Dan Gould Posted November 18, 2005 Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 I know the Kent sides are considered the masterpieces, but what do people think about B.B.'s Bluesway albums? I recently picked up Blues on Top of Blues and Blues is King and quite enjoy both. Now I'm wondering about Confessin' The Blues which seems to have quite a few older tunes I don't think B.B. recorded before or since: Confessin' The Blues, Drink Muddy Water, Goin to Chicago Blues, Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town, Cherry Red. Anyone familiar with this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danasgoodstuff Posted November 18, 2005 Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 I think I have the BB you're asking about on a reissue dbl LP Great Moments on Impulse and the material you're asking about is good but not as good as Blues is King which is stellar in my book...I actually think that BB peaked as a recording artis shortly after he got to ABC/Bluesway. They recorded him live which RPM had never done (the "Live" album on Kent is a fake meant to steal Live at the Regal's thunder). The box set from a few years back picks up some choice non-album singles from this period and while I've never cared for the Lucille album much I think Live & Well and Completely Well are really fine. People take BB for granted I think 'cause he's donme so much, and while there is certainly better and worse I've heard v. little that was really poor... Not sure if this helps but I'd say go for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 I remember having those lps years ago and I don't have them any more. . . they're really fine. I have been listening to the Crown cd reissues on Ace and just have gotten "stuck" in that period of B. B. . . . I just love this stuff, and they're fine reissues in every way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 Also I've begun listening to the Peter Green material in the Fleetwood Mac catalog again. . . forgot how he captured the B. B. thing so positiveiy when he wanted to. . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 I've never heard Confessin' the Blues, but in general I don't like BB's Bluesway recordings anywhere near as much as the sides he recorded for RPM/Modern/Kent - now reissued on Ace/UK. One exception is Blues Is King - (you've mentioned that you already have that one, Dan) - which to my ears is his best live album - better than the revered Live at the Regal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felser Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 in general I don't like BB's Bluesway recordings anywhere near as much as the sides he recorded for RPM/Modern/Kent ← The Bluesway stuff is a very different body of work than what came before, much more electric and 60's rock influenced. I strongly prefer it, but suspect that each person's preference will depend as much or more on which genre of the blues they prefer as opposed to which King is "better" on. I know that's the case for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danasgoodstuff Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 The rock influence didn't really come into play until he'd been with Bluesway for 'bout 5 years... But I know what you mean, I was surprised to find when I made cdr's for my brother that I prefered the Bluesway years one to the RPM years one, but then I cherry picked 'em and the Bluesway drew on a far larger body of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold_Z Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 Just a little side note on Blues Is King (an album which I like a lot)....the electric bass is overdubbed..you can hear the organ bass on the tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John L Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 I also really love the Modern/Kent late 50s-early 60s stuff. There was a great equilibirum between vocals and guitar at that time. BBs guitar playing got even better after that (IMO). For pure guitar playing, some of the Bluesway sides are the ultimate, including Blues is King mentioned above. But I love the beautiful falsetto that BB already started to lose in the early 60s. To compensate for that, he has favored more and more of a shout vocal delivery. He singing on the Bluesway LPs is still fine, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alfredson Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 Just a little side note on Blues Is King (an album which I like a lot)....the electric bass is overdubbed..you can hear the organ bass on the tracks. Who's playing organ on this? I wonder why they overdubbed the organ bass... maybe the producers wanted a more "modern" sound? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold_Z Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 Just a little side note on Blues Is King (an album which I like a lot)....the electric bass is overdubbed..you can hear the organ bass on the tracks. Who's playing organ on this? I wonder why they overdubbed the organ bass... maybe the producers wanted a more "modern" sound? Duke Jethro is on organ and Louis Satterfield is on bass. Both are credited and nothing is said in the notes about the bass being an overdub. Being as both organ bass and fender bass are audible, it's my assumtion that the fender is an overdub and I suspect that (as you suggest) it's something the producers decided on for some unknown (to us) reason. Perhaps "a more "modern" sound" or maybe the mix was locked in and the level on the organ bass was too low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Bluesway B.B. is the best B.B.