Joplin vs Slick

great clip...an absolute fav of mine.. #2 unforunately... and let me retort with #1 ... #6 on my list of blow thy speaker songs ever put to vinyl or silicon..

SRV is a fascinating topic in himself but think you and David hit the head of that nail arleady.. so sticking semi on topic here.

No.. I meant what I said and think (of course haha) that I was spot on. It is not riff based.. it is indeed differentiated from European music on the intellectualism vs. emotinalism continum as I said.  What I had not mentioned was the third leg of the uniquely American musical experience..  country music.  That is the trump card if you will to my argument.  That music is not riff based in the least. but predicated solely in relation to the listener's emotions not their intellect.  It is music that a listener listen to not to be inspired..  or stimulated.. but reinforced.  If you f**king dog got run over.. you don't put a f**king VDGG album on...  you put on some DAC..  your spousal unit run amuck with a coworker or the damn mailman..  you put on some Hank Williams. The same applies to the blues and jazz.. it is all about the emotions the music helps stimulate and reinforce...

I see micky's point albeit I wouldn't call it intellectual vs emotion.  What drives American genres is licks, not just a 'sound'.  You write a kickass lick and then toy with it, you're good to go. Sometimes you don't need to envision an out of the world structure or go to faraway places; you can just stay rooted and grounded and still kick ass.  Notice that American music is so in the pocket a lot of times.  You need both kinds of music, obviously, to complete the picture.  But just on the topic of licks, I know micky said SRV isn't REAL blues but sample this, amazing machine gun riff.  

How many players from Europe can you think of who could play the blues as well as him?  Leave out Clapton (and FWIW I DON'T think he is as good as SRV) and then you have Gary Moore who is also from the Anglo American universe.  Continental Europe?  Maybe the closest was Uli Roth who was still a hard rock guitarist end of the day and needed all that almighty gain. 

Many ... and I might start with Guru Guru ... Ax is the next best Jimi there is after Terje Rypdal in many of his great moments.

Guitar works, are not a good point for you, because Europe has music history going back 500/600 years and more and this influence makes for things that are very different, whereas American music had its art wiped out completely, and all that was left in the 20th century was black music, that even the movie studios tried to prevent from coming up by sending their "stars" singing the hits to the stores and make it look like they were "the music".

Thus, a lot of American music, might have a closer relationship to "the blues" than it would a lot of other things, and there is nothing wrong with that ... and it wasn't until after the 1950's that more, and different American music started coming forward, and jazz was at its front, something that also started with black music!

These comparisons, like an European can not do SRV or FZ, or an American can not do an Ax or Uli, or John W (AD2), and many others ... is a dead end ... in most cases the music is so different as to hurt the discussion!

THEY ARE BOTH GREAT ... and for the record I DID SEE SRV on a tour with Robert Cray, and he was phenomenal ... there is no 2nd thought about it! So, don't think I do not appreciate American folks ... there are many of them.

If all it was in the music was intellectual bullsheets, then we would not even consider anything like it ... and it's weird you saying this and comparing both ... because there was so much improvisation, stoned or otherwise, and saying that one is intellectual and the other isn't is bizarre ... and probably completely out of touch ... for many folks in Germany it was about how the sound felt and you matched up to it, and some folks made music out of the noise, and some did Jimi impressions (early Guru Guru), and others just ripped up the stage (Ulli) and then others, went after new sounds that helped illustrate their imagery ... which has absolutely NOTHING to do with intellectual anything, and is the biggest rap on music there is ... even here ... improvisation is not considered "valid" music, because it is missing the "mind", so to speak!

You don't see a connection between a Klaus Kinki and a Damo ... so you don't know the value of "busking", on the street as opposed to in front of the camera. And you think that singing the blues (Janis is a far out example) is what it is all about, not realizing that the same words, or different words are also "blues" to one's inner mind and body in different ways ... 

I'm glad I quit a lot of dope many years ago ... at the very least I do not have what I think are damaged views of what music, and the arts is supposed to be ... like Edgar Allan Poe's "blues" are not his short stories!

Weird!

ohhh... and I love you Steve.. but I wouldn't go quite that far...

suffice to say Janis was hand DOWN the greatest female rock vocalist ever..  they all owed a debt to her.. 

I remember reading an interview with Linda R. who was immensely influenced by her.  Not just to be a singer.. but a star.. 

easier said than done in rock..  something notorisouly testorone driven and male dominated.. 

every female rock singer can trace their success back to her..

but her over Aretha.. Babs...or Billie???  oohhh. let's just call her one of the greatest female vocalists of all times. She's earned it.. and even if idiots around here don't recognize it.. those that count.. do recognize it.

my favorite from her..  perhaps the single greatest female rock vocal performance ever and my favorite from her....   untouchable