What A Guy

LET'S NOT fuck around, we're dealing with a legend here.

Born George Guy on July 30th 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana, the son of a sharecropper, Buddy grew up playing along to songs on the radio on a home-made guitar.

After working as a handyman at Louisiana State University, he left for Chicago in 1957, penniless. On his third day in town however, luck smiled on the starving musician: he encountered Muddy Waters, who, upon seeing Buddy's guitar (which he'd refused to pawn, having worked so hard to get it in the first place), offered to buy the youngster a drink if he'd play some blues. Guy offered to play all night for a hamburger.

Waters was impressed enough to drag Buddy up to the 706 club on 47th street, where the legendary Otis Rush was playing. Muddy swaggered up to Rush and proclaimed, "I got a black son of a bitch here that'll run you off stage." After Buddy had played, the club owner hired him on the spot, offering $25 dollars a night, a week's wages back in Baton Rouge.

Through Willie Dixon, Guy then scored a job as a session sidekick at Chess Studios, where he played on recordings by Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry - "everybody but Bo Diddley". However, Leonard and Phil Chess never recognised Guy's worth as an artist in his own right until years later, when the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Cream began citing his attacking, distorted style as a huge influence. Hendrix even took a tape recorder into one of Buddy's gigs, for the purposes of making notes later.

The guitarist eventually got his own deal with the Vanguard label in the 60's, and though widely regarded by British blues boomers like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and The Rolling Stones (with whom he toured) as one of the greats, he was still stifled by record companies' unwillingness to give him free rein. Throughout the 70's and 80's, as blues was on the wane, and record stores stocked reissues rather than new blues artists, Buddy went without a record deal, just about sustaining himself through constant touring. Also, the death of Guy's protegé and friend Stevie Ray Vaughan hit him hard.

However, when long-time devotee Eric Clapton invited the guitarist to join him for the last three shows of his 24 night stint at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1990, B.G.'s fortunes took a turn for the better. Guy, always a dynamic live performer, stole the show. His set, and its subsequent appearance on the album, 24 Nights, spurred Silvertone to sign him up for what would be a succession of Grammy-winning albums, including Damn Right I've Got The Blues, Feels Like Rain, and Slippin' In.

Buddy's forthcoming album, Heavy Love, was recorded in Nashville with producer David Z, and boasts guests such as Steve Cropper, acclaimed ex-Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward, and young gun Jonny Lang. Featuring two originals, plus standards by Muddy Waters, Louis Jordan, ZZ Top and a great take on Tony Joe White's 'Did Someone Make A Fool Outta You', it is Buddy Guy doing what he was meant to do, with full record company support, a decent budget and the backing band to do him justice.

Yet, sitting in a Chicago office, fielding press calls, Buddy Guy comes across as humble to the core, troubled by the passing of his peers, intent on holding fast to the legacy bequeathed him by the masters of the form. Listening to him speak, one is struck by something Keith Richards once said; that the only epitaph worth putting on a good musician's tombstone is He Passed It On. But, as the guitarist readily acknowledges, without the support of the mainstream media, it's always a struggle.

"It's not easy, because I'm fighting like the devil here," he admits, in a voice shot with a combination of low-slung Southern cadences and gruff Chicago gravel. "For anyone who wants to know, 'Well what did Muddy Waters do, what did Howlin' Wolf do, what did Little Walter do?', I'll play one of those records every once in a while, to let the young people know what we started. Y'know, the Auto-makers, BMW, Rolls Royce and all that don't care how they change the style of the car just so long as it's got Rolls Royce and Ford on it: I just want Muddy and them's names to live on forever."

For all his apparent humility, Buddy Guy is no mere shadow player. But whatever about the many accolades heaped at his feet ("Buddy Guy is the best. You cannot say anymore than that" - Eric Clapton), he's certainly a gentleman. When confronted with the suggestion that there haven't been many major female blues players since Bonnie Raitt, his response is chivalrous.

"There's a few, you just haven't heard of 'em," he instructs. "They got four or five girls here in Chicago who play well. They got one just come outta Texas, she opened the show for me, all of these girls are playin' well, man. As a matter of fact my daughter's in London now, she's into hip-hop and rap, but before she left she said, 'Dad, I gotta sit down with you and that guitar'."

He may be a grandfather, and an elder statesman of the blues, but Buddy looks - at most - half his 62 years. However, he laughs off suggestions that he may have gone the way of Robert Johnson, and swapped his soul for his looks as well as his talent.

"Next time you look at me, you put on your best glasses," he chuckles. "You'll see all the wrinkles."

THE STORY OF THE BLUES

Buddy Guy gives Hot Press a guided

tour of ten landmark blues recordings.

JOHN LEE HOOKER: 'Boogie Chillun'

"That was the first thing I ever learned how to play on the guitar. My little brothers had ran me out of the house, 'cos you know what a guitar sound like when you can't play it. I fell asleep and I heard my fingers hit those licks. I thought that I would never find it again, so I played it for about six hours without stoppin'.

"It had the beat, and y'know, nobody has a voice like John Lee. At that point in time, guitar players was very slim, there wasn't as many out there as today. There's not a lot of fingerin' on that tune, but it led me to other things. I was so proud to play that, I'd never learned anything else, it felt like I had achieved what I was trying to find."

MUDDY WATERS: 'Louisiana Blues'

"I had heard his records before, and that voice of his was the same (in person). I dreamed of going to some place and watchin' him perform, and it winds up with him asking me to play with him, and I tell him just like I tell BB King and the rest of 'em: 'When you guys play, Buddy Guy should sit in the audience and listen.' When he was playing things like 'Louisiana Blues' and 'Goin' Back Down South', I just felt, 'No human can do that'. Goose pimples just came everywhere.

"Most times I go out and play to a live audience, I end up playin' a Muddy Waters tune, or Lightnin' Hopkins, or John Lee Hooker - something I can imitate a little bit, because that kinda music is fadin', there's not many of us left. If you hadda talked to me 14 months ago, my answer woulda been, there's a handful of us, but in the last 14 months we've lost Jimmie Rodgers, we lost Johnny Copeland, we lost Junior Wells - that's just a few. Now you look around, there's BB King, John Lee Hooker, myself and Otis Rush, that's about it.

"Young people don't even know who Muddy Waters was. I'm trying to just . . . like an endangered species, I'm trying to say, 'Well, let's save the species.' The big radio stations here will not play them. So if I get a chance, I'll play a Muddy Waters tune."

HOWLIN' WOLF: 'Killing Floor'

"I did several with the Wolf and Muddy and Sonny Boy Williamson, man. At that point in my career I was saying, 'I don't care if they never record me'. I felt like I had a number one record just for them askin' me to play with them. What happened was, they was in the studio all day tryin' to tell other guitar players the basic line that he wanted, and they couldn't hear it. I play by ear, and they called me up about eight o' clock that morning and told me to come down and they hummed that line to me, and I said, 'I can play that'. I think we cut that thing in two takes.

"It was a honour for me to support them. A lot of the guitar players, before they passed away, they would tell me, 'Man, so-and-so's a good guitar player but he won't step back there and push me like I want'. And those guys was my idols. I was just saying, 'I don't want to be in your way. I just want to be a part of this record to make you sound good, 'cos everything you do that sounds good, I learns from that.' I never would talk back to 'em: if I could play something I would and if I couldn't, I wouldn't fool with it. And they liked that."

WILLIE DIXON: 'Little Red Rooster'

"He was a great writer. He used to call me over to his house, and some songs he tried to give me, I thought they sucked! Like 'Little Red Rooster'! Then, all of a sudden, the late Sam Cooke gets it and goes to the top of the charts. I mean, songs are written, and I guess some people can do more with them than others. But he and I joked about it. Muddy Waters used to do the same thing, he'd look at him and tell him, 'Man, that thing ain't shit!' (Laughs). He had stacks and stacks of songs."

JIMI HENDRIX: 'Red House'/'Voodoo Chile'

"Leonard (Chess) came and told me that he wanted to kick his own butt, because he was dumb, 'cos I was trying to play that (style) at the studio for several years before they recorded Cream and Hendrix and all those. I had never been to his office, and he took me and sat me down and played a couple of tracks, and I walked out. I was kinda angry 'cos they (Chess) never did do anything for me. I would go in there with a song and they would say, 'This is not for you, this is for Chuck Berry or Muddy Waters', and they would take my material away from me and give it to other people.

"As long as they gave it to those people I admired so much, it didn't make me real angry, but I just wanted people to know the type of guitar I was trying to play, but they never gave me that chance. The last six or seven years I've been getting more freedom than I ever had in my life, with this record company I got now (Silvertone). At this point in time I'm doin' okay, but I still don't hear a Buddy Guy record on these big stations where my grandchildren and my children can hear it.

"When my daughters turned 21 they came into the blues club, and when they first discovered me on stage, all of 'em cried and said, 'Dad, I didn't know you could play like that'. But if I was exposed to television and radio like everybody else, they would know about it."

ERIC CLAPTON/CREAM: 'Strange Brew'

"I don't know if I stole the show at the Royal Albert Hall, but he gave me the opportunity to be there, and that's when the British guys signed me to the label. We all got something that came from somebody. When Eric plays 'Strange Brew' and stuff like that, I pick up something from him, just like he picked up something from me. We all got it from someone, man. Son House,

Fred McDowell, they told me, 'Boy, you just go ahead and play your guitar. We all got it from somebody that hadn't made their name like us'."

THE ROLLING STONES: 'Love In Vain'

"The Rolling Stones have done a lot for all of us. Those guys come from over there and put us on these shows and sign us up to their record companies, giving us all this praise and credit that was due years ago. I just have to thank them."

JONNY LANG/BUDDY GUY: 'Midnight Train'

"I listened a lot to this young man, Jonny Lang; he opened up for us when he was startin' out. I was watchin' him then, and he laughed when I said, 'Man, I don't care who you are, or how old or how young, I'm listenin'!' Oh yeah. But a lot of young people is sayin', 'Why should I be like Buddy Guy? Nobody knows him'. They wanna look for role models, they wanna look at the big stuff. See, I learned how to play the guitar for the love of the music, and the blues. There wasn't anybody makin' a lot of money.

"I was in Australia several years ago, and a news thing came on, givin' me the percentages of people in music and sports that make it big. It was only five per cent in music, five per cent in basketball - I don't care how good you are, if you don't be in the right place at the right time, you are lost.

"I know a lotta young people now who can play the hell out of the drums, guitars, keyboards and everything, but who's gonna have the patience I had? I had the patience of an elephant! I couldn't give it up because I loved what I was doin' too well.

"Finally, I was almost 60 years old, and somebody said, 'I'll record you,' and I had my biggest record. I had to come to London to do that. I thought about Jimi Hendrix; he was bummin' around New York with Little Richard for a long time before this guy (Chas Chandler) took him to London, let him have his way, and Good God almighty, thank God he did."

ZZ TOP: 'I Need You Tonight'

"I went into Nashville to record this. When you're in the studio, Express Mail be fallin' in with songs. I love ZZ Top, they sold a lot of records, and I heard it and said, 'Let me try that'."

LOUIS JORDAN: 'Saturday Night Fish Fry'

"Louis Jordan invented rock 'n' roll. He was out there doin' it, playing that beat before Elvis and Chuck Berry was born, before all those guys who hopped it up." n