-- better singing, better guitar playing, mostly better material, more variety... Pre-Bluesway B.B. is mostly fine-to-excellent but there's a fair amount of wheel spinning too. "Blues purists" (with a load in their pants) have misled musical youth to dismiss lotsa hot $3-8 B.B. albums, all the way up to "Love Me Tender." John Lee Hooker Bluesway is also underrated (some never on cd), >>>>>> Sonny Stitt's life too. A Complete B.B. Bluesway '66-'82 or some other division wouldn't be remiss. Some '90s B.B. doesn't suck either tho' those duet records-- as with Willie will effin' kill you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted October 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Strange that I never came back to this thread since I was seeking opinions ... I ended up with the Mr Blues/Confessin' The Blues two-fer reissue by Beat Goes On. Confessin is very good but his first album on Bluesway is pretty spotty. I tend to listen to the Confessin' tracks only when I pull it out now. Not long after I picked up Lucille, Live and Well, and Completely Well and the Electric B.B. and enjoyed each quite a bit. But as is so typical, Clem's pronouncements are laughable as well as misinformed. B.B. wasn't recording for Bluesway up through the 70s, he'd moved over to MCA by like, 1970. A true Bluesway box set would be welcome, but his 70s - 80s recordings are spotty and who the fuck thinks Love me Tender is a keeper? And there are more than a few excellent recordings from the 90s on, including Blues on the Bayou, Making Love is Good For You, the Louis Jordan tribute, and especially One Kind Favor from a couple of years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 (edited) Bluesway/ABC/MCA (it's all Universal now)-- same flexible sense of concept that beats ass on mere blues jobbing (even with a turd in your pants). Throw it together and let that smelly dingo run! "Love Me Tender" >>>>>> _______. And "Live At Ol' Miss" = the universe. Come back to this thread when your Street Life game is up, son, you can't hang. Strange that I never came back to this thread since I was seeking opinions ... I ended up with the Mr Blues/Confessin' The Blues two-fer reissue by Beat Goes On. Confessin is very good but his first album on Bluesway is pretty spotty. I tend to listen to the Confessin' tracks only when I pull it out now. Not long after I picked up Lucille, Live and Well, and Completely Well and the Electric B.B. and enjoyed each quite a bit. But as is so typical, Clem's pronouncements are laughable as well as misinformed. B.B. wasn't recording for Bluesway up through the 70s, he'd moved over to MCA by like, 1970. A true Bluesway box set would be welcome, but his 70s - 80s recordings are spotty and who the fuck thinks Love me Tender is a keeper? And there are more than a few excellent recordings from the 90s on, including Blues on the Bayou, Making Love is Good For You, the Louis Jordan tribute, and especially One Kind Favor from a couple of years ago. Edited October 16, 2011 by MomsMobley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh1958 Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 For B.B.'s guitar, Live in Japan is a pretty nice one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted October 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Clem you have zero credibility now. You want to be a contrarian jackass? Please continue. But no one with ears thinks Love me Tender or Live at Ole Miss is anything but a steaming pile of shit (the former) and an utterly workaday live gig (the latter). Ken, agreed on Live in Japan. In between that one and Blues on the Bayou, about the only B.B. release I go back to is Blues N Jazz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danasgoodstuff Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Strange that I never came back to this thread since I was seeking opinions ... I ended up with the Mr Blues/Confessin' The Blues two-fer reissue by Beat Goes On. Confessin is very good but his first album on Bluesway is pretty spotty. I tend to listen to the Confessin' tracks only when I pull it out now. Not long after I picked up Lucille, Live and Well, and Completely Well and the Electric B.B. and enjoyed each quite a bit. But as is so typical, Clem's pronouncements are laughable as well as misinformed. B.B. wasn't recording for Bluesway up through the 70s, he'd moved over to MCA by like, 1970. A true Bluesway box set would be welcome, but his 70s - 80s recordings are spotty and who the fuck thinks Love me Tender is a keeper? And there are more than a few excellent recordings from the 90s on, including Blues on the Bayou, Making Love is Good For You, the Louis Jordan tribute, and especially One Kind Favor from a couple of years ago. Totally agree on the excellence of BB's Louis Jordan trib (w/hank crawford horn arrangements IIRC) and the worthlessness of Mom's Maybe's pointless posertude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 People-- "Love Me Tender" is brilliant (B.B. even says it's his "greatest album"), the only thing to criticize is... It's too short-- only 44 minutes-- and there was no similar sequel or full duets album with Willie, who's master of the form (single-artist partner). Now, we can lament it's not quite B.B.'s "No Other" (Gene Clark/Thomas Jefferson Kaye) or "Death Of A Ladies Man" (Leonard Cohen/Phil Spector but it's within spitting distance. An entire album of Don Gibson tunes would have been great too, way way better than the medicore one Roy Orbison did for Monument. Would that B.B. covered "Margie's At The Lincoln Park Inn"? My link It would have been awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsMobley Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 ADD: B.B. King "Blues N Jazz" from 1983 to the box, please amazing how cracker ass "blues" "fans" (see above) can so readily dismiss "Love Me Tender" but they're not the first ofays who want black folk to behave the way THEY want 'em to (or else) and they won't be the last. of the eight jillion people that recorded the best Kris Kristofferson songs, it would have been hep if B.B. was a eight jillion + 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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