Few guitarists today can sing and play with the sheer raw emotion of George “Buddy” Guy. A second-generation member of the Chicago blues scene, Guy took the electric blues and transformed it with his inimitable flamboyancy and technical skill into a wilder, freer sound.
Guy was born on July 30, 1936, to tenant farmer parents in Lettsworth, Louisiana. He taught himself to play the guitar, and his father took him to roadhouses around Baton Rouge to hear music when Buddy was still an adolescent. Guy already knew at this stage that his ambition was to play blues guitar—with the extravagant flair of Louisiana blues man Guitar Slim and the musicianship of B. B. KING. “I just wanted to be a blues guitar player,” he said. “I didn’t care if I was paid anything or not.”
In 1957, Guy moved to Chicago. Within a year he was playing a regular nightclub gig at Theresa’s, establishing a relationship that would last a long time, and recording with Magic Sam and Otis Rush for Cobra/Artistic Records. Chess Records signed the young blues man in 1960 and primarily used him as a session musician, although this was also the year when he cut his first single with Chess, entitled, “First Time I Met the Blues.” Guy proved to be a real star in the clubs, where his urgent, powerful guitar playing, soulful voice, and showmanship—playing the guitar over his head, or with his teeth, while walking through the audience, was one of his best-known stunts—drove fans wild.
Guy recorded a few singles for Cobra and Chess, and by the 1960s had been discovered by influential musicians in Britain. His shows in London in 1965 were among the first electric blues performances in Britain, and the audience included Eric Clapton and Eric Burdon. Soon they and other guitarists, such as Jeff Beck, Jack Bruce, and Jimi HENDRIX, were selling millions of records in the United States by emulating Guy’s distinctive playing style. Later, critics and fans alike accused Guy of “selling out” the blues by playing like Hendrix, when in fact it was Hendrix who had incorporated some of Guy’s work into his psychedelic-style blues/rock. Guy, for example, had been using feedback as an integral part of his playing ever since 1958.
In the mid-1960s, Guy teamed up with another blues man, Chicago harmonica player Junior Wells, both live and on record, in a fruitful partnership that was to last for more than a decade. The duo toured widely, supported rock luminaries such as the ROLLING STONES, and appeared in the 1970s film, Chicago Blues.
Although Guy became a fixture on the rock concert, college, and festival scene during the 1960s and 1970s, no major label would sign him. After recording for several small labels, more than 12 years went by without a recording contract.
In the 1980s, Stevie Ray Vaughan—the Dallas-born blues/rock guitarist who played a major role in the blues revival of the 1980s and 1990s—became the first major star to record Guy’s songs. These included the hit “Let Me Love You Baby,” a Willie DIXON tune that Guy had cut for Chess. Pushed back into the spotlight by this resurgence of the blues, Guy himself finally signed with a major label, Silvertone, in 1990. Both his 1991 release, Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues, and the 1993 album, Feels Like Rain, featured performances by some of his most famous and talented friends, including Clapton, Beck, Mark Knopfler, Bonnie Raitt, and Robert CRAY. He went on to win Grammy Awards for both albums.
In the late 1990s, Guy continued to tour and record, and he sometimes played at his popular Chicago nightclub, “Buddy Guy’s Legends,” which showcased both veteran and up-and-coming blues musicians.
Stan Hieronymus
SEE ALSO:
BLUES; CREAM; KING, ALBERT; RAINEY, MA.
FURTHER READING
Wilcock, Donald E. with Buddy Guy, Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues (San Francisco, CA: Woodford Press, 1993).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Play the Blues; The Complete Chess Studio Recordings; Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues.