I love the Blues! It’s the basis for almost everything that happened in popular music from the beginnings of the 20th century until the present days. What I rarely find in all these years is something I would like to call avant-blues. I would define it as re-imagining of the blues classics while still sticking to the blues form and expression. Rock music and jazz did that but they developed their own form and emotion, they outgrew the roots in a way. A rare, early example of a re-imagined blues would be that of Captain Beefheart, for whom I’ll dedicate an article soon, and this song by the late John Martyn, another great musician emerging from the late sixties. “I’d rather be the Devil” is a blues classic by Skip James, one of the greats of early Blues. This video is from a BBC session, recorded on March 13, 1973. John Martyn is showcasing his superb guitar playing technique, slapping the strings in a perfect sync with the delay, thus creating a feeling of a whole band playing the groove to support him singing. In the spirit of the time, it has a psychedelic touch to the overall sound, but it remains faithful to the blues emotion and form.
John Martyn was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist who has released 21 studio albums and worked with music greats such as Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, and Phil Collins. He was described by The Times as "an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues."
