I know this is a ridiculously long title and sometimes I shorten it to ‘Seems Like’ but it’s certainly one of my favourite blues-rock pieces to emerge from the pool of tracks that I nominated for my second & third recording with Bruce Taylor. (also bassist for Slowbone.) (Actually there were three other tracks but as I could not find a name for the style back in 2000, so I called them Gothic-Punk (the closest to that being Gothic-Rock which ‘is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s.’ ) – the names were ‘Wishing Well’ not to be confused with the 1972 hit by Free, for it’s got an Indian chant worked into the chorus, ‘Supply and Demand’ and ‘Houses of Dust’ – who knows maybe one day I’ll record them, when I find a band that is Gothic and Punk enough to manage the dark and sinister style and topic I’d envisioned for them.)
‘Seems Like I’ve Had The Blues My Whole Damned Life Long’
I’m not sure when I started writing blues and blues-rock tunes, but I basically got my kick-start in 1987 in a garage of a friend who was a serious leather goods craftsman. He loved the blues and once he realized he was dealing with an ignoramus of sorts he opened up his boxes of 4 track tape recordings and video cassettes and politely blew my head off! Not that I minded, it was my time.
As a result, I got to listen to what I’m going to call the big three: Lonnie Mack, Roy Buchanan and the blessed Albert Collins as the strutted their stuff at Carnegie Hall. He also opened up the history book on early Fleetwood Mac, and so much more that this tiny page would have to go on for a very long time to do justice to the grand masters of the blues, blues-rock and beyond. I also learned about early ZZ Top and Albert King, but this is not really the topic here.
I guess I didn’t have to look too far to write a song like this, for my life as is the pain of some has been filled with enough of the blues and not all of it is negative. So, it was really easy to access the pain and as I’d by this time (2000 perhaps a bit earlier) figured out that it’s not all about a three chord trick, but one aught to try and make it memorable and unique. So, it’s different and thanks to the superb recording and production by Bruce Taylor (Lord of the Faders) of Slowbone ( South Africa ) and the fabulous Jonnie Blundell, it’s certainly my favourite. It has shades of early Eric Clapton (461 Ocean Boulevaard, and not half understandable as Eric’s music has influenced me both before and since I learned to feel the blues) and as you’ve been listening to it now, I hope that this tune will become a favourite of yours, too.
It’s featured on my debut album Eric Sawyer (2011) .
Peace,
Blue Django.
