The Oppenheimer Report 4/8/13

John Lee Hooker

Just finished the autobiography of blues guitar great Buddy Guy, entitled When I Left Home: My Story, and his story confirmed what I already knew about Black blues musicians. A lot of them got completely screwed by the music industry. Most rock and/or R&B musicians today, certainly any of them born before 1990, realize that guys like Lightnin’ Slim, Junior Wells, Lighnin’ Hopkins, Howlin Wolf, Otis Rush, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters paved the way for most of the good rock music to follow. I’ll wager that most people have never even heard of most of these artists but for anyone interested in the roots of rock ‘n’ roll, these guys were seminal influences. In his autobiography Life, Rolling Stones ax man Keith Richards talks at length about and of the debt of gratitude he and the Stones owe to those blues pioneers. In fact, the much-touted “British Invasion,” which brought us such super groups as the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Cream, and The Yardbirds, owes its existence in large part to the influences if Black American artists. There is a great passage in Guy’s book wherein he recalls the one and only time he met one of my favorite rock musicians, Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was already far more popular and successful than Guy would ever become, but when they met, Hendrix was deferential, and only interested in recording with the man he considered to be one of his mentors. I’d give anything to have seen Buddy Guy play with Junior Wells in some Chicago blues dive back in the late 50s or early 60s. While Buddy Guy is still playing and finally receiving some of the fame and success he deserves (but nowhere near the success and good fortune of white performers), most of his predecessors and contemporaries died poor and relatively unknown.

I can only hope that in this brave new Wild West world of music, the talented will receive the recognition they deserve, be they Black, White, Red, Yellow, or Heinz 57 varieties. Today emerging artists can use the internet to spread the word, and in fact I’ve found most of my recent favorites online. For the past five or six years I’ve been following the career of John Butler, a very talented guitarist from Down Under, whom Shauna discovered while surfing for music on the internet. While not a superstar in popularity, Butler’s unusual style of guitar playing makes him stand out, and he has broken into the North American market largely because of his internet presence. Gone are the days when a career is made or broken by some fickle, myopic, record company. The other side of that coin is that because there is so much more talent out there, it is harder and harder to stand above the rest. I seriously wonder if some of the super groups of the 70s would make it were they forced to compete with the expanded field of talented artists we have today.   

Well the N. Korean Michelin Man, Kim Jong-un, son of and successor to deceased President Kim Jong Make-Me-il, has turned up the volume in his threatening rhetoric, and some are concerned this little putz will trigger WWIII with his polemic antics. Really? Pointing his long range missiles at S. Korea and Japan may win him some support with his starving countrymen, but his dangerous posturing strengthens international resolve to isolate his rogue state. Most agree that any effort on Kim’s part to follow through on his aggressive threats will be suicide for him and his people, and like that Iranian butthole surfer Ahmadinijad, it looks like Kim is all talk and no action. Watching that propaganda video of him firing a handgun was about as silly as watching that ridiculous photo op of then presidential candidate Michael Dukakis back in '88, dressed in combat fatigues and riding in an Abrams M1 tank. From what I’ve read, Kim is more of a figurehead anyhow. I wonder how China feels about all of this. As China’s economy becomes inextricably linked to Western economies, N. Korea must be something of an embarrassment to Mother China. It’s kind of like your drunken Uncle Charlie who, without fail, throws up at the Thanksgiving supper, but you keep inviting him anyhow. Whaddyagonnado, he’s family?! Pretty soon China (the Godfather) will be forced to take N. Korea (Fredo) “out fishing” and the next thing you know, problem solved. China annexes a new province and S. Korea is in real trouble. As I said, it’s time for an infusion of Western culture. I am suggesting an arranged marriage: Kim Kardashian marries Kim Jong-un, and everyone wins. Dennis Rodman can be the best man. It’s just a suggestion.

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED