Deep Blues

Rating:
Summary: His book inspired John Sinclair's FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES
Review: Robert Palmer's DEEP BLUES is a great & encyclopedic work on the blues. A resident of New Orleans for the last few years of his life, he was a close neighbor and friend of John Sinclair, poet, d.j., and the original artistic director of the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. Both men had similar passions for the blues and all jazz-related music and relocated to the Crescent City for the reason that, in Ernie K-Doe's words, "I'm not sure, but I'm almost certain, that all music came from New Orleans." Palmer relied heavily upon original interviews and interviews conducted by other researchers, and DEEP BLUES reflects a directness and authenticity cross-pollinated by great musical erudition that includes not only the birthplace of the blues, but also its ancestry in Africa. This authenticity inspired another artist whose passion for the gut-level honesty of the blues became part of his own aesthetic. While reading and taking notes from DEEP BLUES, John Sinclair noticed that his jottings took the form of short-lined verses, and that the words of the musicians he loved had the impact of poetry. It was almost as if their words surpassed the poetry of the songs themselves. John fashioned some into poems. Later, upon meeting Palmer, he asked for permission to go further. It's a measure of the generosity of Robert Palmer, his love of the music, and the incredible heart that beats in the passages of DEEP BLUES, that he gave Sinclair the green light. John Sinclair's masterwork, FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES: DELTA SOUND SUITE (Surregional Press, 1999) owes its birth to Robert Palmer's own magnum opus.

Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: That person took what I was going to say! I agree with everything they said about this book. I've read every book of any substance out there about blues, especially the early country blues, and I find this book to be one if not the most pleasurable of all. It really pulls you in with vivid details and relationships concerning these artists and there importance to each other as a cultural group of musicians working from a common foundation. Robert palmer please write another. How about a biography of R.L burnside as a student of the blues

Rating:
Summary: god bless mr. palmer
Review: the best consice history of blues I have ever read and i read them all. god bless MR> palmer

Rating:
Summary: Essential and indispensable, not to mention entertaining.
Review: The film covers some of the same territory as Alan Lomax's excellent "The Land Where the Blues Began," apparently a few years down the line. It offers so much--the leisurely, respectful cinematography of Robert Mugge; the enthusiastic, informed, perceptive commentary of the late, lamented Robert Palmer; the riveting performances of Jessie Mae Hemphill, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, Junior Kimbrough, and others. The sequence featuring Big Jack "The Oilman" Johnson, particularly on "Catfish Blues," is worth the price of the ticket in itself. It's one of the best juke joint performances ever captured on film. This film is essential, indispensable, and downright captivating.

Rating:
Summary: Electrifying
Review: The late journalist Robert Palmer and director Robert Mugge toured the South and successfully documented some incredible blues performers, most of whom had never been recorded before. They open a window into a world of juke joints, fish frys, and country folk for whom the blues remains a vital part of their lives. There is some truly amazing music; for me, the highlights were Booba Barnes and Junior Kimbrough. Between the songs, there are short segments that provide some background and an opportunity for the performers to speak for themselves. Eurythmic Dave Stewart's on-screen involvement is mercifully brief--the juxtaposition of carefully styled Euro-rocker with authentic, down-to-earth rural types is jarring to say the least. The contrast inadvertantly reminds us of a major aspect of the appeal of the blues--it's purity as opposed to the way so many other genres have been shaped by concerns over saleability and fashion.

Rating:
Summary: Electrifying
Review: The late journalist Robert Palmer and director Robert Mugge toured the South and successfully documented some incredible blues performers, most of whom had never been recorded before. They open a window into a world of juke joints, fish frys, and country folk for whom the blues remains a vital part of their lives. There is some truly amazing music; for me, the highlights were Booba Barnes and Junior Kimbrough. Between the songs, there are short segments that provide some background and an opportunity for the performers to speak for themselves. Eurythmic Dave Stewart's on-screen involvement is mercifully brief--the juxtaposition of carefully styled Euro-rocker with authentic, down-to-earth rural types is jarring to say the least. The contrast inadvertantly reminds us of a major aspect of the appeal of the blues--it's purity as opposed to the way so many other genres have been shaped by concerns over saleability and fashion.

