1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:05,360
A lot of people wonder,
"What is the blues?"

2
00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:07,320
I'm gonna tell you what the blues is.

3
00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,760
This programme contains
some strong language.

4
00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:17,760
This is the story of an unlikely
love affair, that was awakened,
innocently enough,

5
00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:20,120
in the drabness of '50s Britain,

6
00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:22,880
but by the '70s,
had blossomed into a global passion.

7
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:31,840
From its origins as
a secret society, all the way
to the international stage,

8
00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:34,640
this is what happened
when Britain got the blues.

9
00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:59,120
'50s Britain - a bombed-out country
marked by austerity,

10
00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,520
demob suits,
and dreams of better times to come.

11
00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,040
A generation of post-war kids
found itself stranded

12
00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,760
in the dust-covered landscape
of national reconstruction.

13
00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:19,960
Yeah, it was grey.

14
00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:23,280
Like, "When the hell
are we gonna get out of here?

15
00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:24,600
"I thought we won?!"

16
00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:29,040
Bloody awful. You couldn't
get any sweets, either.

17
00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,720
We were on rationing,
baby, big time.

18
00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:37,920
There was no colour
whatsoever in Britain.

19
00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:41,200
Glasgow didn't exist,
there was just a sort of grey wash.

20
00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:44,280
You kept bumping into things
cos you couldn't see anything.

21
00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:50,640
Dark at 4 o'clock,
Ovaltine, all that stuff.

22
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,160
There was nowhere
for young people to go, um...

23
00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:56,840
There was nothing specifically
for young people.

24
00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:03,000
Everything was run by
pretty strict rules and regulations
by the establishment.

25
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:04,760
They were very depressing days.

26
00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,320
Musically, the antidote was obvious.

27
00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:17,640
Dance bands and crooners
provided all the entertainment
the country could consume,

28
00:02:17,640 --> 00:02:20,480
in its dogged determination
to make whoopee.

29
00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,800
But not everyone sought solace
in the two-step.

30
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:31,200
Britain by about 1953-54, was crying
out for alternative music.

31
00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:36,680
The first rock'n'roll wasn't about
till about '55, '56, was it?

32
00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:38,920
Before that, it was gutless music.

33
00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:46,320
# Lipstick on your collar
Told a tale on you... #

34
00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:50,920
The guts of American rock'n'roll
spilled out across Britain in 1957,

35
00:02:50,920 --> 00:02:53,360
creating the teenage phenomenon.

36
00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:59,480
But two years later, the emotional
and musical rescue it offered
prematurely stalled.

37
00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:02,920
The business had moved in,
and the greats had shipped out, 

38
00:03:02,920 --> 00:03:07,000
leaving Britain at the mercy
of Tin Pan Alley copyists.

39
00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:13,600
Elvis went into the army,
Jerry Lee Lewis ruined his career

40
00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:18,200
by marrying his 12-year-old
first cousin whilst still married
to someone else.

41
00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:24,840
Chuck Berry crossed over
the border and did various
borderline activities,

42
00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,560
and Little Richard went into gospel.

43
00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:33,600
Rock and roll lost its... Well, I
suppose really, lost its excitement.

44
00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:37,040
Watered-down trash,
a lot of it, wasn't it?

45
00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,680
Moon In June and
Lipstick On Your Collar,

46
00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:45,560
and all these, "Lipstick on your
collar," you know, horrible.

47
00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:51,800
# Travelling light
Mmm-hmm-hmm-hmm... #

48
00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:58,040
Rock'n'roll's earlier doctors
now needed a new drug.

49
00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:05,120
They discovered the power, depth and
authenticity they craved in a music
they hadn't heard before,

50
00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:06,760
the very basis of rock'n'roll -

51
00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:09,960
black folk music
from the American South -

52
00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,520
the blues.

53
00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:16,680
The intensity and the...
It's so direct.

54
00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:21,560
You know, I hadn't experienced
anything like that since the first
time I heard Little Richard.

55
00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:27,400
# I got my mojo working
But it just don't work on you... #

56
00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:31,480
It bypasses a lot
of cultural education.

57
00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:35,080
You didn't need any information
with the blues, it just went...

58
00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:36,160
Boom!

59
00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:39,640
# I wanna love you so bad... #

60
00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:43,280
It can be to dance for,
get drunk for it,

61
00:04:43,280 --> 00:04:45,480
to fuck by it, you name it.

62
00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:50,880
# I'm going down Louisiana
Get me a mojo... #

63
00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:54,400
When it's well put and well
performed, it's infectious.

64
00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:56,280
You don't need to know, even,

65
00:04:56,280 --> 00:05:00,320
what it is. You go...
That's how people get hooked.

66
00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:06,320
# I'm gonna have all you womens
Right here on my command... #

67
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:10,280
I think that once you get the bug,
it's really hard to get rid of it.

68
00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:19,800
Catching the bug was one thing,
but feeding it was another.

69
00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:26,360
Specialist shops selling imported
American recordings began to appear.

70
00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:30,200
Many of them, mysteriously, in what
became known as the Thames Delta,

71
00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:32,760
Britain's distant echo
of the American South.

72
00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:39,040
Future British blues artists
Tony McPhee, Dave Kelly
and his sister, Jo Ann Kelly,

73
00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:42,000
haunted the Swing Shop,
in Streatham.

74
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:43,720
# When you get home

75
00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:47,400
# Please write me
a few short lines... #

76
00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:49,800
That was one thing
that really got to me.

77
00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:52,160
That so many people
are interested more

78
00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,280
in how rare this thing was,
rather than what was on it.

79
00:05:55,280 --> 00:05:58,320
# Please write me
a few short lines... #

80
00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:02,200
That's where I got all my John Lee
Hooker and Howlin' Wolf on Crown,

81
00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:03,640
which was 1940s stuff,

82
00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:04,840
Wolf's stuff on...

83
00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:10,920
And Jo Ann, myself, and Tony McPhee
used to hang around the Swing Shop

84
00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:15,120
waiting for another
consignment to come in,
elbowing each other out the way.

85
00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:21,120
There was a shop in what is now
Chinatown in Soho,

86
00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:22,720
but at that time,

87
00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:28,080
it was a street of shops
selling valves and ex-Army spares.

88
00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,080
You know you have this picture of,
sort of,

89
00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:34,240
men in long raincoats
wandering round Soho?

90
00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:38,000
These were men in long raincoats
who'd be standing looking
in the window

91
00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,960
at cathode ray tubes
and valves and diodes,

92
00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:47,240
and on a Saturday, in
the basement of one of these shops,
a guy started importing records.

93
00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:51,040
There was something very attractive
about the fact that

94
00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:54,600
large numbers,
huge numbers of people

95
00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:59,080
wanted to listen to
Bill Haley, and Tommy Steele,

96
00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:04,320
but that we wanted to listen
to Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter.

97
00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:11,000
Jelly Roll Morton
and Lightnin' Slim.
I mean, extraordinary names, too.

98
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:12,960
I mean, how crazy is that?
You know...

99
00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:17,600
Howlin' Wolf. What is a howling wolf
when you live in Surbiton?

100
00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:24,080
And you thought, "God, how can
anybody be called Muddy Waters,
or Howlin' Wolf, or Bo Diddley,

101
00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,320
"or Lead Belly?"
Where did these names come from?

102
00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:29,760
What is this? It was a feeling.

103
00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:33,560
# And then I looked around... #

104
00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:35,760
But what were these songs about?

105
00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:38,280
Old 78s, often poorly recorded
on the road,

106
00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:42,920
telling of experiences and feelings
that were totally alien
to the Thames Delta,

107
00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:46,000
were sometimes difficult
to comprehend.

108
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:51,440
Those of us who struggled,
like The Rolling Stones probably did
a few years before we did,

109
00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:53,080
to try and decipher the words,

110
00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:56,800
and couldn't figure out what some of
them were from these recordings,

111
00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,560
we would, kind of, make up
other words that seemed to fit.

112
00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:03,640
What did he say? Ha-ha-ha...

113
00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:07,760
INAUDIBLE SPEECH

114
00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:13,040
I didn't quite get that, didn't
really jot that down, you know what
I mean? There was madness.

115
00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:17,480
Yeah, lyrics were sometimes
difficult. And we found that
with Little Richard, as well.

116
00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:22,600
My mother tried to slow
the record down to try and hear
what he was saying,

117
00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:24,160
and couldn't work it out.

118
00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,520
She used to come up with some
funny ideas about what they were.

119
00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:31,240
But, yes, yeah,
eventually your ear tunes in.

120
00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:40,520
But when they did tune in,
what they heard was often darkly
humorous, and emotionally deep.

121
00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:46,560
Poetic tales of lives untouched
by either lipstick, or collars.

122
00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:50,120
The main charm about the blues

123
00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:52,800
is that it has such
an authenticity about it,

124
00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:56,200
the fact that when you listen to it
you hear these stories,

125
00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:59,160
and you can visualise that
these are real stories.

126
00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:03,760
When you were seeing
John Lee Hooker,
you believed what he was telling you

127
00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:07,440
cos he was talking about
the Great Fire of Natchez,
which he experienced.

128
00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:09,200
I think his girlfriend died there.

129
00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:15,360
And the flood of Tupelo,
Mississippi, they were real things
that happened in his life.

130
00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:21,040
I mean, Joe Turner, for instance,
is a big favourite of mine.

131
00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:26,040
And he'd be singing things like, "My
baby's gone, she ain't comin' back.

132
00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:29,960
"She's lower than a snake crawling
down in a wagon track."

133
00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:33,440
I mean, it's so heavy! You think,
"What a great image," you know.

134
00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:38,400
Elmore James,
"The sky is crying, look at the
tears rolling down the streets."

135
00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,080
I mean, that's fantastic.

136
00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:44,480
Muddy Waters,
"I'm going down to Louisiana,
somewhere behind the sun."

137
00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:48,360
This is magical stuff.

138
00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:51,280
It's almost like,
Sleepy John Estes,

139
00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:56,640
where he says,
"Get away from my window
Quit scratching on my screen."

140
00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:01,560
He's turned his girlfriend into,
sort of, a wild animal, kind of
ripping on the door, you know?

141
00:10:01,560 --> 00:10:08,520
If you were a 15 or 16-year-old kid,
you were hearing some words, and
phrases and implications...

142
00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:15,000
And that's what made it,
not just sexy, I think it
made it kind of erotic.

143
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:18,640
Cos we knew, sort of, there's
something going on here,

144
00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:23,000
even if we didn't know
the references and
the slang expressions.

145
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:26,640
These blues men,
they're talking about getting laid.

146
00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:30,440
And there's me studying
what they're doing,

147
00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:35,600
but I ain't getting laid.
I've something missing in my life.

148
00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:43,040
Obviously, to be a blues man, I have
to go see what this lemon juice is,
running down your leg.

149
00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:46,600
And, you know, these guys are
actually living a life,

150
00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:50,960
they're not studying, they're not
blah-blah, they just are.

151
00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:54,560
And then, so...
How do you become what is?

152
00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:01,080
Being a blues disciple
in late '50s Britain

153
00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:04,200
was like being a part of
a hip Masonic Lodge.

154
00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:10,720
A society so secret that even its
own members were sometimes ignorant
of each other's existence.

155
00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:14,480
It was like the formation of
a solar system, you know.

156
00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:18,400
The dust gathers together, the stars
form, and all that sort of thing.

157
00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:23,640
Suddenly you realise, yes, there is
someone who lives near you who's got
a record by Freddie King,

158
00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,000
or someone like that, you know?

159
00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:29,760
If you heard someone blew a
harmonica in Ealing, you were there.

160
00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:33,760
Or if someone had an album that you
didn't, you'd go to Claygate,
or wherever it was.

161
00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,720
It was like
Night Of The Living Dead,

162
00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:43,440
people, sort of, migrating to
whoever had this thing that you'd
been turned on to.

163
00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:47,440
Someone had given me the address
of someone who'd got
a Muddy Waters album.

164
00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:49,600
Probably got the bus
over to Tooting.

165
00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:52,760
And I knocked on the door
at 6:30 in the evening,

166
00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:56,960
and this guy appears from the back
and I said, "Have you got
a Muddy Waters album?"

167
00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,800
He said, "Yeah..."

168
00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:02,560
I said, "Could I see it?"

169
00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:08,400
And he brought it out
and showed it to me,
and I said, "Could I hold it?"

170
00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:11,440
Some very funny people
with record collections.

171
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,840
The things you'd have to do
to get in, you know what I mean...

172
00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:16,400
Let alone get out.

