R.I.P. Pinetop Perkins

[rockace521]

Sideman for Muddy, awesome bluesman, the real deal. 97 years old. An icon passes.

[Poohdvm]

RIP. He will be missed.

I was lucky to see him perform at the Arkansas Heritage and Blues festival (Used to be called King Buiscuit B. F.) in Helena AR about 4yrs ago. Great show.

[rockace521]

Awesome. Gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. Didn't the Helena area produce some pretty great blues musician/s? I can't remember now, but it seems I've heard that name often during my learning stage about blues basics.

[Poohdvm]

There was a famous blues radio show called "The King Buiscuit Flour hour" That introduced many classic blues artists. It was broadcast from a Helena radio station. There are several blues artist from the Helena area. They have a nice blues festival in October that I highly reccomend.

[Bass man]

I guess I saw him. I saw Muddy & band open for the Allman Brothers in the early 70s. RIP

[mannish]

I played the 1995 King Biscuit fest in Helena (name has now been changed to Heritage Fest due to trademark) and when the Muddy Waters band - Pinetop, Calvin Fraizer, Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith & Bob Margolin took the stage I noticed there was no harp player. I literally forced my harp player (Stevo, some of you may remember him from Mobile herf) to go up to the stage flash his harps.....So Pinetop said lets get the harp player up here.
Stevo runs up there plays the entire set with the legends.........Now the rest of the story Pinetop was calling up, Helena harp master Arthur Williams NOT Stevo..... Worked out well for Stevo though

[rockace521]

Oh snap!

Great story--of the kind you hear with some frequency in that world, sometimes leading to wonderful discoveries of new talent. As I understand it, Muddy thought the harp was the soul of the blues.

[rockace521]

Originally Posted by Bass man

I guess I saw him. I saw Muddy & band open for the Allman Brothers in the early 70s. RIP

Likely you did. Otis Spann was Muddy's side-man until '69 or '70, and he died not too long after leaving Muddy. PP took over those duties through the duration of the 70's.

I only just learned that PP was the "other fellow" arguing with John Lee Hooker in The Blue Brothers about who wrote the song John Lee just finished singing (Boom Boom Boom Boom), and he was also in the movie Angel Heart.

As I understand it, the "argument" scene from the Blues Bros. movie became so heated that they had to cut part of it out.

[Catdeddy]

Originally Posted by rockace521

As I understand it, the "argument" scene from the Blues Bros. movie became so heated that they had to cut part of it out.

They cut it ALL out, but the out-take that accompanies the anniversary edition doesn't look like a real argument.

Many blues songs may be associated with a particular artist, but many times it is hard to find who REALLY wrote the song. Like cowboy songs, many were improvised and added to and revised, and many blues songs "evolved" from field hollers, Gospel, and African, without only 1 traceable origin. Go back to Charlie Patton and W. C. Handy (et. al.) to see some of the earliest "credits" and many of their songs came from some where before. Instead of an author, it is credited as the "traditional arrangement". (I believe this was used on Clapton's "From the Cradle", also.)

[rockace521]

Pinetop himself got his nickname by making Pinetop Blues (Pinetop Boogie, or whatever it was called?) famous, though he wasn't the one who originally recorded it. In my early days of studyin the blues, I was always trying to figure out who wrote what, but much of it is lost to antiquity or assumption. Muddy got his awesome "Got My Mojo Workin" from a lady, Ann something. And Mannish Boy was more than a little similar to Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man," which sounded suspiciously like Muddy's "Hoochie Coochie Man." Crazy how much stuff was borrowed, lifted, and even sued over in the blues and early rock 'n roll. Hard to keep track!