Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Guitar Slim - The Things That I Used To Do

Yeah, you deserve a break today, and here it is.  Guitar Slim, the "Bluesman" with the "Soul Band," and a little Rock n' Roll too. 

Slim wrote the book on showmanship, anybody'd tell you that.  Buddy Guy says that after he'd seen some big time acts he decided that he wanted to sound like B.B. King and put on a show like Guitar Slim.  Slim had a guitar cord that was like a hundred feet or something, so he could walk through the audience all over the place and still be plugged in, no wireless in those days, the Stone Ages. 

Listen to the count in this song too, all of you musicians out there.  He goes a little nuts with the time there, towards the end.  Dropping chords and such.  Some guys say, "follow the chart," and other guys, the really deep guys, say, "follow me, sideman, and if you give me any shit, I will break your fingers." 

1 comment:

fred c said...

I read that Slim's long cord could get up to 350 feet! He had an assistant to help him drape it around the crowd! Thirty something when he died, and he looks fifty in his pictures. He must have hit it pretty hard, old Slim.