173
00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:21,160
It was like, "Oh, you've got that?"
Or, "You've got this,
I'll come round and listen to it."

174
00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:24,960
We didn't have
tape recorders then, so you went
round and listened to it.

175
00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:28,440
I knew Brian Jones,
but he mostly bought guitar records.

176
00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:31,880
Whereas I mostly
bought harmonica records.

177
00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:35,120
So we would share listening to them.

178
00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:39,720
Brian Jones, big collector.
Big record collector.

179
00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:42,920
And that's one of the reasons
I hit on him in the first place.

180
00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:47,640
They were definitely our versions
of Tupperware meetings.

181
00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:51,000
Yeah, you'd stick guys up, if you
found their record collection.

182
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:57,120
"You are going to stay down there,
right now, while I trawl through..."

183
00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:00,520
Like, it got like that,
you know what I mean?

184
00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:09,880
Oddly enough, for a younger
generation in love with the blues,
Britain was the perfect place to be.

185
00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:18,000
Trad jazz, which also originated
from the Southern states of America,

186
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,360
had stormed the UK in the late '50s.

187
00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:26,680
But popular trombonist
and band leader, Chris Barber,
had a passion for the blues as well.

188
00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:30,040
He was fortunate to have
a successful band,

189
00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:32,160
and to be in a position financially

190
00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:34,400
where he could do
what he wanted to do.

191
00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:39,400
And so he did what he wanted,
which was to bring over
blues and gospel performance.

192
00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:44,560
You know, some people sit back
and wait for things to happen,
wait for the right time,

193
00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:47,360
but he just said, "To hell with
that, I'm gonna do it."

194
00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:52,440
Big names in American blues and R&B,
he brought them all over
to this country.

195
00:13:59,960 --> 00:14:05,680
I think '57 was the first,
with Sister Rosetta Tharpe,

196
00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:10,960
and then Muddy Waters in '58,
Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee in '58,

197
00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:16,160
and going on right into the '60s,
he brought Muddy back again,
Howlin' Wolf,

198
00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:20,880
Sonny Boy Williamson, Lewis Jordan,
all kinds, I mean, just...

199
00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:25,680
for him, it was just that he wanted
to play with those people.

200
00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:32,760
He wanted to hear them,
right there, you know, playing
in front of HIS rhythm section.

201
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:36,320
That's why we wanted
to get in with the real folk.

202
00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:40,640
They were helping us to play
the blues and jazz better.

203
00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:44,640
We want these people to help give us
the ingredient that we know about,

204
00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:49,080
but we aren't sure if we're getting
it right, we want to get it righter.

205
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:59,320
When the legends of American blues
first stepped out onto the
British stage in the late '50s,

206
00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:02,520
thanks to Barber's own
money and determination,

207
00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:08,160
the audience that faced them
was entirely white, well-educated
and well intentioned.

208
00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:11,480
It was all shirts and ties
and Ban The Bomb badges.

209
00:15:14,680 --> 00:15:19,040
Jazz and folk disciples,
not rabid rock and rollers.

210
00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:25,680
To be honest, there was always a
sort of middle class-ness about that
sort of audience,

211
00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:31,120
and they also tended
to come out of a slightly
left-wing side of politics.

212
00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:35,280
It must have helped that we were...
I wouldn't say reverent,

213
00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:43,120
but we were obviously caring about
playing the music in a genuine way, 

214
00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:45,720
as a genuine expression.

215
00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:52,440
We really owe this enormous debt,
to a music that is utterly alien
to our experience.

216
00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:59,360
Maybe that's why
it didn't appeal to black folks
living in the UK at the time,

217
00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:03,720
because it wasn't the black
experience that they knew of.

218
00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:11,080
Few black Americans settled in
the UK. It was mostly people
from Caribbean, or black Asians.

219
00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:15,480
The younger rock and roll audience
wanted to sing the blues electric,

220
00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:20,680
something the more purist,
Chris Barber Jazz Club crowd
wasn't quite prepared for.

221
00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:23,320
But it was already a reality.

222
00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:29,840
When Muddy Waters first came
to Britain in 1958,

223
00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:33,000
he plugged in a Fender Telecaster.

224
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,200
Established audiences here,

225
00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:42,680
reared on out of date records and
quaint ideas of the blues as a rural
black folk music, were crestfallen.

226
00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:45,920
Some purists
in the audience objected,

227
00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:51,160
because they wanted him to come out
and sound like the country boy that
they'd heard on records,

228
00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:53,720
you know, playing rural,
cotton patch blues.

229
00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:58,120
GUITAR MUSIC PLAYS

230
00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:01,240
They had to consider
what the audience wanted,

231
00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:05,440
so when they heard this cry for,
"Where's the acoustic guitar?"

232
00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:09,320
Um, they went away
and thought about it.

233
00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:13,880
So, like, two years go by and he
comes back again, and he brings
an acoustic guitar,

234
00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:17,680
by then everyone wants to hear
him play the amplified Telecaster.

235
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:23,760
Cos it's moved on, it's 1962, '63,
and everyone's listening
to that sort of music.

236
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:28,920
Memphis Slim was on that bill, and I
think I took them back to the hotel.

237
00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:33,120
Either I took them back in my car
or we went back on the bus together.

238
00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:38,040
And I was sitting in
the lounge of the hotel with
Muddy and Memphis Slim,

239
00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:42,440
and Muddy was saying,
"I don't know what they want.
What do people want?"

240
00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:49,280
Certain English viewers
had an idea that you had to be
black and wear dungarees,

241
00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:54,560
and play acoustic guitar, and that
meant you were playing blues.

242
00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:59,560
If you plugged it in....
No, no, I'm sorry, you've sinned.

243
00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:04,360
People in England had a certain
stereotyped idea of what a black
folk musician should be like.

244
00:18:04,360 --> 00:18:08,160
When you see pictures of
Big Bill Broonzy in the '30s,

245
00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:10,760
and he is, he is just so sharp.

246
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:17,560
He comes to England in the '50s, and
there's this classic film clip of
him dressed up as a sharecropper,

247
00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:21,880
playing his guitar and singing
something like John Henry,

248
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:25,040
because...this is what
the white folks in England...

249
00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:28,080
# John Henry told his captain

250
00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,080
# Lord, a man ain't nothing
but a man... #

251
00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:34,400
British television, home of
The Black And White Minstrel Show,

252
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,840
hadn't improved much by 1964,

253
00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:41,720
when it elaborately transformed
a disused section of British Rail
track outside Manchester

254
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:47,560
into a TV producer's idea of
Chattanooga to welcome the latest
blues package tour.

255
00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:54,520
I remember some rather
staged shot of Muddy Waters with
his guitar in one hand

256
00:18:54,520 --> 00:19:01,040
and a very small leather suitcase
walking along a station platform,

257
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:04,200
and then bursting, probably,
into some blues song rendition,

258
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:08,600
which had been staged up,
making him look like
the travelling hobo kinda guy.

259
00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:15,000
# People ain't that sad... #

260
00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:22,360
Some of Britain's young blues
fraternity weren't content with just
listening to the music.

261
00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:25,840
They'd learned to play American
rock'n'roll, why not the blues?

262
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:32,040
That the music like this existed,

263
00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:39,000
that possibly, we would, in our
audacity, think that we could
actually play this music,

264
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,920
I mean, how stupid is that?
How extraordinary was that?

265
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:49,520
You think of some dopey, spotty,
17-year-old from Dartford,

266
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:52,320
who wants to be Muddy Waters.

267
00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:54,160
And there's a lot of us, you know.

268
00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:56,840
"Oh yeah, mmm-mmm, mmm-mmm,"
you know.

269
00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:04,120
In a way very pathetic.
In a way, very heart-warming.

270
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,200
Wanting to play the blues
was one thing, mastering
it was something else again.

271
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:17,480
This black race music
wasn't about to surrender its
many secrets so easily

272
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:19,880
to vinyl-obsessed British kids.

273
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:24,560
# When you ain't got no money

274
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:26,560
# And can't pay your house rent

275
00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:28,120
# And can't buy you no food

276
00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:30,560
# You damn sure got the blues

277
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:32,440
# Cos you're thinkin' evil... #

278
00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:34,760
You know,
they say blues is just 12 bars.

279
00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:37,000
You've heard one, you've heard...
you know,

280
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,560
guy ain't got no money,
he's lost his girlfriend,

281
00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:43,240
he's at the railroad station waiting
for the train, the train's late...

282
00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:47,960
Of course, of course, my man.
You know the problems.

283
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:49,200
It ain't like that at all.

284
00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:56,200
Once you start to play, you realise
that it's something to do with...
I gotta know how he did that.

285
00:20:56,200 --> 00:21:01,400
This man just
bent the string three yards!

286
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:05,400
And made it sound simple,
you know...

287
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:09,520
And meanwhile he's got a rhythm
going here that is unbelievable,

288
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,080
and he's...

289
00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:13,360
I mean it's just something
you've got to do.

290
00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:17,640
Enjoying it is not enough.
Feeling it is not enough.

291
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:21,960
You've got to learn how to do it
properly. There are
technical things that you...

292
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:28,600
To make these sounds come out of a
guitar, or a trombone or whatever it
is, or a voice, either,

293
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:32,400
you've got to know how it is.
So, you need to study it.

294
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:40,840
Fast, slow, quiet, pin-drop,
loud, poignant, down, up.

295
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,720
# I say it's so hard to know... 

296
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:50,760
# Ah, someone... #

297
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:57,040
That's the dynamic, in the framework
of really three or four chords.

298
00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:03,240
With very little,
so much was achieved, in the
way it emotionally affected you.

299
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:07,880
It's an easy music
on the surface to play,

300
00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:14,720
but then you think,
"How do these cats do this?
Whoa, this is weird moves."

301
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,680
You know, where's this coming from?

302
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:22,080
You say, "What are they doing?
How are they doing that?"

303
00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:29,320
It's what keyboard players
were actually doing
with crushed notes and stuff,

304
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:35,000
which was in fact trying to
duplicate the style of
bent notes on the guitar,

305
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,120
which, as you know, is a physical
and mechanical impossibility

306
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:40,800
on a keyboard instrument.

307
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:44,280
And while this revolution, I think,
in music, was beginning to happen,

308
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:48,800
of course, as normal, the rest of
the world seemed to carry on.

309
00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:54,560
You know, the bowler-hatted brigade
still got up and got
the 7 o'clock train to Waterloo,

310
00:22:54,560 --> 00:23:01,480
not knowing that
some of their offspring were buying
battered guitars from pawn shops,

311
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,240
and playing Jelly Roll Morton
in the back room.

312
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:13,840
Perhaps no-one got to know these
visiting blues legends more
intimately than Val Wilmer,

313
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:19,160
then only a teenage girl
in love with their music.

314
00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:24,360
She met them, photographed them,
wrote about them
and hung out with them,

315
00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:28,040
sharing their experience of Britain
at close range.

316
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,960
They met with all sorts
of problems here,

317
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:32,880
you know,
the world was very strange.

318
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:36,960
You should be asking the question -
how exotic did we seem to them?

319
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:41,160
They had to deal with us, and we
didn't understand their language,

320
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:42,600
you know, we thought we did.

321
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:47,000
This one is me with Jimmy Rushing,

322
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:51,200
he was Mr 5x5 You know,
five foot tall, five foot wide.

323
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:56,720
Wonderful singer, great guy, wrote
to me a few times... Nice one,
you know, to have known him a bit.

324
00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:02,520
And that was taken by my mother,
who had come to the concert with me.

325
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:06,480
And that's my mum with Jack Dupree.

326
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:12,320
When he put his arm around her, it
must have been quite an experience
for her, cos he was a rogue.

327
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:17,160
Total rogue. Look at him. Mr Rogue.

328
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,480
It was a shock to me
when I first come over here,

329
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:24,040
when they take me to a big restaurant
for dinner,

330
00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:27,760
and I couldn't eat the dinner cos I
was sitting next to white people.

331
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:32,160
And I was shy all the time, I had
a terrible feeling because I...

332
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:35,960
I was thinking that
I'd be insulted at any time.

333
00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:38,200
I just felt out of place.

334
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:46,400
When in London, Dupree often
stayed at the evocative sounding
Airways Mansions,

335
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:52,320
a hotel in a small backstreet just
behind Piccadilly, but a million
miles away from the Ritz.

336
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:58,280
Airways Mansions was the place where
all the musicians stayed.

337
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,560
And I think they'd been
staying there from the '50s.

338
00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:04,480
But the thing was
it wasn't like hotels,

339
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:11,120
because the hotels tried to stop
people taking guests to their rooms,

340
00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:16,680
and that always created havoc,
because black people thought
that it was discrimination.

