Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Isn't Leadbelly more blues than country? I know Cash straddled rock, blues, and country, usually in the same song, so the comparison fits, but I had no idea Leadbelly did country as well as blues.
(BTW, I listened to Cobain's meltdown doing the acoustic "Where Did You Sleep last Night" on MTV Unplugged the other day. That still sends shivers down my spine. You can feel the man's soul aching to exit him in that final scream.)
For GOAT on blues, you have to consider Howlin' Wolf. And of course Willie Dixon (genius songwriter).
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The closest thing you get to a meaningful distinction between a lot of old blues and a lot of old country is that the old blues musicians were black and the old country musicians were white, but before you go applying that distinction anywhere you have to go to a Rhiannon Giddens concert and hear her show you why doesn't really work and is more a function of the way country got packaged as a genre later on, targeting white folks. The bleaching of country music, and why Jazz didn't get bleached in the same way, is a fascinating topic. CBGB & OMFUGs got it.
Rhiannon Giddens, anyway, is a goddess and may well be the right one to give G.O.A.T. status to.
