Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Follow the Heat wave...
|
They may have few takers today, but Canned Heat typified the true blue era of the Sixties and Seventies
|
FORMED IN Los Angeles by blues freaks Alan Wilson, nicknamed Blind Owl for his thick glasses, and Bob `The Bear' Hite (thanks to his 300-pound frame) in 1966, Canned Heat's self-titled opening album was fairly well received. Hite's vocals/harmonica and Wilson's guitar and harmonica, backed by Frank Cook on drums and Henry Vestine on guitar made a mark at the Monterey festival.
No. 16 on the charts
The entry of Adolpho `Fito' de la Parra as the new drummer pepped up the band's second release, Boogie with Canned Heat, producing On the Road Again, which touched No. 16 on the charts. Wilson's weak but high-pitched voice, melancholic harmonica work and a sitar-like guitar introduction lent it a totally new feel and was considered a classic.
A tour of Europe followed and the double-set Living the Blues yielded the No. 11 hit Going up the Country, the song's back-to-nature theme catching the mood of the '60s effectively. Tracks from four albums cut in 1969 and `70, which included a joint effort with blues boogie guru John Lee Hooker, caught on in the continent. Their performance at Max Yasgur's Dairy Farm, outside New York, in 1969 had the hippies whooping it up at Woodstock.
Vestine left and was replaced by guitarist Harvey Mandel on Future Blues. The suicide of Wilson, spurred by a drug overdose and depression in 1970 could not have come at a worse time and was a blow the band could not fully recover from. The exit of Larry Taylor and Mandel to join John Mayall prompted Vestine's return and Antonio de la Barreda became the new bassist. Many releases later, Hite collapsed during a show and died of a heart attack in 1981.
Out of fashion
By then, the band's electric blues had gone out of fashion, interest reviving only in the 1990s with the album Reheated. Mandel joined the group again for Internal Combustion and some live dates with Taylor, Mandel and Vestine. After Vestine's death in 1997, De la Parra soldiered on, going in for personnel changes and even penned a fairly candid book about the band, Living the Blues.
Loyal followers still attend their concerts in Europe and the U.S., steeped in the nostalgia surrounding the band that typified the Sixties' and Seventies' blues era.
A. GEORGE ANTONY
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
