hendrix had Blues roots in their rock and I dug that a lot. I drifted away from Fathers & Sons and Born Under A Bad Sign for a number of years after I got Blues 'serious'. With time, however, I found my way back to both and enjoy them greatly to this day.

"A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

Location: just outside of Pittsburgh, PA

Reply Quote

SuncoastGeorge

#6

[-]

Posts: 2487

Sep 30 09 7:26 PM

I still have my original Chess 2-LP set..with the "Sistine Chapel" record labels.
I bought it when it was newly released... I almost wore out the live side in the first week I had it....

Long Distance Call? Damn!

�I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes�.

George Willett

http://www.myspace.com/suncoastgeorge
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542168191&ref=profile

Tampa, Florida, USA, Earth

Reply Quote

hellmore

#7

[-]

Posts: 1002

Oct 1 09 1:21 AM

QUOTE (richard ray @ September 30, 2009 02:09 pm)

One of the 1st blues albums I bought as a teenager. Muddy, Butterfield, etc. What's not to love?

Amen brother! THE first LP (Blues) I bought as a teen. Thank you, House of Records ,Eugene Oregon. Muddy, Bloomfield, Otis Spann, Sam Lay, Duck Dunn, a great record. BTW The All Music Guide can suck it.

Reply Quote

otis

#8

[-]

Posts: 224

Oct 1 09 4:11 AM

This is how "Fathers and Sons" has effected my life:
A friend of mine bought me this album for a birthday present in '69 because he knew I was into Mike Bloomfield and he couldn't find an album by him. That's how I got turned on to Muddy Waters.
A month later my friend was in a motorcycle accident; was in a coma for 3 years, woke up as a "vegetable" and died 23 years later.
In the meantime I turned another friend on to this album. He fell in love with it too.
He eventually became my best man at my wedding. I've been married 33 years.
To This day when I call him or he calls me the first words spoken are... "Sounds Like A Long Distant Call."
Yes; this album is about as bittersweet as anything can be. (don't know what emotion smile to use now)

Reply Quote

Don Malcholm

#9

[-]

Posts: 243

Oct 1 09 5:52 PM

Otis, that's a great story!

Looked on Amazon.com at the album reviews; nobody rates it lower than 4 stars, and those few 4 star ratings are almost all attributed to these songs all being "remakes" of songs Muddy had already done. Still, because EACH RECORDING of a particular blues song is a unique interpretaion, I don't see that as a drawback.

I particularly like how "All Aboard" sets the tone for the whole album - Muddy isn't singing along with the band; the band is follwing Muddy.

Great stuff! Far better than the "In London" albums by Muddy, Wolf, and B.B.

Reply Quote

dick deluxe

#10

[-]

Posts: 3874

Oct 1 09 6:17 PM

I loved this record and too have a story about it. When I was living in Austin in the early 70's I had a job as an assistant social worker (flunky) at a special center dedicated to learning whether with good care and attention, severely retarded or brain damaged individuals could live longer and happier........(yes of course!)

Anyway, among the "tools" at my disposal in working with patients was a copy of Fathers and Sons! Turned out had been brought there by a relative of WC Clark who worked there and proceeded to introduce me to the Eastside Austin (then all black) blues scene. Also introduced me to a Palestinian liquor store owner who sold a little 420 on the side....some guy named Clifford Antone......

Nothing seemed to amuse the patients more than me playing along with that record and I spent many of my 2.15 cent an hour time incessantly playing along with Muddy and company in the service of good health (mostly my then rudimentary chops!).

Nearly 40 years later I've never played to a more appreciate audience whom I liked better. One of vivid memories is of James "Blueshound" Nagle coming to vivit and nearly passing out-the sites, sounds and smells could be pretty alarming until you got used to it and James nearly hit the deck

Later that night we went to see Gatemouth Brown......that's nearly 40 years ago now...ouch!

"playin' the blues without any shoes....."
DD

dd on myspace

dd on facebook

Reply Quote

MountainBlues

#11

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 2286

Oct 10 09 11:29 PM

QUOTE (Muddylives @ September 30, 2009 08:49 am)

It is a good album, a very good album, in fact. I can't recall seeing any of the negative reviews that you speak of.

Muddy

I love virtually everything about Fathers and Sons. I have searched reviews but all I have found are positive ones, so I'm curious where these negative reviews are. Not that I want to read anything negative necessarily, but I'd be curious to see what the negativity would be.

"I don't do any of that hardcore blues stuff where they got a one-track mind talking about how a woman ain't nothing." (Gatemouth Brown)

Reply Quote

Don Malcholm

#12

[-]

Posts: 243

Oct 11 09 2:12 AM

One of the things I like best about the "Fathers and Sons" album is comparing the tracks on this album to the previous versions Muddy had recorded

Case in point would be "All Aboard", originally recorded in Feb of 1956 (just over 13 years before the "Fathers and Sons" version). Although both versions have their oddities the older version is "unusual" in that it runs 4 1/2 bars per phrase rather than the standard 4 that the newer version runs.