341
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:21,320
So, Memphis Slim, there, with his
little curtain and everything,

342
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:24,440
and the bottle of whisky on it,
you know, inevitably.

343
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:29,360
And Jack Dupree, who was the first
person I knew who stayed there -

344
00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:33,880
he's only just arrived, and both of
them - Memphis Slim and Jack -

345
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,280
they've been to Cecil Gee's
and bought sweaters.

346
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:41,720
And on the shelf behind him he's got
his requisites for the day.

347
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,000
He's got some bottles of lager,

348
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,960
three different types of whisky,

349
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,360
and the bottle of milk
is not for his health,

350
00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:53,320
it's to mix with whisky,
cos that lines your stomach.

351
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:58,520
So, that's one thing I learned
from a lot of the old blues singers,
was drinking whisky and milk.

352
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:07,440
By the early '60s, the younger
generation of electric blues
fanatics had their own scene.

353
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,520
The epicentre of which was
Blues Incorporated,

354
00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:16,080
a band formed by guitarist
Alexis Korner, and his unlikely
harmonica playing partner.

355
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,400
Talk about chalk and cheese.

356
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:24,240
Alexis worked with a very,
very gruff panel beater

357
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,280
from Streatham called Cyril Davies.

358
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:32,880
But Alexis Korner was this urbane,
well-read, beautifully spoken,
you know...

359
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:39,760
Of, sort of, Russian...
Goodness knows what... And they were
the most unlikely pair in a way.

360
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:41,120
Cyril had a great voice.

361
00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:47,120
# I got my mojo working
But it just won't work on you... #

362
00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:49,720
He sounded really, really authentic.

363
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:53,880
# I got my mojo working
But it just won't work on you... #

364
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,320
He sounded quite black-ish,

365
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:01,600
but there was a reality
in the way he presented his voice.

366
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:06,560
So he was a key person.
Apart from his harp playing,
which was also very magic.

367
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:15,280
Alexis' main skill was not
as a performer, neither
as a guitarist nor as a singer.

368
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:17,480
But certainly as a catalyst,

369
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:22,880
Alexis was the most important person
in the history of blues in Britain.

370
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:28,640
Alexis Korner established a home
for young blues enthusiasts
on the outskirts of London,

371
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:33,520
where the Central Line hit the
buffers and the buses went to bed.

372
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:40,320
The Jazz Club in Ealing
became THE performance space
for would-be British players,

373
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:44,320
and a clearing house
for the first home-grown
rhythm and blues movement.

374
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:49,480
On a Saturday night,

375
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:54,800
you could see most of the people
who would constitute
the first British blues boom.

376
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:59,720
We were all hanging out, you know,
and Alexis, bless him, would say,

377
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:01,640
"Come up and do two songs."

378
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:06,600
And you'd go up and you'd tell 'em
all you had your mojo working and...

379
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:13,880
So, he was the father
of blues in Britain.

380
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:18,520
Leaving the grandfather spot
open for Chris Barber, of course.

381
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:26,800
A young Brian Jones played perhaps
the first slide guitar ever to be
heard in Britain at Korner's club

382
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,640
and very quickly tired of catching
the coach in from Cheltenham.

383
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,560
The next thing I heard from Brian
was when he rang me up and said,

384
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,160
"I'm forming a band.

385
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:41,400
"So far, it's just me
and Keith Richards on guitars,
do you want to be the singer?"

386
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:45,120
And I said, "No..."

387
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,640
He couched his invitation
in these terms, he said,

388
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,400
"We haven't been
taking it seriously.

389
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:54,680
"I'm going to take it seriously
from now on.

390
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:59,720
"I'm moving to London, I'm getting
a flat, I'm forming a band and
I'm gonna become rich and famous."

391
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:05,040
And it was that last bit that
I said, "Oh, Brian. Come off it.
We're playing the blues, man."

392
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:23,680
At the beginning of 1963, British
electric blues was still a hard sell
to audiences outside of jazz clubs.

393
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:31,480
But by the end of that year, it had
taken off big-time, spearheaded by
Brian's group, The Rolling Stones.

394
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:38,720
We were the only young band
doing it, and we were the only
real authentic band doing it.

395
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,640
And doing it in jazz clubs.

396
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:45,760
And then we got banned, because they
didn't like us - young upstarts.

397
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:51,320
And thought we weren't
authentic enough,
and were doing it too pop-y.

398
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:58,520
And then we moved into
the ballrooms, and all that,
and created a new music for England.

399
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:02,640
This first number we're gonna do's
a John Lee Hooker original,

400
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:04,680
it's called Boom Boom, this one.

401
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:08,160
By 1964, British rhythm and blues

402
00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:10,400
had hi-jacked every venue
in the country.

403
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:19,160
It was THE live music.

404
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:23,720
The Stones, The Yardbirds,
Manfred Mann, The Animals.

405
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:25,160
# The way you talk

406
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:27,920
# Whisper in my ear

407
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:30,840
# Tell me that you love me

408
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:33,440
# You knock me out... #

409
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,400
The Animals, a Newcastle-based band,

410
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:40,200
were part of a nationwide
blues explosion.

411
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:42,880
London was Mecca,

412
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:46,080
but the blues could now be heard
in every British city.

413
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:49,280
A young musician from Belfast,
called Van Morrison,

414
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:53,640
pitched up at Soho's Marquee Club
with his R'n'B band, Them.

415
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:58,400
# You better stop
the things you do... #

416
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,280
Well, I listen to, um, Charles Mingus

417
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:03,920
and, uh, Gerry Mulligan.

418
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,360
I also listen to Lead Belly
and John Lee Hooker.

419
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:13,040
Yeah, advanced jazz plus, you know,
real down to earth blues.

420
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,080
Heavy blues. Roots. Heavy roots,
blues influence.

421
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:20,080
# You're runnin' around

422
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:21,680
# You should know better, Mama

423
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:24,160
# I can't stand it

424
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:27,520
# Since you put me down

425
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:32,360
# I put a spell on you... #

426
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:41,720
'Well let's hear that number now
that's shooting up the charts called
Little Red Rooster.'

427
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,280
SCREAMING

428
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:50,760
In November 1964, The Rolling Stones
stamped a new teenage sexiness

429
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:54,600
on the blues with a hardcore
Willie Dixon cover.

430
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:56,920
# I am the little red rooster

431
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,080
# Too lazy to crow for day... #

432
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:02,120
Now I must say,

433
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,920
we must have been wearing
brass balls that day

434
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,480
when we decided to put
that out as a single.

435
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:09,600
# I am the little red rooster

436
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,160
# Too lazy to crow for a day... #

437
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:16,960
Everybody says you'll kill
your career if you do that,

438
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:18,520
if you put that out as a single.

439
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:19,800
It could ruin you.

440
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:23,720
We said, "What the hell?
That's what we believe in."

441
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,240
# Keep everything in the farmyard

442
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:30,360
# Upset in every way... #

443
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:36,840
Oh. I mean, let's stand up, be men
and give 'em a blues, you know.

444
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,840
Went out on a Friday night and on
the Monday it was number one.

445
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:41,920
# The dogs begin to bark... #

446
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,360
That's the only blues,
pure blues record,

447
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:47,120
that's ever been a number one.

448
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,080
Anywhere, I think.

449
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:53,000
Then it was our job to pay back.

450
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:54,280
# Dogs begin to bark... #

451
00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:56,640
I think we figured
we could pull it and we did.

452
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,560
# Hounds begin to howl. #

453
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:01,440
Double entendre again, you know,

454
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:05,400
"I got a little red rooster,
too lazy to crow for days",

455
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,360
they saw into it more sexual things.

456
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:11,440
I'm not here just to write
pop songs for you.

457
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:13,800
# Do-do-do, la-la-la-la-la... #

458
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:15,480
and all that, you know, I mean...

459
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,160
Let's see if we can actually
spin it back around

460
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,640
and make American white kids

461
00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:24,200
listen to Little Red Rooster.

462
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:25,640
And go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

463
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,480
And I go, "Aha, you had it
all the time, pal."

464
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,760
Yeah, "You just didn't listen."

465
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:39,400
But not everyone was as reverential.

466
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:42,240
There were a lot of people who felt

467
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,840
you had to faithfully
copy the record.

468
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,720
Um, which seemed to us
to be pretty ludicrous.

469
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,720
You know, and if you did mess
with it, you were considered

470
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:56,080
an irreligious punk.

471
00:33:59,960 --> 00:34:03,160
I mean, I know we bastardised
the 12 bar quite badly.

472
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:07,120
Um, and we put a lot of power
chording in and crescendos.

473
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:14,920
But also feeding off an audience
that wanted that as well.

474
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:16,960
They wanted to swing
from the rafters,

475
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:19,480
they wanted to go crazy bananas.

476
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:24,000
# I caught a train, I met a dame

477
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,480
# She was a hipster,
well and a real cool dame

478
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,800
# She was pretty, from New York City

479
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:32,200
# Well and we trucked on down
that old Fairlane... #

480
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:36,520
I mean, we were 18, and the people
who came to see us were 18.

481
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:40,080
They didn't wanna, you know, they
wanted something with more energy.

482
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,640
So we did Big Boss Man
three times the speed.

483
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,160
But, I mean, isn't that what
the blues is as well?

484
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,560
I mean, that's, even when
I saw it played, you know,

485
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,760
in ramshackle clubs in
the Southern States of America,

486
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,120
you know, there was that
same electricity.

487
00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:58,320
I mean, we were white kids
playing to white kids.

488
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:02,320
But actually, you know, I sense
that there was still the same
vibe going on,

489
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,600
all those thousands of miles apart.

490
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,440
They loved the music, they wanted to
play it, they worked out how it did,

491
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:12,440
it came out differently, it will.

492
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:17,080
If I'm white and grow up in South
London it's bound to be different.

493
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,400
It's a...what, you know, but...

494
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,440
Cyril Davies and everybody they
were great, brilliant, but...

495
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:25,880
There was something missing though,
wasn't there?

496
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:27,960
And it didn't connect
with our age group.

497
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:29,080
Yeah, maybe, yeah.

498
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:32,200
Well, I really don't think it did,
you know. It was something...

499
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:34,960
It's almost like for a museum. 
Well, they were older.

500
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,040
Yeah. They were older than us. And
all the artists were older.

501
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:42,960
I mean, we were listening to records
by 50-year-old blokes.

502
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:48,520
You know, and therefore why,
there's no way we could have
replicated that,

503
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:49,640
had it been enough.

504
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:02,360
In a frantic 12 months, ravenous
white British blues bands

505
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:06,480
carved up and redistributed
the black blues songbook.

506
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:10,200
The whole locker got raided
very quickly, didn't it,

507
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:12,840
of blues songs.

508
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:16,680
I mean, how much of it
was jumping on band wagons.

509
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:22,240
Dick Taylor, he used to play with
us, I mean, I know that he was
no jumper of bandwagons.

510
00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:26,480
Everybody had their... Repertoire.
Their stock in trade.

511
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:31,320
And we avoided Smokestack Lightning
or something cos the Yardies did it.

512
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:34,600
And, you know, Little Red Rooster
cos the Stones did it.

513
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:38,320
But you picked your way around and
came up with your own repertoire.

514
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:42,280
The Yardbirds followed us,
they used to ask us questions
all the time and say,

515
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:44,160
"What strings do you use?

516
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:48,440
"You know when you do that
Little Walter song, how does
the middle go?"

517
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:53,560
You know, and in the intervals
they'd come and chat to us
and ask all these questions.

518
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:56,360
We actually made a conscious
decision that we weren't

519
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,480
going to play the sort of music
The Rolling Stones were doing.

520
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:01,720
You know, and as far as
The Animals up north,

521
00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:04,200
that might have been another country,
you know.

522
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,000
I mean you just, you just didn't
really worry about that

523
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:08,720
or even necessarily relate to it.

524
00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:12,400
I mean, yeah, we did learn our stuff
though. We did learn our stuff.

525
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,840
And, uh, quite honestly the blues
ain't just necessarily black.

526
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:21,560
On its journey from the
American South to Southern England

527
00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:24,720
the blues,
in the wake of Beatlemania,

528
00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:26,480
had become a horny teenage music.

529
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,760
Something the purists
weren't happy about.

530
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:32,840
White kids stealing black music
for their own needs.

531
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:38,240
You know, was it racially dodgy?
We didn't even think about it.

532
00:37:38,240 --> 00:37:40,840
I mean, you know, why would
you think about that?

533
00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:44,120
At that time, I mean, you just,
you didn't, you know.

