As a companion to my review of Robert Palmer’s book Deep Blues, I present part two of  two playlists.  Check out the first part via this link.  This playlist features music from Chicago and early Electric Blues artists including a few connections to early Rock N Roll and R&B.  The playlist is in pseudo chronological order tempered by what order they were covered in the book or perceived stylistic connections.

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As a companion to my review of Robert Palmer’s book Deep Blues, I present part one of  two playlists.  Check out the second part via this link.  This playlist features music from the very earliest Delta and Country Blues artists with just a peak at the connection to Chicago.  The playlist is in pseudo chronological order tempered by what order they were covered in the book or perceived stylistic connections.

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First of all, this book first published in 1981 was not written by Robert Palmer, the singer that brought you the hit song “Addicted to Love”.  The Robert Palmer that wrote this book was a distinguished music journalist from the 1970s to the 1990s.  He covered music for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and many other publications alongside his two non-fiction music books:  Deep Blues and Rock & Roll: an Unruly History. Palmer died in 1997 leaving behind a large body of work including his work in music production, film, and his own music, of which this book is his crowning achievement.  Palmer is a hugely important music journalist as he bridged the gap between rock journalism and ethnomusicology.  He had a unique perspective as a talented and successful musician in his own right who was able to hang with the rocks greats while still giving you an insight into the history of the subject he was covering.  Beyond that short intro I would direct those that want to find out more about him to this link if it so pleases.

The books caption, “A Musical and Cultural History, From The Mississippi Delta to Chicago’s South Side to the World”  actually sums up the books composition quite well.   Among the cast of characters that is covered in the book is Muddy Waters, which Palmer relies on heavily on to move along his telling of the Blues history.  The term “Deep Blues” is actually something that Muddy used to describe blues of high emotional quality which was highly influenced by the sounds coming from the Mississippi Delta.  Palmer picked up on this and his interview with Muddy act as the backbone of this book. 

The book is split into 5 sections:  a prologue, three main parts and an epilogue.  The prologue acts as an overview of the musical form.  Part I delves deeply into the genesis of the form and its original practitioners.  Palmer also focuses heavily on one of the Blues most interesting and important early figures, Charley Patton.  Part II then focuses on the next big player in the history of the blues, Robert Johnson.  One of the major draws of this book is the detailed history of Patton and Johnson, who previously and still are to a certain extent, mysteries.  Also covered in part two is Muddy Waters, and early Chicago Blues.  In Part III things get a little more involved, starting with the history of the highly influential radio program King Biscuit Time at Helena, Arkansas radio station KFFA. That radio program then acts as a connection point for the next handful of the musicians that are covered in this part of the book, as most of them played on the program at some point or played with the programs original stars Aleck “Rice” Miller (aka Sonny Boy Williamson II) and Robert Lockwood Jr.  Among those that are covered are the two aforementioned players and Little Walter, Junior Wells, Elmore James, and Jimmy Rogers.  This part continues covering the Blues from Memphis and the early recordings made by Sam Phillips at the Sun Records Studio.  This includes brief coverage of Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm, B.B. King, Albert King and Howlin’ Wolf.  The epilogue then ties up some loose ends with some of the previously covered characters, then spreads out and covers Blues players from some other areas including John Lee Hooker, Son Seals, and Otis Rush.  The epilogue also rounds the book out with some discussion of how the Blues influenced music across the world. 

In my opinion the book is on the list of must reads when it comes to material on the history of music.  It was one of the first to shed some light on such an uncovered genre with its extremely mysterious beginnings.  Those parts of the book that deal with the early history the Blues are some of its most compelling material.  I should also mention that the book is in no way a definitive look at the genre.  It is pretty focused in what it covers which is a gritty / country Mississippi Delta born blues.   With that being said there are some very large blind spots including the early blues from the eastern states also known as “Piedmont Blues” or any of the jazz based city blues of the 20′s and 30s’.  Also not given much attention is the Blues that came out of Texas or Louisiana.  My only real negative critique of the book is that it is a little abstract in its structure.  Palmer really jumps around a lot and it was hard to take all that information in when it is presented in such a disorganized manner. 

In 1991 Robert Palmer along with Director Robert Mugge released a similarly entitled film, Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads as a companion to the book.  The film mostly covers the Blues musicians that were still performing that kind of Delta influenced music in the late 80s and early 90s, along with little bits and pieces of history from Robert himself.  In addition to Palmers two main published books, there is also the recently published collection of his work called Blues & Chaos: The Music Writing of Robert Palmer if you are interested in sampling more of his works.

I would like to offer two playlists specially selected to act as musical companions to this book and my review of it, linked below.

Deep Blues:  Part 1 – Mississippi Delta to Chicago
Deep Blues:  Part 2 – Chicago & Beyond

Cadillac records is the Hollywood treatment of the story of the Chess record label.  The film centers on the founder of Chess Records – Leonard Chess and the labels first star Muddy Waters.  Although the film is not a complete disappointment, its your basic Hollywood over-simplification / over-dramatization of the true events.  Granted the film is “based on a true story”, they omit and make up connections that weren’t there to enhance the dramatic effect and dumb it down for the audience.  I had similar issues with the Johnny Cash /June Carter romance “Walk The Line”.

Here is a quick list of my disagreements with this movie:

• Very early on they portray Leonard Chess as being the underdog with a ridiculous exchange between him and some girls father.  Additionally they play up his death as if it happened on the way out from his last session with Etta James.  In reality he died a few months after he sold Chess Records.
• The relationship between Leonard and Etta James is completely fictitious.  Many other relationships and conflicts in the movie are also embellished including the scene in which Little Walter hits on Geneva.  Also Muddy’s conflict with Leonard about his pay (in truth he cheated Chuck Berry more in that he was using his earnings to pay Muddy during hard times) was played up quite a bit.
• The story completely omits Muddy’s trusty pianist/band leader Otis Spann and doesn’t lend any focus on his guitarist Jimmy Rogers.  Also almost completely passed over save for one scene in which Etta James is introduced is Leonard’s brother Phil who was part owner of the label/studio.  There was also no mention of the fact that Leonard & Phil got their start in the record business when they bought stake in Aristocrat Records where they recorded a lot of Muddy’s original hits.
• Even though I think Jeffrey Wright (Muddy Waters) is a very talented actor I did not feel him in this role and thought they could have casted someone more fitting.

In the interest of being fair & balanced here is a list of things I enjoyed or thought the film did well:

• Casting in the film overall is right on.  The choices of Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Eamonn Walker as Howlin Wolf, and Columbus Short as Little Walter were perfect.  I even found myself enjoying Beyonce as Etta James and I usually find her unbelievably blank.
• One relationship they hit right on was the tension between Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.  I think in later years they chilled out but early on there was a rivalry between the two blues singers.
• The film does a wonderful job remaking the music with the actors doing the vocals for the most part.  I thought Jeffrey Wright was a little weak, but the others did a great job.  The song picks were also well done.  Leonard’s son Marshall acted as the Executive Music Producer on the film.
• Included are quite a few important moments and characters for which the film does a passable job at blending them in.  For example the introduction of Muddy Waters getting recorded by Alan Lomax & John Work which was true.

Overall not the worst movie, but what things the film does well are ruined by the film bending the truth to make it more interesting to common movie goers.