Also of note (to me) is how the band handles Muddy starting the vocals (both at the beginning of the song and after the instrumental break); in each case, he seems to come in at an "unpredictable" time. The 1956 band handles the intro pretty well, but seems unprepared for the return of the vocal after the instrumental break; the 1969 band seems to be taken by surprise by the initial vocal, but jump right on after the break. (Note that the difficulty comes because Muddy seems to start the vocal regardless of where the band is, and the commencement of the vocal requries a move to the IV chord).

Lastly, in the 1956 version the vocals are enunciated better in the final verse (I had no idea what he was saying in the 1969 version until I got the older one); the verse (in 1956) went "Workin' man deserves, loafer tears him down"....the 1969 verse is "Workin' man deserves, rambler tears him down" (not quite sure it's "rambler" but that's the best I can figure).

My $0.02. Everybody wake back up now

Reply Quote

SuncoastGeorge

#13

[-]

Posts: 2487

Oct 11 09 2:29 AM

QUOTE (Don Malcholm @ October 11, 2009 02:12 am)

My $0.02. Everybody wake back up now

I love this stuff, Don...

�I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes�.

George Willett

http://www.myspace.com/suncoastgeorge
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542168191&ref=profile

Tampa, Florida, USA, Earth

Reply Quote

mcgrat2003

#14

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 153

Oct 11 09 3:41 AM

I was living in Chicago at the time. This concert happened just a few blocks away from my apartment and I missed it. I will regret it to my dying day or 'til my brain stops whichever comes first.

Reply Quote

MaskedMarvel

#15

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 6919

Oct 11 09 9:56 AM

QUOTE (MountainBlues @ October 11, 2009 02:29 am)

QUOTE (Muddylives @ September 30, 2009 08:49 am)

It is a good album, a very good album, in fact. I can't recall seeing any of the negative reviews that you speak of.

Muddy

I love virtually everything about Fathers and Sons. I have searched reviews but all I have found are positive ones, so I'm curious where these negative reviews are. Not that I want to read anything negative necessarily, but I'd be curious to see what the negativity would be.

I think Muddy Lives thought because the tone of my post that there are negative review, but that is something which I didn't write! The reviews I mentioned (and if you have the time to read you can see on this thread), were not praising the album, far from it, saying its a "marriage between Rock and Chicago RNB", not mentioning that it is deep Blues at its best, which made me think its not what I desire.

Added another review saying it has all been done equally at least or better I thought there is no value in purchasing it. All is logically written.

Luckily, I decided to do purchase the album, despite the reviews impact!

All the above written is in my opinion unless it is someone else's opinion, or a fact.

Location: Zur Moshe, Israel

Reply Quote

SuncoastGeorge

#16

[-]

Posts: 2487

Oct 11 09 12:26 PM

QUOTE (mcgrat2003 @ October 11, 2009 03:41 am)

I was living in Chicago at the time. This concert happened just a few blocks away from my apartment and I missed it. I will regret it to my dying day or 'til my brain stops whichever comes first.

I know the feeling.. I lived in New York State in 1969 and passed on Woodstock..

�I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes�.

George Willett

http://www.myspace.com/suncoastgeorge
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542168191&ref=profile

Tampa, Florida, USA, Earth

Reply Quote

Tom Rushen

#17

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 4476

Oct 11 09 1:35 PM

QUOTE (MountainBlues @ October 10, 2009 07:29 pm)

QUOTE (Muddylives @ September 30, 2009 08:49 am)

It is a good album, a very good album, in fact. I can't recall seeing any of the negative reviews that you speak of.

Muddy

I love virtually everything about Fathers and Sons. I have searched reviews but all I have found are positive ones, so I'm curious where these negative reviews are. Not that I want to read anything negative necessarily, but I'd be curious to see what the negativity would be.

My memory is fuzzy on this, but I seem to recall a review in "Blues Unlimited" magazine when "Fathers and Sons" came out that was less than thrilled.

But then, Mike Leadbitter and Simon Napier were generally not enthusiasts of the "marriage of blues and rock", and generally preferred Muddy Waters' earlier recordings made for a black audience. Even Muddy's recordings such as "Live At Mr. Kelly's" were deemed a tad too polite for their tastes. Agree with Leadbitter/Napier or not, they had a point of view that should be respected.

Reply Quote

SuncoastGeorge

#18

[-]

Posts: 2487

Oct 11 09 1:40 PM

Mike Leadbitter and Simon Napier are well respected, and their opinion deserves respect, but ultimately it's still opinion

Many times I'm on their side of the aisle, but lately I've been broadening my horizons...

�I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes�.

George Willett

http://www.myspace.com/suncoastgeorge
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542168191&ref=profile

Tampa, Florida, USA, Earth

Reply Quote

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Add Reply

Yuku free message boards

Fathers and Sons

Fathers and Sons