Blues-Based Classic Rock

tagStarted 1966Peak 1969-1979Last big hit still active

Located in 1 route

Classic rock with its blues skeleton showing: twelve-bar forms, bent-string and slide guitar, call-and-response phrasing, shuffle and swing feels, and gritty, soulful vocals. Electric and often jam-leaning, with extended improvised solos riding a groove. The hard-edged, root-deep wing of the canon. Cross-listed into Blues Rock.

History

Sprang from the British and American blues revival of the mid-60s, when young bands electrified Delta and Chicago blues into long-form rock. Cream's Robert Johnson covers, the Allmans' slide jams and Free's riff anthems made these players classic rock's defining soloists, and the blues forms they amplified underpin much of the 70s songbook, keeping the idiom central to catalog rock.

Defining artists

Essential listening

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Sources

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_Road_Blues
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statesboro_Blues
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Right_Now
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_in_Europe_(Rory_Gallagher_album)