The Lute

The guitar, which used to be called, 'the lute' in 15th century Italy where it was invented, has tremendous versatility and is probably the best instrument.  It usually has 6 strings, at least 12 frets, and has a standard tuning that all musicians know.  There are altered tunings and most guitars have more than 12 frets, with the octave repeating at the 12th fret.   So the creativity and potential of the instrument is endless.

One thing about a guitar is, it is portable.  You can play standing up or sitting down.  It kind of resembles a giant phallus, so it is a sexual inuendo.  The blues is all about a man alone against the world.  The guitar imitates the woman's voice.  That is what I like about the blues, it is the music of hardship and loneliness. 

But the blues is not the only music you can do with a guitar.  You can do flamenco, classical, reggae, rock n roll, country, bluegrass, etc...  There is so much variety to the sounds it produces.

Most of the great guitar designs were made during the 1950s.  People to this day get stratocasters, telecasters, gibsons of all kinds, archtops, semi-hollows, etc...  It is an old instrument.

The most important musician of the twentieth century was an Irish American named Jelly Roll Morton.  He invented a chord progression called, 'the 12 bar blues'.  It influenced all the great blues players of the 1930s and 1940s, and this in turn influenced the innovators of rock n roll in the 1950s and 1960s.  It is a simple chord progression with three chords that repeats and repeats and never ends.  So he invented something of huge importance to society.

The best acoustic guitar player that influenced all delta blues, rhythm and blues, and rock n roll was Robert Johnson.  He had a brief career in Mississippi in the 1930s and then was murdered at the age of 27.  His short, but explosive life spawned a whole century of music. 

Rosetta Tharpe was also a major innovator.  She was an overweight, homely black woman who played gospel music originally for a black audience but then crossed over to a white mainstream audience in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.  She didn't enjoy great longevity.

Chuck Berry the man who invented rock n roll, said late in his life about his musical career, 'it was all one big, long, Rosetta Tharpe impersonation.'  That is an ominous statement.  Rock n Roll is secular gospel music.  Music not about God or Jesus but about Money and Women.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  Music can be used in a good or bad way.  You can use it to have a party, have lots of sex, do lots of drugs, and get into fistfights.  Or you can revert it back to it's gospel origins and sing of hardship, loneliness, injustice, poverty, and tragedy.  It's music, you can use it any way you like.

There were later innovators after Chuck Berry, like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Van Halen, etc...  But it all started with Chuck Berry, a smooth RnB criminal from St. Louis who didn't start performing music until he was 35 years old.  He ended up living 90 years, so he had a long, fun, successful life.  He invented something of lasting benefit to society, so you should judge him on his merits, not on what kind of life he lived.  Everyone dies, both saints and sinners.

The Lute, or guitar, is a great instrument and I hope it doesn't wane in popularity.  I visit the guitar shop regularly.  The thing is, most music today is made with machines not actual instruments.  It is essentially angry lyrics set over an electronic beat.  It has gone far from Rosetta Tharpe and Chuck Berry.  I think it is kind of sad.  The 1960s was about rock n roll, this generation is about porno and MMA.  I don't think society is improving.

But I know I will keep playing guitar, singing, watching old videos on YouTube, streaming my own music on Spotify, and keep the tradition alive.  The guitar should never become antiquated.  By nature, rhythm and blues is music about real life and rock n roll is music about youth culture.  So how can it become antiquated?  This music is alive and there is still hope for it.

Look for my new album, 'Trouble On My Way' out on most stores now.  That includes YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, Deezer, TenCent, and so on.  It is a good album with 3 vocal songs and 3 instrumentals.  Two of the instrumentals are flamenco songs.  It is quite interesting.