Searching for the Blues (eBook)

The whole truth about Robert Johnson and the Crossroads myth

Richard Koechli (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
188 Seiten
tredition (Verlag)
978-3-384-04057-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Robert Johnson did not sell his soul to the devil. But how did he crack the Blues code...? While modern music historians have now almost completely stripped the Blues of its myths, award-winning Swiss singer-songwriter, slide guitarist and book author Richard Koechli gives him back the soul in a philosophical way. With a mystical story that deeply explores the question of what exactly might be behind the legendary 'mojo' of the great Blues masters. Koechli embarks on a trip to the temples of the African-American musical soul, gets involved in strange thought adventures, meets all kinds of stars of Blues and Rock history - and in the end is haunted in a dream by the most famous of all Blues figures, by Robert Johnson (1911-1938). Johnson 'tells' him what really happened in Mississippi back then, how he got the Blues secret - and whether the devil really played a role ... A stirring story for all Blues lovers; full of light-footed poetry, spiritual depth and music-historical precision. You can feel in every line that the author is not a theorist, but a Blues artist down to the core.

Swiss musician and book author Richard Koechli is a great connoisseur of American roots music and its history. His reference books and music novels, published by AMA and tredition, are renowned standard works (German Music Edition Award 2011); as a guitarist and singer-songwriter, he has been awarded the Swiss Blues Award, the Swiss Film Music Prize, and the Prix Plus (Swiss Arts and Culture Prize), among others. More information: www.richardkoechli.ch/en

Textauszug

2. The way back

Sounds, melodies and rhythms everywhere

Have you ever tried to live in the present, for better or worse? You hear again and again that man can only progress in the present. The power of the moment is said to promise us freedom from worries. Well, give yourself for just a short moment to the experience of letting the essence of the simplest science of man work on you - and you will not get rid of the daring suspicion that behind this empty phrase there is perhaps only a swindle. Do you believe a life coach who talks non-stop about the „here and now“? The only time you can do that without any problems is when times are good.

What was that about the study of man …? Ask your body what has shaped it. It all comes from the past. Ask your mind where its knowledge and ability comes from; from the past, of course. And while you are at it, ask also, after what he strives, this spirit. After the future. Where is the present …?

In the self-evidence of the breath it should manifest itself, for example. Or in the heartbeat. But how do your lungs and heart know how to do the work? All the wonderful recipes and construction plans of our being - where are they stored if not in the brain stem, the reservoir of the past? If your lungs gasp for air, it‘s because they learned to do so in the distant past - and because they need the oxygen for the seconds to come. Where, please, is there room here for the much-invoked present?

Well, in good times, as I said, one is willing to surrender to this „flow“ of the moment. If need be, even with the advice on the package insert that we should do the same as the animals. Because animals would not know the sense of time, because they would instinctively live only in the here and now - they say. It‘s a bit strange how man, the crown of creation, is now suddenly being animated again full of admiration by the art of existence of „inferior“ earth companions.

Fred Loosli imagines how the dog of his neighbor amuses himself about our peculiarity to use the animal world in all conceivable ways again and again as timber for the construction of human theses. Loosli sees him, this magnificent American Akita, smiling mischievously when this one plays the game with altruistic looseness.

You have never seen a dog smile mischievously? Well, let‘s stick to the tangible - to what is still visible on the low-resolution screen of our limited perception: In Loosli‘s opinion, the assumption that animals live in a timeless present hardly stands up to serious scrutiny: „My neighbor‘s dog is supposed to be unaware of his past …? Now I see him not just smiling mischievously, but almost sneering. He remembers every place he visited, every person he met, every trick that brought him successful food or petting in the past. And all this knowledge he skillfully invests in the respective next plan, in the future.“

Fred and the neighbor‘s Akita male dog both agree that creatures of all kinds should keep their hands off the present at awkward moments. Because the pure present, so the common assumption, it can only be one thing: quite suspicious. Just like the blues. The past has hardly any meaning anymore, and nothing but the cold shower of the unknown awaits us in the future. Quite audacious to stay in this vacuum.

„Vacuum is not the right term !“ - Loosli says, having to instruct me. In this present there is not just yawning emptiness. Not at all! First of all, there are magnificent sparkling diamonds with strange names hanging everywhere, he tells me with the astonished look of a mystic. One of these precious stones, for example, would be called „Love,“ another „Trust. And in general, there is a lot going on in the present! Everywhere sounds, melodies and rhythms. A real party, with laughter and happy dancers. The only problem is „that every sound, after it has sounded … immediately goes out again, forever!“ No one could be touched, no one could be held, no one could be named. Nevertheless, people would have wanted to give a name to the goings-on at this party: MUSICA

Strange, this present. „In bad times, it feels like the blues,“ Loosli points out. „And then, when in doubt, it‘s better to keep your hands off the here and now!“ He knows it‘s not the right moment to want to play the hero of the present, for better or worse. Not now, on this walk through the woods at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. A saving sign is not in sight; far and wide no clarifying answers to his urgent questions about the mystery of the blues. Loosli decides to go back, to escape into the memory of past times.

