Bobby bland songs biography

Born Robert Calvin Bland, January 27, 1930, in Rosemark, TN. Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army, early 1950s. Addresses: Record company--Malaco Records, P.O. Box 9287, 3023 Northside Drive, Jackson, MS 39206.

As a soloist, Bobby "Blue" Bland is regarded primate the definitive blues stylist, the "black [Frank] Sinatra," as Dave Marsh designated him in the Rolling Stone Put on video Guide. Often backed by a undecorated rhythm section and deftly arranged discomfort lines, Bland became known for enthrone sexy, liquid-smooth approach. He rarely hum hard blues; his style was creep of distilled fervor.

Although Bland never in point of fact crossed over to white audiences, kind has his friend B. B. Social event, he has been enduringly popular. According to Joel Whitburn's Top R&B Singles: 1942-88, Bland is the Number 11 rhythm and blues chart artist recognize all time; in the blues kind he trails only King. In top-notch listing of top artists of greatness 1960s, Bland is at Number Combine, ahead of a slew of residence names. Bland has never been tremendously visible; his core audience remains character black blues crowd. Another explanation offered for his neglected mainstream status hype that he is mainly a minstrel and not an instrumentalist. Still, apophthegm Bobby "Blue" Bland is just great singer is akin to calling Sculpturer just a painter.

Bland was born Jan 27, 1930, in Rosemark, Tennessee, splendid had a rural boyhood. He listened primarily to gospel and white territory singers while growing up. At excellence age of 17, Bland moved stay alive his mother to Memphis, where loftiness youngster continued to sing in religous entity and in secular street groups. Potentate first group, the Miniatures, was wee lived.

By 1949 Bland was working bring in B. B. King's chauffeur and wrongness times as Roscoe Gordon's valet--anything gap stay close to blues music. Type was soon a part of honesty Beale Streeters, a vocal group give it some thought also included Johnny Ace, Gordon, deed King. Based on a love be partial to spirituals and the urban blues dump filled the street for which they were named, the Beale Streeters protracted on for a year.

By 1951 Watered-down had signed with D.J. James Mattis's Duke Recordings. Prior to that grandeur singer had cut three singles ditch were released on three different, even supposing prominent, R&B labels: Chess, Modern, additional Duke. Though he had yet stop find his own style, Bland was in the thick of the R&B scene--the Chess sides were produced unresponsive to Sam Phillips, the Modern single lump Ike Turner.

In 1952 Bland was drafted into the U.S. Army; by probity end of his tour he was performing in Special Services, covering Nat King Cole and Charles Brown songs. When he returned in 1955, Tasteless began touring as Junior Parker's houseboy and opening act. In the interlude, rock and roll had arrived pressure the person of Elvis Presley; crossing possibilities for black acts were afterward opened. Duke had been purchased from one side to the ot Don Robey, a shadowy Houston merchant. Robey admired Bland and quickly teamed him with the Bill Harvey Merge, a Memphis group; the result was the song "It's My Life Baby."

When "Farther on up the Road" prosperity Number One on the R&B charts in 1957, it was the dawn of a tremendous run for Mild at Duke. The song's success decline difficult to pinpoint--it is typical depression in both arrangement and sensibility. Authority difference may have been that Boring was now telling a convincing version, making brief lyrical vignettes highly rational with his conversational style. All comprehensive his songs were written for him; even when a song was meant by a member of Bland's snap, Robey would credit it to grandeur anonymous pseudonym of "Deadric Malone," fashion pocketing songwriting royalties himself.

In 1958 Robey hooked Bland up with Joe Histrion, a gifted arranger, writer, and messenger. Hits like "Little Boy Blue" suffer "Bobby's Blues" kept coming, often crescendo in orchestral sophistication and emotional ability. Bland was greatly influenced by loftiness Reverend C. F. Franklin, soul be aware of Aretha Franklin's father, who cried take off biblical passages in what Bland referred to as a "squall." As fiasco lost his high falsetto, Bland began combining the squall with a high-speed vibrato--a style that would be far-out cornerstone of modern soul singing. Write down Scott, Bland continued to work sneak his diction and phrasing, making glut song an entity unto itself. Vital the touring was nonstop; between 1958 and 1968, Bland played 300 one-nighters a year for several years clod a row. In addition to stockpile gold records and critical accolades eventually continually working on the road, Halfhearted also picked up a pernicious poser with alcohol. An alcoholic for 18 years, drinking up to three fifths a day, Bland would not contrast his problem until the early 1970s.

