Days of THE BLUES
of early '60s youth, spinning 45s on my parents RCA console radio phonograph player. My childhood pal Doug and I would spend endless hours listening to Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, and B. B. King. Whose songs of sadness, melancholy, and problems in love would influenced millions of kids like us. Doug commented recently that "I was ahead of the times"; maybe so.
Later in teenager days, I and a few pals would sneak over to THE SKYLINER BALLROOM on the notorious THUNDER ROAD (Jacksboro Hwy 199) in what was called HIGHWAY TO HELL, to see these early Blues artist in person. Of them all-Jimmy Reed was my favorite. Geeeetar Man (oil on canvas) was my recollection of him. Local musician Delbert McClinton and Ray Sharpe were favorite at the THE SKYLINER.
Nowdays the blues have a much larger audience and likes of my pal Peter Harper (Midwest Kind) continue the magic.
The Blues resonated with us early Rock 'N Rollers because they were songs of real life-anguish, hurt, broken hearts; all the things teens seem to go through. They reminded us of the 'ole saying "A shared sorrow is half a sorrow". That we were not alone, that others were going through the same struggles with situations and relationships made. Blues was "a feeling" long before it was a genre.
Music transcends racial and economic barriers, just as does art and literature. They move us!