534
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:48,160
There's a sociological background,
you know, to the blues

535
00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:51,400
and what happened and what the people
felt and so on and so forth,

536
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,200
um, that make it what it is.

537
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:57,360
It's very important
and I don't think it's right

538
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:01,480
to just take bits of it as trappings.

539
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:04,440
I mean, I think you owe it
to the people who you admire

540
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:06,120
not to screw the music up.

541
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,560
The new teenage audience
for British electric blues

542
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:18,320
was, yet again, entirely white.

543
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,920
We didn't appeal to a black audience
at all, though funnily enough,

544
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,440
when Paul Jones and I were first
trying to get a band together

545
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:28,760
we were rehearsing in a pub
in Colliers Wood, South London,

546
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:31,600
and the landlord came up and said,

547
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:35,640
"The band I've booked to play
downstairs haven't turned up

548
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:37,200
"and would you like to play?"

549
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:41,640
And we went down and played
and we were greeted with
stunned indifference.

550
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:44,640
But then a black man came in
at the back of the bar

551
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:47,560
and he probably got a pint
of Guinness and stood there

552
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:49,960
and we saw that he was
tapping his foot.

553
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:54,040
And honestly, we felt so good that
one person in that audience

554
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,280
was enjoying what we were
attempting to do

555
00:38:57,280 --> 00:38:58,640
and he was black.

556
00:39:04,720 --> 00:39:07,400
British blues players
weren't themselves black,

557
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:09,440
and didn't appeal
to black audiences.

558
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:12,480
But their love of the music lead
them to identify themselves

559
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:14,000
with the black man's burden.

560
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:18,000
Something far weightier
than anything suburban Britain
could offer.

561
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:24,280
They never were sharecroppers,
they never lived in abject poverty,

562
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:26,440
they didn't have to go
and sit on a stoop

563
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:30,920
in the middle of a tiny little town
in Texas like Blind Lemon Jefferson

564
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:35,040
did with a cup, you know, to get
nickels and dimes and even pennies.

565
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:37,440
You know, they never had to do that.

566
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,160
This is what I find absolutely
so extraordinary

567
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:46,280
that the white British blues thing
that developed, developed in,

568
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:50,640
mainly, in this genteel area
of Southern England.

569
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:52,480
I mean, how ridiculous is that?

570
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:57,080
I suppose one did feel a certain
sympathy, empathy or something

571
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:59,440
with people who were oppressed.

572
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:03,360
But I was never oppressed,
I mean, that's stupid.

573
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,600
It was the romanticism of it,
I suppose, to some extent.

574
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,960
"Wow, look how horribly those
people were treated.

575
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:15,120
"Boy, I'm with them."

576
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:22,000
In the early '60s, being
"with them" and being desperate
to feel something

577
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:25,160
meant knowing about the
American Civil Rights Movement

578
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:28,640
and the violent struggles to end
slavery and segregation.

579
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:37,440
It was a cause to live, wasn't it,
of our generation.

580
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:40,560
Reading James Baldwin and,
that's what you did

581
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:45,360
as a young adult
in the '60s, really.

582
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:47,680
Most of the people I knew
who were into R'n'B

583
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,120
really knew what was going on in
America in terms of civil rights.

584
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:56,920
And we all knew how
black people were treated.

585
00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:01,560
I mean, that's why it was
probably dangerous.

586
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:03,480
White, young intellectuals

587
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:06,960
going down trying to find
old black men in Mississippi.

588
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:10,520
At that time you had the Civil
Rights and you might end up
in the swamp.

589
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:15,840
This is Paul Oliver
who was THE blues writer.

590
00:41:17,240 --> 00:41:19,760
And he was very much in evidence
in those days.

591
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,720
He and his wife, Valerie,
they'd been to the States

592
00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:25,560
and done a tour of the South

593
00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,640
and recorded a lot of people
and interviewed people

594
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:32,320
in a rehearsals at the Albert Hall

595
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:37,880
for a concert and it's important to
get the history down, you know.
People were very serious about it.

596
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:52,720
For some musicians it was
also important to get
the precise sound down.

597
00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:55,080
Exactly, if at all possible.

598
00:41:59,240 --> 00:42:02,640
These records were
what we were trying to attain.

599
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:05,480
The sound of it, the feel of it.
The whole concept of it,

600
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,280
but because none of us,
including me at that time,

601
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:11,920
had ever been to America and ever
walked into a recording studio,

602
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:14,640
we had no concept of how
they made their records.

603
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:17,240
Where to put the microphone.

604
00:42:17,240 --> 00:42:18,720
HE STAMPS

605
00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:20,800
Get the sound of the room, you know?

606
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:24,040
Where John Lee Hooker
would put his foot.

607
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:29,560
Put the microphone
a little further back.

608
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:32,160
Cos you could hear on Johnson's

609
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:37,440
where they deliberately pulled the
microphone back to get more guitar

610
00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:40,000
and so he's wailing over the top

611
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:42,680
and there's others where
it's almost in his face.

612
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:46,440
Whatever you do it's never going to
sound like the American records

613
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:50,160
because these are black artists
who are from the South,

614
00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:53,680
who have a sound vocally
that is uniquely theirs

615
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:58,280
and that is part of what we talk
about as being the blues.

616
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:02,000
Um, and to recreate that
is almost an impossibility.

617
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:09,280
Recording this music in the UK
became a generational struggle

618
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,200
as young blues musicians
ran the gauntlet

619
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:14,480
of jobsworth
British recording engineers

620
00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:16,160
in their starched white coats.

621
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:17,920
Sometimes brown coats!

622
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,840
Yeah, but I mean they were
so de rigueur, you know,

623
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:26,000
like, uh, "You can't do this,
you're overloading." Yes!

624
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,120
We wanna overload.

625
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:30,320
They didn't want to go into the red.

626
00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:33,120
They were taught
that you don't distort.

627
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:37,040
"Distortion, dear boy, is bad news."

628
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:42,600
You're up against this
monolithic idea of, like,

629
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:44,480
the correct method of recording.

630
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:48,160
And, we're not looking
for the correct method.

631
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:51,000
We're looking for the incorrect
method, you know?

632
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:56,360
But of course in the blues you do
distort, you do go in the red.

633
00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:59,680
It is rough, it does
go out of tempo.

634
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:04,560
That's the beauty of it because it's
coming from the moment, you know?

635
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:09,120
"Sorry, mind my microphone."

636
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:11,400
Well, I'm not trying
to hurt it, you know.

637
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,360
"No, you're playing too loud
into it and you've moved it!"

638
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:19,000
After learning to play
and learning to record,

639
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,800
came the hardest lesson of all -
learning your place.

640
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:24,720
American blues masters
continued to visit Britain,

641
00:44:24,720 --> 00:44:28,480
but now there was a generation
of young musicians to back them.

642
00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:32,280
First in line to share the same
stage with a blues legend in 1964

643
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,280
were the Bluesbreakers,
led by John Mayall.

644
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:38,120
They wanted to bring over

645
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:40,120
John Lee Hooker as a test thing

646
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:43,960
and they booked him a whole string of
dates up and down the country

647
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,120
with the Bluesbreakers backing him.

648
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:53,880
We played all the places and we
opened at the Flamingo and there was
a phenomenal response to that.

649
00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:55,920
And it kind of pioneered the way.

650
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:03,280
There's John Mayall
looking at him with, well,
we can only see half his face!

651
00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:05,960
He looks from here as though
he might be a bit dubious,

652
00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:09,360
but I can assure you he's not,
he's looking at him with admiration.

653
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:12,080
The marvellous Mr Hooker.
I didn't get to know him well.

654
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:16,480
We had a meal together
one afternoon, but that was when
I went to interview him

655
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:20,440
and we went off and had chicken and
chips or something which, you know,

656
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:22,800
in those days
that was the height of cool.

657
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:25,720
But meeting him was the height
of cool, I can assure you.

658
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:32,080
When The Groundhogs backed Hooker
that same year,

659
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:36,720
guitarist Tony McPhee took
the opportunity to look and learn
from his hero.

660
00:45:36,720 --> 00:45:38,560
# Boom, boom, boom, boom

661
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:41,440
# I'm gonna shoot you right down... #

662
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:43,360
Just watching him, his technique,

663
00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:48,120
well, I saw him,
first time we did the first week,

664
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:51,200
I saw him, he played fingerstyle,
without picks. I went,

665
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:52,640
"That's it, I'll do that."

666
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:54,200
# Boom, boom, boom, boom... #

667
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:57,920
And the other thing was he had his
strap over his right shoulder.

668
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:00,440
# Up and down the floor... #

669
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:01,960
I thought I'd do that as well.

670
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:04,920
Which, even now, it falls off.

671
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:06,840
# That baby talk... #

672
00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:08,520
But it's easy to put on.

673
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:10,040
# I like it like that... #

674
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:11,720
Everything he did I wanted to do.

675
00:46:11,720 --> 00:46:13,160
# Ho-ho-ho-ho... #

676
00:46:13,160 --> 00:46:16,120
To make me him in white form.

677
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:23,320
McPhee also learned the real meaning
of "backing group".

678
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,240
When I did a solo,
he used to stand in front of me...

679
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:29,520
and do his stuff!

680
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:33,920
Everybody would probably think
it was him playing. That was me.

681
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:35,800
But I didn't mind, didn't care.

682
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:39,840
They had no idea about
keeping time, necessarily.

683
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,800
Cos often they start out,
they play by themselves,

684
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,720
they would just stamp their feet.
STAMPS HIS FEET

685
00:46:45,720 --> 00:46:49,120
You know, and when they got more
excited they stamped them faster.

686
00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:53,200
So if you were trying to play
with them, and follow them,

687
00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:55,080
it wasn't easy, you know.

688
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:57,320
Telepathy, I think.
You learn telepathy.

689
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:01,160
With John, especially,
because you didn't know
where he was going to change.

690
00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:02,880
He changed whenever he wanted to.

691
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:05,640
# Start rolling

692
00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:08,240
# Ah...! #

693
00:47:08,240 --> 00:47:11,040
He said, "What I like
about you guys is that I can do

694
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:13,160
"11 bars, 16 bars, 12 and a half,

695
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,000
"but you know when to change
cos you just feel it."

696
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:17,840
You know, it's coming up to it.

697
00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:22,400
It's the movement in it and the way
he's shifting the patterns

698
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:26,920
and the rhythms and, um, the way
the chords are falling, you know,

699
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:30,200
and what he's doing with them,
are just terrifying.

700
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:34,080
We did realise, you know,
pretty early on

701
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:37,000
that we were these white impostors.

702
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:38,720
I mean, we played with, you know,

703
00:47:38,720 --> 00:47:41,440
people like Sonny Boy Williamson
for Christ's sake.

704
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:44,800
You know, he used to get very drunk,

705
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:48,800
would think nothing of changing
arrangements, screwing up the band.

706
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:51,720
Anyway, we were whities,
what did he care.

707
00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:54,560
And he'd actually said,
when he got back to the States,

708
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:58,760
"These boys wanna play the blues so
badly and believe you me they do!"

709
00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:00,000
You know.

710
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,720
Which was probably a very nice thing
for him to say.

711
00:48:05,160 --> 00:48:09,080
Manfred Mann, who already had
several chart hits to their name,

712
00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:12,520
also accepted the honour
of backing Sonny Boy on stage.

713
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:13,600
Thank you very much.

714
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,480
Sonny Boy was a grumpy
old character.

715
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:21,760
But the problem really
was that Manfred Mann

716
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,760
was made up, mostly,
of trained musicians.

717
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:28,400
Musicians who could read music
and write music.

718
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:33,520
And we fell out over how many bars
there are in a 12-bar blues.

719
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:36,400
You know, I mean,
the trained musicians

720
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:38,560
thought it must be 12, surely.

721
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:43,160
# You just keep it all
to yourself... #

722
00:48:43,160 --> 00:48:45,800
And Sonny Boy knew
the correct answer, which was,

723
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:48,000
"Any number that I want it to be."

724
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:49,880
# Do that for me, darling

725
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:52,760
# Don't make it to no-one else... #

726
00:49:15,680 --> 00:49:20,960
Here we have the rather devilish,
satanic-looking Sonny Boy Williamson

727
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,080
with his harlequin suit

728
00:49:23,080 --> 00:49:27,240
which was in a black
and sort of beige, as I recall.

729
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:32,800
I remember Sonny Boy Williamson
was staying with our manager,

730
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:36,520
Giorgio Gomelsky, in his flat in
Lexham Gardens round the corner here

731
00:49:36,520 --> 00:49:41,520
and one day we came home to the flat
and there's all this noise going on,

732
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:47,000
you know, and we opened the bathroom
and Sonny Boy Williamson is plucking
a live chicken.