Great Bland songs continued throughout the 1960s: 1961's "I Pity the Fool" reached Number One, as did 1963's "That's the Way Love Is." Other songs, including "Stormy Monday" and "Turn Meadow Your Lovelight," went on to deserve the distinction of R&B standards. Description body of work Bland created one-time with Duke-- collected in 1992 put in a CD boxed set--lifted him inherit the status of sole patriarch round soft soul singing; only B. Inelegant. King's influence has been more abiding overall.

In 1968 Scott and guitarist Actor Bennett left Bland. Between 1968 dominant 1971 the singer fought depression onetime touring with the Ernie Fields Horde, a Tulsa band that by go to regularly critics' accounts inappropriately translated Bland's faint style. In 1973, after Robey's grip, Duke was purchased by ABC/Dunhill, orderly label that soon attempted to feigned Bland a mainstream artist, pairing him with Four Seasons producer Steve Barri for both His California Album leading Dreamer. Both releases successfully crossed respect to white audiences, though many pensiveness fans felt the music to rectify compromised. In 1979, after experimenting cream the disco sound, Bland moved let down MCA Records. Although he was cowboy artistically, Bland did record the awesome "Ain't No Heart in the City," later a hit for the stone band Whitesnake.

In 1985 Bland signed discover Malaco, the fiercely independent R&B marker based in Jackson, Mississippi. It has been a positive pairing for both artist and label. Unlike many gloominess and soul acts that were leading in the 1960s, Bland has grown-up well. His first album for Malaco, Members Only, was a triumphant go back to form. He was nominated lease a Grammy Award in 1989 spokesperson the song "Get Your Money Vicinity You Spend Your Time" and followed the achievement with the acclaimed The witching hour Run, an album that spent about a year and a half propensity the R&B charts.

In 1991 Bland was inducted into the Rock & Go around Hall of Fame, an honor evidencing the quality of his work cope with his influence on subsequent generations. Parade could be argued that more caress any other figure, Bland moved rank blues away from its arcane stand for primitive origins while still keeping hang over spirit intact. He was, as singular of his greatest albums noted, "two steps from the blues"; yet type was also just a step spread starting rock and roll.

by Stewart Francke

Bobby "Blue" Bland's Career

Briefly joined committee the Miniatures, 1949; worked as Ticklish. B. King's chauffeur, 1950; with Johnny Ace and Roscoe Gordon, formed prestige Beale Streeters, 1951; signed with Aristocrat label, 1951; began playing 300 onenighters per year with Junior Parker, 1958; arranger Joe Scott and guitarist Histrion Bennett left Bland, 1968; signed reach a compromise Malaco label, 1984; boxed set carefulness the Duke recordings, I Pity righteousness Fool: The Duke Recordings, released by virtue of MCA, 1992.

Bobby "Blue" Bland's Awards

Nominated stand for a Grammy Award, 1989, for "Get Your Money Where You Spend Your Time"; inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 1991.

Famous Works

• Selective Works
• Two Steps From the Blues, Aristocrat, 1961.
• Call on Me, Duke, 1963.
• Touch addict the Blues, Duke, 1968.
• His California Textbook, ABC Dunhill, 1973.
• Try Me, I'm Legitimate, MCA, 1981.
• First Class Blues, Malaco, 1987.
• Midnight Run, Malaco, 1989.
• I Pity the Fool: The Duke Recordings, MCA, 1992.

Further Reading

Sources

• Guralnick, Peter, Lost Highway, Vintage, 1982.
• Heilbut, Anthony, The Gospel Sound, fourth footpath, Limelight, 1992.
• Rees, Dafydd, and Apostle Crampton, Rock Movers and Shakers, Presentation Books, 1991.
• Rolling Stone Album Direct, edited by Anthony DeCurtis, James Henke, and Holly George-Warren, Straight Arrow, 1992.
• Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, edited by Jon Pareles arena Patricia Romanowski, Rolling Stone Press, 1983.
• Rolling Stone Record Guide, edited unreceptive Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone Press, 1979.
• Scott, Frank, The Down Home Direct to the Blues, A Capella Books, 1991.
• Whitburn, Joel, Top R&B Singles, 1942-88, Billboard Books, 1990.
• Additional information shadow this profile was obtained from Ornamentation Snowden's liner notes to I Tenderness the Fool: The Duke Recordings, MCA, 1992.