Rating:
Summary: Simply The Best
Review: There's no other way to put it, this is simply the best book out there on the blues both as a music form and as force in shaping American culture. At once simple and concise, yet broad and in depth enough to tell a very complete story, this one work should satisfy everyone from the novice to the experienced blues fan.

Meticulously researched, Palmer uses Muddy Waters as a jumping off point to explore the history and evolution of the blues as music as well as the society and culture from which it sprang. He peppers his work with amazing anecdotes, from the story of Robert Johnson, the Band meeting a dying Sonny Boy Williamson, an aging Howlin' Wolf giving a phenominal concert that add color to his story and helps make his frequent forays into musicology more tolerable to the non-musician. Best of all is the sense of time and place the book evokes, from plantations and dark swamps in rural Mississippi, to the noisy, crowed streets of South Chicago at the peak of the Great Migration, to small clubs and long forgotten juke-joints.

I read this book for the first time 10 years or so ago and have probably reread it 5 times since. I keep coming up with new things to admire about the book every time. That so much richness can be packed into such a short readable work is amazing. This book triumphs over everything else written on the subject and only leaves you wanting to explore further.

Rating:
Summary: Greatest book on blues; film also exists
Review: This book is known as the finest book on blues ever written. I enjoyed it thoroughly and recommend it as a necessary reading for anyone seriously interested in the blues. A film based on the book came out in 1991 or 1992, but it is impossible to find; it was a documentary produced by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, directed by Robert Mugge, and narrated by Palmer, who also produced the film's soundtrack of Mississippi blues artists. Wish someone would release that on video -- I want a copy!!

Rating:
Summary: Deep Blues - A Blues Pilrimage
Review: This is a great documentary on blues music. The DVD version is packed with alot of extras, from the usual outtakes that most DVDs offer, a interview with producer Dave Steward (of EURYTHMICS) to bonus audio tracks. I have DEEP BLUES on VHS but the tranfer to DVD is great, this what a DVD version of any subject should be like. I had the chance to meet and see the late Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes play, one of the artist featured, and seeing his performance took me back to that day. If you love the blues, you'll love this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Who is the white guy part II
Review: This is a terrific documentary and I endorse everything the reviewers below say - especially Steve Kaplan, who was actually in the film! Well done Steve! For me the highlight was Lonnie Pickford's virtuoso, but utterly faithful, take on Robert Johnson's Come On In My Kitchen and If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day. Eerie though it is to listen to a recording of Johnson's original item, it does require some imagination to get through the poor recording quality - it is definitely rewarding to hear (and see) it played freshly and crisply in front of your very eyes. Lonnie definitely goes on my list of Must Buys.

The only nitpicks have nothing to do with the music, but firstly the curious decision to film everything (including the interview out takes) in Black and White and secondly the (happily brief) appearances of that doyen of Mississippi blues, Sunderland's own Dave Stewart, founder of the Eurythmics and, even more credibly, the Spiritual Cowboys.

I suppose we have Dave to thank for having the film at all; seemingly he bank-rolled it - and in fairness he did have the sense to leave it for the most part to Robert Palmer (no, not THAT Robert Palmer) and the artists. But the vision of this anaemic little guy with a silly beard, dyed black hair, and faux rock star get-up when it appears amongst this totally down-home, real-life music - and even JOINING IN at one stage, god forbid - is pure Spinal Tap.

As is the interview segment of the DVD, which inexplicably feeatures a clip of the Eurythmics playing Missionary Man live in its entirety, and concludes with Mr Dave summing up his views on the blues in the following fashion:

"It's like - Shakespeare. How can you ever not have, um, Blues Music?"

Derek Smalls could not have put it better.