733
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:49,160
In the bathroom, you know.

734
00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:51,920
Like he did back home, you know.

735
00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:55,120
So there was a lot of
cultural differences, you see.

736
00:49:59,480 --> 00:50:02,240
Cultural differences became
increasingly obvious

737
00:50:02,240 --> 00:50:04,040
the more American blues legends

738
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:06,400
began visiting Britain
in the early '60s.

739
00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:09,320
Tours mounted on shoestrings

740
00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:13,280
often relied on artists staying
with their fans, not in hotels.

741
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:16,160
When Jesse Fuller
first came to Britain,

742
00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:21,080
Val Wilmer invited him to stay with
her and her mother in South London.

743
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:23,240
I went to see him
as soon as he arrived

744
00:50:23,240 --> 00:50:25,280
and then I brought
him over to our house

745
00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:27,520
and this was in Streatham
in South London,

746
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:30,520
which was a rather smart place
in those days.

747
00:50:30,520 --> 00:50:34,160
And there he is taking tea
in my mother's drawing room.

748
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:39,000
And then he played for us,
harmonica and kazoo,

749
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:42,600
with a harness round his neck so he
could switch from one to the other

750
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:44,280
and play guitar at the same time.

751
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:48,360
Allegedly Dylan, Bob Dylan,
copied that harness from him.

752
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:53,040
And there he is with my brother.

753
00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:58,280
I love these photographs, although
I took them myself, I love them,

754
00:50:58,280 --> 00:51:00,560
because it was a special time.

755
00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:04,640
We didn't get on all that well,
actually,

756
00:51:04,640 --> 00:51:08,040
I found him a very miserable person,
to be quite frank.

757
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:11,080
He always complained about the fact
that he didn't have,

758
00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:13,160
he couldn't get a hamburger,
you know.

759
00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:15,960
I don't know if Wimpy's
had started in those days,

760
00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:21,320
but he was always complaining about
it, so my mother got him some mince

761
00:51:21,320 --> 00:51:25,360
and he made his own hamburgers,
so there he is cooking it
in the kitchen.

762
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:30,760
And we'd like you to meet
the king of Smokestack Lightning,

763
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:32,120
Howlin' Wolf.

764
00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:34,160
APPLAUSE

765
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:39,680
Chris Barber had first invited
Howlin' Wolf to the UK in 1962.

766
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:43,360
On subsequent visits, young British
blues musicians discovered that,

767
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:47,480
as far as The Wolf was concerned,
rehearsals were for pussies.

768
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:49,880
Wolf walked in with his tour manager.

769
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:54,720
And he used to just, "Mmm, hmm,"

770
00:51:54,720 --> 00:51:57,920
looked around, looked at us,
looked at him, "Mmm, mmm."

771
00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:02,120
And we thought,
"Well, we're gonna rehearse now."

772
00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:03,400
And he pulled out a harp.

773
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:06,200
He just started playing
a slow blues and we joined in.

774
00:52:06,200 --> 00:52:08,440
We did about two choruses.

775
00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:10,680
"Hmm, yeah, they're fine.

776
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:12,960
"See you tomorrow."

777
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:15,360
First gig, tomorrow in Sunderland.

778
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:21,160
# Ah, oh, the train I ride on

779
00:52:24,720 --> 00:52:28,880
# Oh, they shine like gold

780
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:40,240
# Whoo-hoo, whoo... #

781
00:52:41,880 --> 00:52:46,160
I hears, uh, Memphis Slim
and, uh, Muddy Waters say,

782
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:48,360
"The white man can't play the blues."

783
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:52,040
They should never say such thing
as that, "The white man
can't play the blues."

784
00:52:52,040 --> 00:52:54,720
Anybody can play the blues,
white or black.

785
00:52:54,720 --> 00:52:57,200
But he can't feel what I feel,

786
00:52:57,200 --> 00:52:59,640
because he never lived a slave life.

787
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:02,000
He didn't have nobody
to spit in his face

788
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:04,960
and he couldn't do nothing
about it and he's a man.

789
00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:07,200
See, so this is what blues
is all about.

790
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:10,200
Whisky, women and blues!

791
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:17,520
But in the States, whisky,
women and especially the blues

792
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:19,760
simply weren't on the menu any more.

793
00:53:22,240 --> 00:53:26,040
In America, even the blacks
didn't like the blues any more,

794
00:53:26,040 --> 00:53:27,440
it was considered old hat.

795
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:32,160
Uncle Tom, you know, like, who
listens to George Formby, you know?

796
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:35,440
Come on, we love him, but...you know.

797
00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:39,120
There's not a lot of George Formby
tribute bands. Or maybe there are!

798
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:45,320
You know, there's the problem
of black people

799
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:48,920
not wanting to be reminded
of their roots

800
00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:51,240
and wanting to hear things
that were more suave

801
00:53:51,240 --> 00:53:53,160
and middle class and sophisticated.

802
00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:57,440
A lot of the younger black people
wanted to move on.

803
00:53:57,440 --> 00:53:59,080
Move on up, if you like.

804
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:03,480
And the blues were, yeah, they were
associated with, you know, the Delta,

805
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:05,680
the cotton and slavery, even.

806
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:10,360
It goes back, I mean it goes back to
that, it goes back to West Africa.

807
00:54:14,760 --> 00:54:17,600
In a kind of unofficial
exchange programme,

808
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:20,120
British R'n'B bands began
visiting America,

809
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:23,120
unaware that the blues were ignored
in their own country.

810
00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:27,800
They were about to change
the course of popular music forever.

811
00:54:30,840 --> 00:54:33,840
Some bands finally achieved
the recorded sound

812
00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:38,200
they'd so desperately sought in
Britain at Chess Records in Chicago.

813
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:44,520
2220 South Michigan Avenue.

814
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:48,280
And suddenly you're in the room.

815
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:49,480
THE room.

816
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:51,160
One of THE rooms.

817
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:55,520
They knew about sound,
they knew about guitars.

818
00:54:55,520 --> 00:54:57,280
They knew about guitar players.

819
00:54:57,280 --> 00:55:01,080
And they had it all geared up,
you know, and it was just amazing.

820
00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:05,280
In came Willie Dixon,
Chuck Berry, um, Muddy,

821
00:55:05,280 --> 00:55:09,400
um, Buddy Guy,
all came in to listen to us.

822
00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:13,280
Yeah, they wanted to know,
like, how we were doing it

823
00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:15,400
and WHY we wanted to do it.

824
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:18,360
You know,
"Why you wanna play like me?"

825
00:55:18,360 --> 00:55:22,640
Oh, well, it happens to be
very good stuff, you know.

826
00:55:24,160 --> 00:55:26,360
You know,
and one day I might get there!

827
00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:27,760
You know...

828
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:32,800
..what, what were they thinking
about us?

829
00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:38,040
You know, you're doing our stuff
and da-da-da-da

830
00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:40,440
and coming into our world.

831
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:46,080
Luckily it was a happy marriage

832
00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:49,720
because we paid attention
and we knew, you know,

833
00:55:49,720 --> 00:55:52,120
in truth, really how to behave.

834
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:54,480
Just the first take, I mean,

835
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:58,520
I mean, I think we all went
outside and wept and said,

836
00:55:58,520 --> 00:56:02,280
"Yes. I mean... It's that easy?"

837
00:56:02,280 --> 00:56:07,280
That was the time that
The Yardbirds got their sound
down onto tape.

838
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:11,960
Then we moved down to Memphis and
had an amazing opportunity to record
at Sun Studios.

839
00:56:11,960 --> 00:56:17,720
With the very guy who recorded
Howlin' Wolf and Elvis Presley,

840
00:56:17,720 --> 00:56:18,960
Sam Phillips.

841
00:56:18,960 --> 00:56:21,920
He came in from
a weekend's fishing trip.

842
00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:24,080
I don't know how we did it.

843
00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:27,360
And it was in a room,
a tiny little room, you know,

844
00:56:27,360 --> 00:56:28,840
the size of a kitchen.

845
00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:33,120
Where everything, you know,
old amps, mics that weren't moved.

846
00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:35,840
But what a kick-arse sound,
I mean, these guys...

847
00:56:35,840 --> 00:56:39,320
Blues hasn't been a popular music
in America.

848
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:45,280
And, in fact, it seemed like white
America didn't even know about blues,

849
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:48,120
only little corners here,
corners there.

850
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:51,360
But when The Rolling Stones,

851
00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:53,360
The Who,

852
00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:55,640
and I can name you quite a few groups

853
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:59,880
that came over HERE
after The Beatles.

854
00:56:59,880 --> 00:57:03,400
Oh, boy, it opened up then.

855
00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:08,040
In America,
the audience for blues was black

856
00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:11,960
until the British thing...

857
00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:16,120
and then people started listening
to, like, John Mayall or maybe us,

858
00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:20,360
or whoever and I talked to a guy,
said he actually discovered

859
00:57:20,360 --> 00:57:25,520
that John Lee Hooker, who he'd never
heard of, lived two blocks away.

860
00:57:25,520 --> 00:57:28,120
The media didn't know what it was.

861
00:57:28,120 --> 00:57:32,000
You know the famous thing about
The Beatles when they said, you know,

862
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:35,160
"What do you most want to see
when you're over here?"

863
00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:39,840
And they said, "Muddy Waters."
And they said, "Where's that?"

864
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,680
And when anybody ever asked us,
"Who did that song?"

865
00:57:42,680 --> 00:57:45,960
We'd say, "That's an Elmore James
song, a Muddy Waters song,

866
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:48,960
"that's a Howlin' Wolf song,
Little Walter,"

867
00:57:48,960 --> 00:57:54,280
and gave them the credit and talked
about it in interviews and how great
they were and all that, you know.

868
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:56,920
We were getting letters
from people in Chicago

869
00:57:56,920 --> 00:57:59,800
saying, "Where can I find
this music?"

870
00:57:59,800 --> 00:58:03,000
We used to say, "Go across
the bridge and it's there."

871
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:06,280
They did start to sell records,
they did start to cross over,

872
00:58:06,280 --> 00:58:09,120
they did start to sell
in the white man's territory.

873
00:58:09,120 --> 00:58:13,280
It's an awful thing to say,
isn't it? White man's territory,
but it was like that.

874
00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:18,240
"Hey, these English cats
are getting the hang of it
and they're gonna help us."

875
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:25,240
So sometimes you use
that fame bit as a...

876
00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:28,760
yeah, to do what you think
you gotta do.

877
00:58:32,120 --> 00:58:37,080
British R'n'B bands had not only
sold their take on American blues
to white kids in the States,

878
00:58:37,080 --> 00:58:41,760
they also brought their heroes
to the attention of teenage
audiences in the UK.

879
00:58:43,360 --> 00:58:44,840
We got Jimmy Reed over.

880
00:58:44,840 --> 00:58:48,640
And Jimmy did it for, you know,
he couldn't believe what he got,

881
00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:51,440
he told us he was working for 30
the night before in New York,

882
00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:56,920
and I think we got him 1,000
and a bottle of Jack Daniels
under his stool.

883
00:58:56,920 --> 00:58:58,400
And he said to me,

884
00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:02,240
"There's more young pussy than you
can shake a stick at in front of me,

885
00:59:02,240 --> 00:59:04,080
"like I died and gone to heaven."

886
00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:06,560
And he'd played to 25 people
the night before.

887
00:59:06,560 --> 00:59:10,480
Come over here and they were playing
at the Albert Hall, you know.

888
00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:15,680
2,500 people, you know, sitting down,

889
00:59:15,680 --> 00:59:18,680
lovin' them
and knowing all the songs.

890
00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:20,800
And it kind of threw them, I think.

891
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:25,520
Yeah, I mean, I've no doubt they all
looked at each other and said,

892
00:59:25,520 --> 00:59:28,400
"Well, that's the strangest
audience I've ever seen."

893
00:59:30,120 --> 00:59:34,560
A bunch of wimpy English guys
with long hair, going, "Duh."

894
00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:37,960
"Well, I didn't expect to hit THEM!"

895
00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:40,720
You know, any port in a storm!

896
00:59:44,680 --> 00:59:51,840
By 1965 British R'n'B was at high
tide and blues-based bands were
flooding the charts worldwide.

897
00:59:51,840 --> 00:59:56,120
# I live in an apartment
on the 99th floor of my block

898
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:01,400
# And I sit at home
looking out the window... #

899
01:00:01,400 --> 01:00:05,000
But these British bands now stood
at the crossroads of blues and rock

900
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:07,480
and were writing their
own original material.