The joy barometer

If feelings of happiness could be measured with a kind of „joy barometer,“ what would the verdict be? This question came up again and again at irregular intervals in Loosli‘s life. The verdict was always the same. Possibly the renewed starting of such a measuring apparatus would now support him navigating here on this expeditionary journey. If it is constantly proclaimed that the blues is an expression of pure joy, then perhaps the memory of past joys can bring him back on the lost track of these blues.

Of course, Loosli knows about the relativity of such measurements. Unreliability factor number one is probably memory. Somehow he doesn‘t trust the human ability to remember, at least not without limitations. Slightly ashamed, Loosli imagines how large the number of forgotten moments of joy must be. Where does memory get the right to simply fade out all these smaller and larger flights of fancy? The computer seems to act much more correctly when it politely asks the „Are you sure …?“ question before allowing us to delete a document for all eternity. The brain, on the other hand, acts like a god-like referee and constantly filters all possible impressions from our memory without being asked, discards them, throws them away. Seemingly forever. Such a filter has a judging character, otherwise it could not function at all! Whoever trusts himself with this role, whether he would call himself „subconscious“, „higher self “ or otherwise - he must be convinced of his competence in an almost impertinent way. Quite impertinent.

But the construction plans of the enigmatic invention „man“ would not be able to change fatalist Loosli; he does not even know them properly. So it is a matter of accepting their existence and their content, without ifs and buts. After all, some of these feelings of happiness remain, become write-protected files of unforgetfulness. He can dispose of them. He and no one else may evaluate them. This room for maneuver, however small it may be, must be used. Fred is convinced of this every time he asks his meter of joy to announce the verdict.

Love

He knows at all times that the whole thing is nothing more than a game. Basically, it is pointless to play off feelings of happiness against each other, to force them into the corset of a ranking list. At the time of the event, in this much-vaunted present, they are after all all individual fighters and run without competition - up to the peak of our sensation, in rare cases even to the island of ecstasy. But games call for an award ceremony. Consequently, at least one winner must be chosen in the competition of experienced pleasures. Loosli is also always clever enough to divide the field of participants into two separate categories; this seems to him to be essential to guarantee a fair derby. If there were only one category, the winner would be clearly and unequivocally called LOVE every time anyway.

Love beats all competition; it is greater, more sublime and more elevating than anything else. Loosli knows it, and how!

Every day he gives thanks for this great gift. For more than 20 years now, he has lived by the side of this wonderful woman named Rose. The love for this radiantly beautiful, tender and at the same time demanding being gives his life so much joy and direction that he is always paralyzed by the cold shiver at the idea that he could one day lose this woman forever.

Of course, even here a cliché passed around on the patter market comes to his mind: only unhappy love is supposed to be perfect fodder for the blues. „Nonsense!“ For once, Fred can‘t take the slightest thing away from a commonplace statement. Unhappy love has certainly brought great songs to music history, but should it be entrusted with the key to the blues secret? For Loosli, that makes no sense. Love is independent, it cannot be replaced by anything, not even by music. Not infrequently, the opposite happens; the unfortunate person simply wants to avenge himself with a music career for the pain he has suffered - and thus abuses the art of sound. Or else he generally confuses love with games and sports, collects one-night stands like trophies, and at the end of his career makes it his business to write hundreds of pages of books about his affairs or the tiny dick of his bandmate. We know enough of this from the camp of rock stars; it is obvious that this kind of thing is rather boring and in many cases contributes neither to musical quality nor to the reputation of the blues as a serious art form. On the other hand, there were great bluesmen who spent their lives happily at the side of one and the same woman, which of course did not harm their musical work in the slightest. „There are no rules anywhere!“ - Fred exclaims with conviction - „… any road can lead to the blues! There‘s no guarantee for anything, but the luck of love...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 16.10.2023
• Verlagsort: Ahrensburg
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• Schlagworte: Blues • blues guitar • blues music • Delta Blues • Mississippi Delta Blues • Music History & Criticism • R&B & Soul Artist Biographies • Robert Johnson • Slide Guitar
• ISBN-10: 3-384-04057-0 / 3384040570
• ISBN-13: 978-3-384-04057-2 / 9783384040572