Doing the Boogie

I've been playing guitar a long, long time.  I originally didn't have good ears and learned visually not through the ears.  But given enough time and listening to enough blues music, I developed my pitch and hearing and learned how to spot the chord changes. 

I feel most comfortable playing a one chord boogie or a three chord blues song.  So you could say I am a primitive blues musician.  Something a la John Lee Hooker, Lightnin Hopkins, and Chuck Berry, all of which never used more than three chords per song.  One chord is minimal, three chords is a simple song, the Beatles would use 7 or 8 chords per song.  The Anglosaxon took simple black music and made it more complex and intricate.

But I like to keep it simple and near it's origins in the rural south of the USA.  Right now, Lightnin Hopkins is my favorite musician to watch videos of, and I find it so entertaining.  A black and white video from the 1960s of a mature black man playing acoustic boogie is more interesting than anything, and I get so much entertainment out of it.  He mastered the instrument.  There are not many authentic masters of music like him in today's music.  Some know nothing about real music, others like Billy Joel and Elton John are too sophisticated.  Sing a simple song.  I like the way a black man plays guitar.

I know there is not much blues going on on long island in this day.  In Texas or Mississippi, the music is still popular, because it's their music.  But here in New York, I am an oddball.  I'd like to visit Texas and play somewhere.  They'd go crazy for my kind of music.

So I keep doing the boogie, and I don't care if nobody else understands me.  All the black dance music of the past 50 years is derived from John Lee Hooker and the one chord boogie.  I am starting to get more advanced and move towards Lightnin Hopkins and the roots of rock n roll.  But it all comes down to African rhythms and sounds on European instruments.  It is a better way to rebel than to put boxing gloves on and be an angry black man.   Rhythm and Blues can be used as a vehicle to teach, to heal, to guide, and to educate in moral principles.  It is not just pop music or dance music.  It has a message.

Suffering is grace.