Steve Winwood Night BBC4 9:00pm 18/6/2010
- Thread starter mathepac
- Start date
They interwove a few bars of Ray Charles' and a very young Steve's versions of "Georgia On My Mind" last night and it was creepy how close a white, English Midlands, teenaged Stave came to sounding like a black, Southern, Ray Charles then in his mid 30's. Steve has always admitted his hero-worship and to styling his singing in particular on Ray's and even during the concert with Clapton the phrasing was still evident.
Rock Quiz: Post Blind Faith, who does Clapton sound like when sings and whose instrumental style has he copied? Answers, on a post-card to: Recognise once and for all Steve Winwood's contributions to popular music, PO Box 99, askaboutmoney.com.
I did the full bit last night, including the repeat at 12:30am
It was nothing short of excellent.
Steve emerged from the womb a dyed-in-the-wool multi-instumental musical genius. Anything he took up (guitar, singing, organ, wind instruments, percussion, writing, producing, engineering) he did better than anyone else.
When Chris Blackwell (founder Island Records) heard Steve and signed the Spencer Davis Group, together they probably defined the futures of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Cat Stevens, U2, The Cranberries, Fairport Convention, the late great genius Nick Drake (dead at 26), Millie, Sly & Robbie, Robert Palmer, Free, Bad Company, Roxy Music, Amy Winehouse and on and on.
It's ironic that Island Records was bought by Polygram, which in turn was absorbed into Seagrams, the Canadian whiskey company. Chris Blackwell's Irish father moved to Jamaica, where he met and married Chris' mother, to work for a Jamaican rum company. So it started with booze and ended with booze, but the beat goes on.
Rock Quiz: Post Blind Faith, who does Clapton sound like when sings and whose instrumental style has he copied? Answers, on a post-card to: Recognise once and for all Steve Winwood's contributions to popular music, PO Box 99, askaboutmoney.com.
I did the full bit last night, including the repeat at 12:30am
It was nothing short of excellent.Steve emerged from the womb a dyed-in-the-wool multi-instumental musical genius. Anything he took up (guitar, singing, organ, wind instruments, percussion, writing, producing, engineering) he did better than anyone else.
When Chris Blackwell (founder Island Records) heard Steve and signed the Spencer Davis Group, together they probably defined the futures of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Cat Stevens, U2, The Cranberries, Fairport Convention, the late great genius Nick Drake (dead at 26), Millie, Sly & Robbie, Robert Palmer, Free, Bad Company, Roxy Music, Amy Winehouse and on and on.
It's ironic that Island Records was bought by Polygram, which in turn was absorbed into Seagrams, the Canadian whiskey company. Chris Blackwell's Irish father moved to Jamaica, where he met and married Chris' mother, to work for a Jamaican rum company. So it started with booze and ended with booze, but the beat goes on.
Thanks. I forgot to mention the concert Live from Madison Square Garden broadcast last night is also available on CD/DVD. Check out the Blind Faith tracks (minus Ginger's drum solos
), Derek and the Dominoes tunes, the Traffic stuff "Dear Mr Fantasy" / "No Face, No Name, No Number", etc. a short version (6 mins) of "Little Wing" and a very prog-rock 16 min version of "Voodoo Chile" plus a tasty "Georgia On My Mind" (not broadcast) featuring Steve on what sounds like a Hammond B3 or C3. It's on iTunes for €9.99 for 21 tracks from one of the giants of rock music and his very talented protege.
Mmmm. BB King?