901
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:11,360
# Then in flies a guy
who's all dressed up
just like a Union Jack... #

902
01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:15,600
Which may have been inspired
by the blues, but it wasn't
quite the blues any more.

903
01:00:15,600 --> 01:00:19,000
# And says I've won £5 if I can
have his kind of detergent pack

904
01:00:21,840 --> 01:00:25,640
# I said hey! Hey! You! You!
Get off of my cloud

905
01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:29,440
# Hey! Hey! You! You!
Get off of my cloud... #

906
01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:33,280
There was a kind of frantic quality
to the way that The Stones

907
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:37,320
and The Manfreds and The Animals
all did it, you know.

908
01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:39,640
Um, it was all...

909
01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:43,400
I gravitated towards The Yardbirds.

910
01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:47,040
Um, and I always used to think
to myself, you know,

911
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:49,520
"Why don't they ever
play any slow songs?"

912
01:00:49,520 --> 01:00:51,640
It was always like, ding-ding-ding!

913
01:00:51,640 --> 01:00:56,840
It was necessary, creatively and
as human beings, my God, you know,

914
01:00:56,840 --> 01:01:01,280
to do something for ourselves,
so we did start to experiment

915
01:01:01,280 --> 01:01:05,400
and sort of move away a little bit
from the blues format.

916
01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:08,320
You had to go somewhere else,
we had to make our own music.

917
01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:10,280
# I never see

918
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:14,160
# The people I know

919
01:01:15,560 --> 01:01:17,760
# In the bright light of day

920
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:21,440
# So how can I say

921
01:01:22,720 --> 01:01:24,760
# That you're any friend of mine... #

922
01:01:24,760 --> 01:01:27,640
We got to a point where we'd done
that for three or four years.

923
01:01:27,640 --> 01:01:29,040
# I'm feelin' fine... #

924
01:01:29,040 --> 01:01:30,800
And if we hadn't of found a way

925
01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:33,360
to sort of break out of that

926
01:01:33,360 --> 01:01:35,920
we would have, probably,
stopped being a band.

927
01:01:39,680 --> 01:01:41,520
# Midnight, midnight till six

928
01:01:41,520 --> 01:01:43,120
# Midnight, midnight till six... #

929
01:01:47,040 --> 01:01:52,720
The Yardbirds now boasted a serious
young blues guitarist who quickly
established his own fan base.

930
01:01:52,720 --> 01:01:57,400
He soon became known simply, to
those who idolised him, as God.

931
01:01:57,400 --> 01:01:59,200
Eric Clapton.

932
01:02:00,520 --> 01:02:02,000
I mean, they named him God.

933
01:02:02,000 --> 01:02:04,480
He never woke up and said,
"I'm gonna be God."

934
01:02:04,480 --> 01:02:08,360
Although I did go out one night
and scrawl it on a bridge
with a piece of...

935
01:02:08,360 --> 01:02:10,880
No, I didn't, it's not true
actually. I wish I had.

936
01:02:11,880 --> 01:02:15,200
# I love you baby
Yes, I love you so... #

937
01:02:15,200 --> 01:02:19,960
What he brought with him was
his intense love and appreciation

938
01:02:19,960 --> 01:02:22,400
for this music that only
he was just discovering.

939
01:02:22,400 --> 01:02:26,400
And I realised later that he
identified himself with these guys,

940
01:02:26,400 --> 01:02:29,040
these suffering guys,
you know, Robert Johnson.

941
01:02:29,040 --> 01:02:32,320
And that, in a way,
he was living the blues, actually,

942
01:02:32,320 --> 01:02:34,640
more than I was living the blues,
you know.

943
01:02:35,840 --> 01:02:38,920
We did gel for a very intense,
short period of time

944
01:02:38,920 --> 01:02:42,320
and we even shared a bedroom
together, would you believe.

945
01:02:42,320 --> 01:02:44,200
And we were very close.

946
01:02:44,200 --> 01:02:47,120
Eric did have these very intense
relationships with people.

947
01:02:54,160 --> 01:02:58,240
For Your Love was The Yardbirds
musical prophecy of the shape of
things to come.

948
01:02:58,240 --> 01:02:59,360
# For your love... #

949
01:03:00,440 --> 01:03:04,040
But Clapton wasn't interested
in the imminent psychedelic future.

950
01:03:04,040 --> 01:03:05,200
At least, not yet.

951
01:03:05,200 --> 01:03:07,360
For him, the blues, pure and simple,

952
01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:10,840
had still to enjoy its day
in Britain.

953
01:03:10,840 --> 01:03:13,400
For Your Love was
"too commercial, man."

954
01:03:13,400 --> 01:03:14,840
# For your love... #

955
01:03:14,840 --> 01:03:17,000
I don't know if there was
an electricity

956
01:03:17,000 --> 01:03:20,000
in that studio afterwards that,
you know, was tangible.

957
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:23,720
It was gonna do something,
it was unique.

958
01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:27,160
And he played on the middle section

959
01:03:27,160 --> 01:03:28,800
and then, basically, quit.

960
01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:34,840
I think that was a, sort of,
a step too far for him.

961
01:03:34,840 --> 01:03:38,600
It was too, not the route
he wanted to go to.

962
01:03:38,600 --> 01:03:40,840
He had his blinkers on
at that point.

963
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:47,280
Eric was the first person who saw
that what really differentiated

964
01:03:47,280 --> 01:03:51,480
the blues that we were trying
to play from the real thing

965
01:03:51,480 --> 01:03:56,400
was they just slipped into it
because it was natural.

966
01:03:56,400 --> 01:03:59,920
And if you could make the music
feel natural to yourself,

967
01:03:59,920 --> 01:04:03,160
that's the key
to the whole of Eric Clapton's music.

968
01:04:03,160 --> 01:04:07,000
If you could make the music
feel natural, you were away.

969
01:04:11,120 --> 01:04:14,840
Naturally enough, Clapton
joined a real blues band.

970
01:04:14,840 --> 01:04:19,520
Produced by Mike Vernon, the album,
John Mayall's Blues Breakers
With Eric Clapton,

971
01:04:19,520 --> 01:04:20,920
known as The Beano Album,

972
01:04:20,920 --> 01:04:24,840
announced the arrival of the second,
more hardcore British blues boom.

973
01:04:27,840 --> 01:04:31,040
I had a very hard time
getting to grips with the difference 

974
01:04:31,040 --> 01:04:35,000
between the way I remember him
when he played with The Yardbirds,

975
01:04:35,000 --> 01:04:39,160
and the way he was when
he first stepped out on a stage
with John Mayall.

976
01:04:39,160 --> 01:04:41,760
It was like a completely
different guitarist.

977
01:04:46,440 --> 01:04:49,840
He must have got a serious
dose of Freddie King.

978
01:04:49,840 --> 01:04:53,560
Really serious dose,
you know, because those,
the Freddie King records

979
01:04:53,560 --> 01:04:57,360
were sort of somewhere in between
and Eric took it a bit further.

980
01:04:57,360 --> 01:05:00,040
Eric had told me, he said,

981
01:05:00,040 --> 01:05:05,560
"I'm gonna play loud, I'm gonna play
the way I do live and I don't want
anybody telling me I gotta turn down.

982
01:05:05,560 --> 01:05:07,120
"I don't want that to happen."

983
01:05:07,120 --> 01:05:09,720
And I said to him,
"I promise you it won't happen."

984
01:05:13,240 --> 01:05:18,080
Soon as Eric plugged in and turned
on, everything went to buggery
completely.

985
01:05:18,080 --> 01:05:20,640
All the drums were like, "Pwwww!"

986
01:05:20,640 --> 01:05:23,000
But God works in mysterious ways.

987
01:05:23,000 --> 01:05:27,640
Yeah, I just really play blues
all the time, you know.

988
01:05:27,640 --> 01:05:30,520
Having briefly blessed
John Mayall's Blues Breakers,

989
01:05:30,520 --> 01:05:32,920
Clapton was spirited away again,

990
01:05:32,920 --> 01:05:36,560
this time by two young jazz tyros,
Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce,

991
01:05:36,560 --> 01:05:39,960
to complete the holy trinity
that was Cream.

992
01:05:43,480 --> 01:05:45,880
Eric and myself went
to Ginger's house,

993
01:05:45,880 --> 01:05:48,920
I think he was the only one
who actually had a house,

994
01:05:48,920 --> 01:05:54,600
in Neasden, and we set up and, eh,

995
01:05:54,600 --> 01:05:57,040
we started to play
and it was just magical.

996
01:05:57,040 --> 01:05:58,920
# I'm so glad

997
01:05:58,920 --> 01:06:04,160
# I'm so glad, I'm glad
I'm glad, I'm glad... #

998
01:06:04,160 --> 01:06:07,400
So...that's where the blues was born,
folks.

999
01:06:10,960 --> 01:06:17,640
We had no idea what we were going
to play, but luckily, Eric,
being really into the blues,

1000
01:06:17,640 --> 01:06:23,400
had some rather lesser-known
esoteric kind of people
like Skip James

1001
01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:27,560
and some of the lesser known
Robert Johnson things,

1002
01:06:27,560 --> 01:06:30,080
which was really good
for us to be able to do.

1003
01:06:41,880 --> 01:06:48,960
My idea in the Cream days was to
take the blues, but respectfully,

1004
01:06:48,960 --> 01:06:53,720
and then use it to kind of create
a new kind of British thing.

1005
01:06:54,920 --> 01:06:58,320
# They might fill spoons
full of water

1006
01:06:59,760 --> 01:07:02,920
# They might fill spoons full of tea

1007
01:07:05,080 --> 01:07:09,160
# Just a little spoon
of your precious love

1008
01:07:10,480 --> 01:07:14,000
# Saved you from another man... #

1009
01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:24,240
Cream appeared just as things
went all weird and druggy.

1010
01:07:24,240 --> 01:07:26,600
First with the coming
of psychedelia,

1011
01:07:26,600 --> 01:07:28,760
swiftly followed by
the strange sounds

1012
01:07:28,760 --> 01:07:31,400
that announced the arrival
of progressive rock,

1013
01:07:31,400 --> 01:07:35,120
under the flagship of The Beatles'
Sergeant Pepper's album.

1014
01:07:35,840 --> 01:07:38,360
Even The Rolling Stones
were wrong footed.

1015
01:07:40,280 --> 01:07:43,320
When we went the wrong way
with Satanic Majesties,

1016
01:07:43,320 --> 01:07:45,960
trying to copy The Beatles,
I suppose, they were,

1017
01:07:45,960 --> 01:07:48,800
um, with the cover and everything,

1018
01:07:48,800 --> 01:07:53,360
we had to get back to our roots
when we did Beggars Banquet in '68.

1019
01:07:53,360 --> 01:07:54,720
It was much more bluesy.

1020
01:07:54,720 --> 01:07:59,600
# 2,000 light years from home... #

1021
01:07:59,600 --> 01:08:03,960
But the blues were more alive
than ever in the mind of guitarist
Peter Green.

1022
01:08:03,960 --> 01:08:07,680
Having replaced Clapton
in John Mayall's Blues Breakers,

1023
01:08:07,680 --> 01:08:11,760
he too was now ready to take
his own no-frills version
of the blues on the road.

1024
01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:16,160
While many British groups
were busy copying The Beatles,

1025
01:08:16,160 --> 01:08:20,480
abandoning live performance
altogether in favour of complex
studio recordings,

1026
01:08:20,480 --> 01:08:25,280
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
stepped on stage and rocked
like it was 1963.

1027
01:08:27,280 --> 01:08:33,640
I wasn't exactly Buddy Rich. I did
my best to play, I wanted to play.

1028
01:08:33,640 --> 01:08:37,880
I happened to meet people who
turned me on to blues music.

1029
01:08:37,880 --> 01:08:45,560
And what I did, as a player,
really was a good fit

1030
01:08:45,560 --> 01:08:49,520
because it was less is more
and I couldn't do more anyhow.

1031
01:08:59,920 --> 01:09:04,800
They were the best band on the road
at that period of time, live.

1032
01:09:04,800 --> 01:09:08,840
The atmosphere was absolutely,
I mean, you know, my God,

1033
01:09:08,840 --> 01:09:10,320
it was electric.

1034
01:09:10,320 --> 01:09:13,640
We needed an album. We needed it
fast and the band were so popular

1035
01:09:13,640 --> 01:09:16,000
they were out there working
eight days a week.

1036
01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:18,360
# I got a girl and
she just won't be true... #

1037
01:09:18,360 --> 01:09:20,120
We had to put something out.

