There are many people who move around in the U.S.. Some of them go to big cities for a better job, and some come and go in the same area of the south since the U.S. is a vast nation of immigrants: while people of Japan often decide whether they stay in the hometown or they go to limited big cities. Although he didn't stay in the same town exactly, Bobby "Blue" Bland is a man of dignity and influence in all of the south. Since around 1950 he began singing the crying blues with his blessed big voice, and he developed his phrasing into more variable and tender one in the R&B era and sang predecessors of the future soul music with the element of church gospel in them. The backing sounds supporting Bobby Bland's overwhelming vocal power have a wider range from the guitar-sizzling blues to R&B with horns and orchestras, but they never spoil his vocal. These tunes with the core are so popular in the south, and I think they should be one of the source of expression of feelings for the southern soul in the '60s and '70s.
Born in the surburb of Memphis, he sang gospel and then began his blues career as a vocal of the Beale Streeters in Memphis. This group had members like Johnny Ace, the pianist who led the Beale Streeters and died a tragic death while playing the Russian roulette soon after becoming a star, or B. B. King, Junior Parker or Roscoe Gordon. After releasing singles at labels of the blues like Chess or Modern, he joined in Duke label and soon he was drafted into the army for three years. When he returned in '55, the owner of Duke had been changed to Don Robey who had already had Peacock label in Houston. Managing a taxi company and owning the Bronze Peacock Club and doing talent management or tour-booking, he was one of the first successful black entrepreneurs after the World War II. And his legends suggest exactly that he was the Emperor of the night. When Little Richard complained to Don Robey about shorter royalty payments, Richard was punched and sustained a hernia because he cursed Robey. Otherwise, O.V. Wright had left a contract with Duke=Peacock when he was a member of a gospel group. So Robey began claiming the rights of O.V., who had Goldwax's first hit That's How Strong My Love Is (can be heard on "The Goldwax Story vol.1" and so on), and as a result Goldwax gave up the rights except that of this single because they feared Robey's reputations. Otherwise, many of Duke=Peacock tunes were written by Don Robey or the pseudonym Deadric Malone, however, all of them were bargain sales of the actual writers for Robey. These episodes are so many that one book should be written about this interesting figure. He was an amateur and he didn't do extra things to his artists and let musicians free. So Duke=Peacock left well thick-boned recordings of the southern blues, R&B, or gospel (you should try some bests like "Duke-Peacock's Greatest Hits" ‚â "The Best of Duke-Peacock Blues").
As you know when you heard his "The Anthology", the compilation covering 30 years since '52, Bobby Bland gradually changed his delivery as the time went by, though he seems to be a stubborn bules singer. Lovin' Blues, recorded at Memphis before joining in the army, is a gloomy tune of the drowningly slow jazz blues. His fledgling I Smell Troube, his breakthrough Farther up the Road or Little Boy Blue is the blues balanced in the lower timbre backed by horn and rhythm sections featuring Bland's long-time mate trumpeter Joe Scott and outstanding guitar solos. I'll Take Care of You, written by Brook Benton who was popular for strings-ridden tunes, and Lead Me on are wonderful ballads with smooth melisma(the delivery of one syllable with differnt notes). Chicago recordings which are the main stuffs on his masterpiece "Two Steps from the Blues" are the sophisticated blues with less strings and more R&B factors. Not to mention Cry, Cry, Cry and Don't Cry No More, I Pity the Fool is a fabulous one surging slowly and steadily and igniting Bland's voice to the explosion. Nashville or Chicago recordings like Turn on Your Love Light or Yield not to Temptation was gospel-drenched under the influence of Ray Charles ; while 36-22-36 or Call on Me or Ain't Nothing You Can Do is arranged with the emphasized big band horns, and makes the audience bursting out from the smooth and comfortable place.
Although he had moderate pop hits from his sophisticated sides, the popularity of Bobby Bland was cheifly limited to the black in the south. His delivery is characterized by the utterance method like coughing up (in his own words, it was referred to as a "squall"). After undergoing a tonsillectomy that forced him to lose his upper register, he expecially referred to the father of Aretha Rev. C.L. Franklin's harsh-to-the-ear but rhythmic squall during the highlight of his sing-like sermon ("Legendary Sermons" should let you know what kind of church lives he did). It got to be his signature to put his own voice kind of distortion at the climax of his tunes on and after Little Boy Blue. Moreover, after '73 when Don Robey sold Duke=Peacock to ABC=Dunhill, there are Los Angeles recordings produced by Steve Barri, such as Goin' Down Low or This Time I'm Gone for Good or Yolanda. And there are tunes of "Members Only" which was cut at Malaco in Jackson, Mississippi where he stays still. You can find these tunes uttering individual coughing-ups. This decolated note is little found in the music of the white or the Japanese and hard to understand by them, however, it is one of skills attracting the audience of black music, just like Otis Redding's "Gotta, Gotta", James Brown's "Goodgod" or Michael Jackson's "nhdah, ah". It is needless to say that this kind of gimmick is charming because the basic of voice is wonderful. Especially, I dare say that you should get anything from his Duke=Peacock ones until the first half of '60s and ABC=Dunhill ones in the mid-'70s together with the backings. Bland's voice, singing the hard-boiled blues but delivering delicate expressions, is kind of the night pleasure only the adults can see. (2008/09/11)