1038
01:09:20,120 --> 01:09:23,240
# I got a girl
and she just won't be true

1039
01:09:24,840 --> 01:09:27,880
# Won't let me do the one
good thing I tell her to. #

1040
01:09:29,040 --> 01:09:32,000
I did two or three tracks at Decca

1041
01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:35,360
with Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood

1042
01:09:35,360 --> 01:09:37,760
and, actually,
Bob Brunning playing bass,

1043
01:09:37,760 --> 01:09:42,280
as demos for a future Peter Green's
Fleetwood Mac band.

1044
01:09:42,280 --> 01:09:45,040
'We got the sound now, lads.
Good. Take two.'

1045
01:09:45,040 --> 01:09:50,880
Mike Vernon absolutely
was the boffin of boffins.

1046
01:09:50,880 --> 01:09:55,040
He was so passionate about, like,
if he had something to play you,

1047
01:09:55,040 --> 01:09:57,880
I mean, this is like, "No, no, no,
you gotta come round,"

1048
01:09:57,880 --> 01:10:00,560
and "duh-duh-duh",
like stuttering over his words.

1049
01:10:00,560 --> 01:10:03,840
"It's just unbelievable, Mick,
it's just unbelievable,

1050
01:10:03,840 --> 01:10:06,560
"the horn section's coming in,"
and this and that.

1051
01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:12,160
The adage about being in the right
place at the right time is fine,

1052
01:10:12,160 --> 01:10:16,040
but you have to be the right
person in the right place
at the right time.

1053
01:10:16,640 --> 01:10:19,120
'Shake Your Moneymaker, take one!'

1054
01:10:20,120 --> 01:10:22,520
He wasn't looking for perfection.

1055
01:10:22,520 --> 01:10:24,680
'Remake, take one.'

1056
01:10:24,680 --> 01:10:27,840
But he was looking for, you know,
the shit, the real deal.

1057
01:10:27,840 --> 01:10:30,000
'Take five!'
And he knew what it was.

1058
01:10:31,760 --> 01:10:35,360
It was all about real stuff.

1059
01:10:35,360 --> 01:10:38,240
'Can you hear it?
It's fuzzy and keeps cutting out.'

1060
01:10:38,240 --> 01:10:40,680
On the production side
at that period of time,

1061
01:10:40,680 --> 01:10:44,600
I probably was the right person,
I actually was probably
the only person.

1062
01:10:44,600 --> 01:10:46,840
There wasn't,
to the best of my knowledge,

1063
01:10:46,840 --> 01:10:49,400
not anybody else that was
as active as I was,

1064
01:10:49,400 --> 01:10:51,080
nor as committed as I was.

1065
01:11:00,120 --> 01:11:04,320
Fleetwood Mac's first album,
released at the beginning of 1968,

1066
01:11:04,320 --> 01:11:06,160
was an international hit.

1067
01:11:06,160 --> 01:11:09,880
The Dog And Dustbin album,
it's commonly known as.

1068
01:11:09,880 --> 01:11:12,320
Yes, Peter Green's dog.

1069
01:11:12,320 --> 01:11:15,080
I think, or was it Mike Vernon's?
That's trivial.

1070
01:11:15,080 --> 01:11:20,040
But the Fleetwood Mac album
outsold The Beatles and The Stones
put together

1071
01:11:20,040 --> 01:11:22,160
for the first few months.

1072
01:11:22,160 --> 01:11:24,280
It was an extraordinary success.

1073
01:11:24,280 --> 01:11:26,600
And nobody could understand it,

1074
01:11:26,600 --> 01:11:30,320
here was this little blues band
not playing very fashionable music.

1075
01:11:30,320 --> 01:11:34,880
Cos that album was,
for sure, a blues album.

1076
01:11:34,880 --> 01:11:37,320
And people loved it

1077
01:11:37,320 --> 01:11:42,840
and most of them didn't know from
whence it really came, I'm sure.

1078
01:11:47,120 --> 01:11:49,560
Peter Green's a great,
great guitar player.

1079
01:11:49,560 --> 01:11:56,480
At that time,
I think he'd gone beyond Clapton
in terms of his tasteful playing.

1080
01:11:58,080 --> 01:12:01,840
There's something about the formula.

1081
01:12:01,840 --> 01:12:05,400
You know, and it's been twisted
and bent and everything else.

1082
01:12:11,800 --> 01:12:13,880
Like the R'n'B groups before them,

1083
01:12:13,880 --> 01:12:17,040
some of this second wave
of more hard-boiled blues players

1084
01:12:17,040 --> 01:12:21,200
also looked beyond a mere 12 bars
in their quest for originality

1085
01:12:21,200 --> 01:12:23,920
and a blues form
more relevant to '60s Britain.

1086
01:12:25,560 --> 01:12:28,320
I was only interested
in writing new material.

1087
01:12:28,320 --> 01:12:30,120
I've always wanted to be a composer.

1088
01:12:30,120 --> 01:12:35,200
To me, Cream was like a vehicle
for my composing.

1089
01:12:43,960 --> 01:12:46,000
# Hey now, baby

1090
01:12:47,040 --> 01:12:50,680
# Get into my big black car... #

1091
01:12:50,680 --> 01:12:53,160
It actually came from
the Profumo scandal.

1092
01:12:53,160 --> 01:12:55,800
You know, you got this idea
of an old politician,

1093
01:12:55,800 --> 01:13:01,080
an older politician, in a limo
starting to be very, very turned on

1094
01:13:01,080 --> 01:13:02,880
by the young girls of the '60s,

1095
01:13:02,880 --> 01:13:06,240
you know,
with the very short skirts.

1096
01:13:06,240 --> 01:13:08,440
And wanting a piece of the action.

1097
01:13:09,520 --> 01:13:12,160
# I wanna just show you

1098
01:13:12,160 --> 01:13:15,320
# What my politics are... #

1099
01:13:18,160 --> 01:13:20,680
There's a line in it
which I always think about,

1100
01:13:20,680 --> 01:13:23,400
"I don't care if you are
a Russian spy,

1101
01:13:23,400 --> 01:13:27,560
"what I want from you is your
red velvet thigh next to mine."

1102
01:13:27,560 --> 01:13:31,680
Some of the funniest things
you'll ever hear are in the blues.

1103
01:13:37,960 --> 01:13:42,240
The success of what was becoming
blues rock in Britain in 1968

1104
01:13:42,240 --> 01:13:44,600
meant that even emerging,
progressive bands

1105
01:13:44,600 --> 01:13:47,600
could sail into the album charts
under the blues flag.

1106
01:13:49,640 --> 01:13:55,600
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson factored
an unusual choice of instrument
into the blues equation.

1107
01:13:57,520 --> 01:14:00,600
It was almost like, well,
Eric doesn't play the flute.

1108
01:14:00,600 --> 01:14:03,400
It was about being a bigger fish
in a small pool -

1109
01:14:03,400 --> 01:14:07,000
you could actually stand out of the
crowd a little bit as a flute player

1110
01:14:07,000 --> 01:14:10,320
at the Marquee Club doing the blues
cos no-one else was playing it.

1111
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:15,160
But, you know, very quickly Jethro
Tull was not just a blues band.

1112
01:14:22,640 --> 01:14:27,800
That was Anderson's plan, but Tull's
management was uneasy about the mix.

1113
01:14:27,800 --> 01:14:31,440
This is just not an instrument you
should be playing in a blues band.

1114
01:14:31,440 --> 01:14:36,080
You should push the guitar player,
Mick Abrahams, get him to stand at
the front, and do more guitar,

1115
01:14:36,080 --> 01:14:40,720
and let him do more of the singing.
Why don't you learn to play a little
rhythm piano and stand at the back?

1116
01:14:43,360 --> 01:14:45,960
# Gonna lose my way tomorrow

1117
01:14:45,960 --> 01:14:48,520
# Gonna give away my car

1118
01:14:48,520 --> 01:14:51,280
# I'd take you along with me

1119
01:14:51,280 --> 01:14:54,040
# But you would not go so far... #

1120
01:14:54,040 --> 01:15:00,480
The band was formed
on the basis that you need
a guitar player in the band,

1121
01:15:00,480 --> 01:15:02,280
that can play blues.

1122
01:15:02,280 --> 01:15:08,360
Because blues is the thing, and this
was purely a commercial adventure.

1123
01:15:09,640 --> 01:15:13,360
The blues was the essential part,
then, of Jethro Tull.

1124
01:15:17,440 --> 01:15:24,640
If you can play one note
in the 12-bar solo, and make
somebody cry or laugh or...

1125
01:15:24,640 --> 01:15:28,000
all the lovely emotions that
are associated with music,

1126
01:15:28,000 --> 01:15:32,200
that's truly, to me, the blues.

1127
01:15:32,200 --> 01:15:33,720
It's almost like a prayer.

1128
01:15:33,720 --> 01:15:37,960
I had never any desire to be
a third-rate copyist

1129
01:15:37,960 --> 01:15:43,080
of a music form that I had such
respect for then, and do today.

1130
01:15:43,080 --> 01:15:49,000
One of the great blues pieces of all
time, and not terribly well known,
is JB Lenoir's Alabama Blues.

1131
01:15:49,000 --> 01:15:53,600
And he's singing about race riots.
Well, for me to sing that song would
be patently absurd.

1132
01:15:53,600 --> 01:15:55,360
Because it is so deeply personal.

1133
01:15:55,360 --> 01:15:58,400
Ian had his own plan.
Ian had his own plan for music.

1134
01:15:58,400 --> 01:16:04,160
So, my influence... It was like
there were two Jethro Tulls.

1135
01:16:06,440 --> 01:16:11,800
After a battle of guitar versus
flute, and blues rock versus
progressive rock,

1136
01:16:11,800 --> 01:16:14,040
Mick Abrahams left Jethro Tull.

1137
01:16:14,040 --> 01:16:16,720
Just as they hit the big time.

1138
01:16:16,720 --> 01:16:18,440
How's that?

1139
01:16:18,440 --> 01:16:24,440
It's not that I'm, you know,
so snobby, or...

1140
01:16:24,440 --> 01:16:31,480
demanding some kind of
intellectual outlet beyond this
simple and vital music form...

1141
01:16:31,480 --> 01:16:34,120
Actually,
it is both of those things!

1142
01:16:40,920 --> 01:16:46,320
It was this "simple and vital
music form" that bagged a bunch of
trophies for British blues artists

1143
01:16:46,320 --> 01:16:48,560
at the Melody Maker Awards
in 1969.

1144
01:16:51,680 --> 01:16:57,040
Some thought the blues had become
a license to print money
and guarantee international fame.

1145
01:16:59,960 --> 01:17:04,680
There is, of course the element of -
can blue men sing the whites?

1146
01:17:04,680 --> 01:17:08,200
You know, people start off trying
to copy people that they love,

1147
01:17:08,200 --> 01:17:13,520
and then, the good thing is if
you recognise why you love them,

1148
01:17:13,520 --> 01:17:17,600
and try to pinpoint all the things
that are great about those people,

1149
01:17:17,600 --> 01:17:23,320
and then incorporate it
into your own personality,
so it comes out being original.

1150
01:17:24,080 --> 01:17:27,800
# Quit hangin' around in bars

1151
01:17:27,800 --> 01:17:30,880
# Sold off all my green guitars

1152
01:17:30,880 --> 01:17:33,920
# Even got half the money back

1153
01:17:33,920 --> 01:17:37,280
# On my BMW car

1154
01:17:37,280 --> 01:17:39,360
# But you still... #

1155
01:17:39,360 --> 01:17:41,680
The essence of the blues is...

1156
01:17:41,680 --> 01:17:47,680
an expression of a person's...
social and spiritual condition.

1157
01:17:47,680 --> 01:17:50,480
# But I'm still tryin'
to flag a ride... #

1158
01:17:50,480 --> 01:17:54,200
Eventually, try and
recognise it in yourself,

1159
01:17:54,200 --> 01:17:58,840
and if it comes out sounding
like whitey playing the blues,

1160
01:17:58,840 --> 01:18:03,480
as long as it's got that
recognition, I think that it works.

1161
01:18:03,480 --> 01:18:08,600
# But I ain't getting no replies. #

1162
01:18:08,600 --> 01:18:11,400
And it WAS working.

1163
01:18:11,400 --> 01:18:14,800
Another day,
another blues group success.

1164
01:18:14,800 --> 01:18:18,800
This was the age of Fleetwood Mac,
Ten Years After and Chicken Shack.

1165
01:18:18,800 --> 01:18:22,280
Savoy Brown, The Groundhogs
and Taste.

1166
01:18:22,280 --> 01:18:27,760
They provided the soundtrack
to arguments about allegiance
to the blues versus originality,

1167
01:18:27,760 --> 01:18:30,120
authenticity versus theft.

1168
01:18:30,120 --> 01:18:33,920
The accompaniment to
white middle-class guilt.

1169
01:18:38,520 --> 01:18:40,840
# I got the Fleetwood Mac,
Chicken Shack

1170
01:18:40,840 --> 01:18:44,600
# John Mayall can't fail blues

1171
01:18:44,600 --> 01:18:47,680
# I got the Jethro Tull
Belly full

1172
01:18:47,680 --> 01:18:52,200
# Savoy Brown, Reach-me-down blues

1173
01:18:52,200 --> 01:18:54,760
# I got the Fleetwood Mac
Chicken Shack

1174
01:18:54,760 --> 01:18:59,120
# John Mayall can't fail blues

1175
01:18:59,120 --> 01:19:03,080
# From the deep, deep south
Of the river Thames

1176
01:19:03,080 --> 01:19:06,280
# A bottleneck guitar
is the latest trend

1177
01:19:06,280 --> 01:19:09,480
# I'm gonna earn more money
than I can spend

1178
01:19:09,480 --> 01:19:10,920
# I got the blues... #

1179
01:19:14,960 --> 01:19:18,880
# I've been waiting so long

1180
01:19:18,880 --> 01:19:22,760
# To be where I'm going

1181
01:19:22,760 --> 01:19:29,760
# In the sunshine of your love... #

1182
01:19:31,240 --> 01:19:33,240
Under the steam created by Cream,

1183
01:19:33,240 --> 01:19:38,560
British blues was now a runaway
train, pulling rock, jazz
and psychedelia along with it.

1184
01:19:41,520 --> 01:19:46,720
When we were actually out-grossing
everybody else put together,

1185
01:19:46,720 --> 01:19:51,880
we were just jamming.
I always like to say improvising,
cos it sounds better.

1186
01:19:54,360 --> 01:19:57,960
Eric Clapton joined up
with two jazz players,

1187
01:19:57,960 --> 01:20:00,960
you know, so, naturally
jazz players improvise,

1188
01:20:00,960 --> 01:20:03,280
and they stretch things out,
you know.

1189
01:20:03,280 --> 01:20:06,880
A ten minute number is
kind of normal.

1190
01:20:06,880 --> 01:20:10,240
So, Eric learned a lot about
improvisation,

1191
01:20:10,240 --> 01:20:14,640
and taking it to new areas,
taking his guitar to new places,

1192
01:20:14,640 --> 01:20:20,560
as a result of him working
in tandem with two of Britain's
greatest jazz players.

1193
01:20:20,560 --> 01:20:24,240
Like John Mayall always
tried to reconstruct

1194
01:20:24,240 --> 01:20:28,880
a sort of a Chicago blues sound,
note for note, basically,

1195
01:20:28,880 --> 01:20:33,960
he's a kind of trad jazz
version of the blues.

1196
01:20:33,960 --> 01:20:38,320
What we were trying to do,
was use the language of the blues

1197
01:20:38,320 --> 01:20:43,840
to create a new kind of unique
and original and personal music.

1198
01:20:43,840 --> 01:20:46,480
Nothing to do with Chicago,
or the Delta,

1199
01:20:46,480 --> 01:20:51,240
except that's where the inspiration
and the actual language comes from.

1200
01:20:57,800 --> 01:21:01,120
British blues had arrived
at another crossroads,

1201
01:21:01,120 --> 01:21:05,520
one that now signposted hard rock,
progressive rock and jazz rock.

1202
01:21:05,520 --> 01:21:11,120
At the height of their popularity,
Cream decided to call it a day
and go their separate ways.

1203
01:21:11,120 --> 01:21:16,280
They said goodbye
at the Royal Albert Hall
on the 26th November 1968.

1204
01:21:17,600 --> 01:21:21,200
The devil expected payment
for all the adulation

1205
01:21:21,200 --> 01:21:24,240
and unforeseen
international success.

1206
01:21:29,120 --> 01:21:33,320
Fame and fortune also proved
too much for guitarist Peter Green.

1207
01:21:33,320 --> 01:21:40,880
Down at his crossroads,
he met LSD, abandoned the blues,
and departed Fleetwood Mac.

1208
01:21:42,920 --> 01:21:46,880
But not before telling it
like it was, for him.

1209
01:21:47,640 --> 01:21:52,800
# Shall I tell you about my life?

1210
01:21:52,800 --> 01:21:58,160
# They say I'm a man of the world

1211
01:21:58,160 --> 01:22:03,600
# I've flown across every tide

1212
01:22:03,600 --> 01:22:08,520
# I've seen lots of pretty girls... #

1213
01:22:08,520 --> 01:22:12,160
Peter's voice was as important
as his guitar playing.

1214
01:22:12,160 --> 01:22:16,640
And... He could break your heart.

1215
01:22:16,640 --> 01:22:21,120
# I guess I've got everything
I need... # 

1216
01:22:21,120 --> 01:22:27,640
We just didn't realise, because
he was sort of a happy guy.

1217
01:22:27,640 --> 01:22:31,840
And yet, you listen to the words,
like, Man Of The World... You know.

1218
01:22:31,840 --> 01:22:38,000
# But I just wish that
I had never been born... #

1219
01:22:38,000 --> 01:22:44,720
He was way more sensitive than
one could possibly have known.

1220
01:22:44,720 --> 01:22:50,040
The pain that we found out
he was going through,

1221
01:22:50,040 --> 01:22:55,560
was put into a lot of the stuff
that he did in those three years.

1222
01:23:02,080 --> 01:23:04,360
In truth, when Peter left,

1223
01:23:04,360 --> 01:23:11,520
we had departed from being
a pure blues based band.

1224
01:23:11,520 --> 01:23:17,000
But we departed with...
the lessons learned.

1225
01:23:20,240 --> 01:23:24,400
But some British blues bands
didn't attend lessons.

1226
01:23:28,680 --> 01:23:32,400
They were too busy
frantically chasing gymslips.

1227
01:23:36,000 --> 01:23:38,280
# Good morning, little school girl

1228
01:23:41,080 --> 01:23:44,000
# Can I go home, home with you...? #

1229
01:23:47,920 --> 01:23:50,680
You don't, as you develop
your musical expertise,

1230
01:23:50,680 --> 01:23:56,480
start tuning out, you know, music
that looks blacker on the page with
a lot of notes, blah-blah-blah-blah,

1231
01:23:56,480 --> 01:24:01,360
it's still to remember those
really great lessons taught to us
by the likes of BB King,

1232
01:24:01,360 --> 01:24:02,840
you know, less is more.

1233
01:24:09,640 --> 01:24:13,640
Do-de-do-de-do-de-do,
they think that's blues.

1234
01:24:13,640 --> 01:24:19,200
do-de-do-de-do-de-doo-doo-doo,
oh de-de. You know,
diddly-diddly-diddly-do.

1235
01:24:19,200 --> 01:24:24,920
It's not blues, really. Blues is
doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, diddle-uh-duh.

1236
01:24:24,920 --> 01:24:27,840
You know, "I lost my baby...

1237
01:24:27,840 --> 01:24:29,920
"Where am I gonna live?"

1238
01:24:29,920 --> 01:24:34,600
It's more heart-felt,
it isn't bash it out, um...

1239
01:24:34,600 --> 01:24:40,080
as loud as you can, and play
your lead guitar as fast as you can
with as many notes.

1240
01:24:40,080 --> 01:24:42,000
That's jerking off, for me.

1241
01:24:42,000 --> 01:24:43,640
And I know a lot of those cats

1242
01:24:43,640 --> 01:24:48,080
and I realise that a lot of them
didn't really wanna go that way.

1243
01:24:48,080 --> 01:24:53,760
But the business was growing
and growing and growing.

1244
01:24:53,760 --> 01:24:59,320
And the money... And managements
were coming in and the...

1245
01:24:59,320 --> 01:25:02,800
You know? I mean, what are you
gonna do in this world? You know?

1246
01:25:02,800 --> 01:25:07,080
Why did you start it,
how do you wanna finish it?

1247
01:25:07,080 --> 01:25:09,600
Now that's the blues.

1248
01:25:10,880 --> 01:25:13,160
'Lead guitar, Jimmy Paige!'

1249
01:25:18,600 --> 01:25:25,840
Finishing it, or starting it
all over again, fell to a
pheromone-fuelled new fab four.

1250
01:25:25,840 --> 01:25:29,600
Zeppelin got a lot of criticism
early on for, sort of,

1251
01:25:29,600 --> 01:25:32,520
thieving things from Willie Dixon,
or whatever,

1252
01:25:32,520 --> 01:25:35,080
but, you know, everybody did.

1253
01:25:43,160 --> 01:25:47,880
They, like the very best
of British bands of that era,
took it to a new place.

1254
01:25:53,120 --> 01:25:55,160
That place was the stadium,

1255
01:25:55,160 --> 01:25:59,880
where, in the '70s, British blues
was subsumed in the heady mix.

1256
01:26:02,240 --> 01:26:04,480
# How many more times?

1257
01:26:06,280 --> 01:26:10,600
# Treat me the way
that you wanna do... #

1258
01:26:15,720 --> 01:26:19,280
# I don't mean the USA... #

1259
01:26:19,280 --> 01:26:25,360
But what about the black American
blues artists who personally brought
their music to these shores

1260
01:26:25,360 --> 01:26:29,560
and lodged it firmly in the hearts
of British audiences and musicians?

1261
01:26:29,560 --> 01:26:33,160
Champion Jack Dupree
never went back.

1262
01:26:33,160 --> 01:26:36,680
He settled in Halifax
and married a Yorkshire girl.

1263
01:26:39,520 --> 01:26:42,120
Since I come into England

1264
01:26:42,120 --> 01:26:47,080
and I found England was
a heavenly place for me,

1265
01:26:47,080 --> 01:26:51,120
I don't care who else
finds it difficult,

1266
01:26:51,120 --> 01:26:53,680
but to me it's heaven.

1267
01:26:54,800 --> 01:26:59,640
When you leave from slavery and go
into a place where you're free...

1268
01:26:59,640 --> 01:27:03,600
I couldn't go back there. Because
anybody spit on me, I'd kill them.

1269
01:27:06,720 --> 01:27:10,120
Everybody here know me,
including the police.

1270
01:27:10,120 --> 01:27:13,760
So, I'm known by everybody
and this is home for me.

1271
01:27:17,080 --> 01:27:22,480
When we began playing the blues
in England in the early '60s,

1272
01:27:22,480 --> 01:27:26,080
we were trying to recreate something
we heard on record.

1273
01:27:27,800 --> 01:27:30,680
That's the best you can do.
But I would say that,

1274
01:27:30,680 --> 01:27:34,760
whether we were authentic or not,
we all came to it with great love.

1275
01:27:36,520 --> 01:27:39,960
It's a living and breathing
expression

1276
01:27:39,960 --> 01:27:43,520
of people's suffering and desire.

1277
01:27:43,520 --> 01:27:49,840
And that's what the blues is. It's
not the kind of music that the Brits
nicked and sold back to America,

1278
01:27:49,840 --> 01:27:51,320
although that happened.

1279
01:27:51,320 --> 01:27:55,560
It's a woman, it's a drum,

1280
01:27:55,560 --> 01:27:57,680
it's everything like that.

1281
01:27:57,680 --> 01:28:04,640
It's much more important
than something you can even sell
or put a label on.

1282
01:28:04,640 --> 01:28:07,920
Much more. It's humanity itself.

1283
01:28:09,920 --> 01:28:13,400
As to whether we can ever begin
to emulate

1284
01:28:13,400 --> 01:28:17,840
the people who really began it,
the Robert Johnsons,

1285
01:28:17,840 --> 01:28:21,360
the Howlin' Wolfs, the Muddy Waters.
No!

1286
01:28:21,360 --> 01:28:24,960
# Nobody saw me cryin'

1287
01:28:26,640 --> 01:28:29,520
# Nobody knows the way I feel

1288
01:28:33,200 --> 01:28:35,480
# Nobody saw me cryin'

1289
01:28:37,080 --> 01:28:40,240
# Nobody knows the way I feel

1290
01:28:43,720 --> 01:28:46,640
# Yeah, the way I love the woman

1291
01:28:46,640 --> 01:28:49,120
# It's bound to get me killed. #

1292
01:28:49,120 --> 01:28:51,960
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

1293
01:28:51,960 --> 01:28:55,000
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk