The Best of 1970s Blues Music

1970s Blues Music was a great decade for the blues. Check out our list of the best 1970s blues songs.

The Birth of Electric Blues

The 1970s saw the birth of electric blues. This new style of blues was created by artists like Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, who took the traditional acoustic blues and added electric guitars, amplifiers, and drums. Electric blues was more upbeat and rock-influenced than the older style, and it quickly gained popularity. In the 1970s, electric blues artists like B.B. King and John Lee Hooker became some of the most famous musicians in the world.

Muddy Waters and Chess Records

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Muddy Waters popularized electric blues, which would come to be defined as the sound of the Chess label, with recordings such as “I Can’t Be Satisfied” (1948), “Hoochie Coochie Man” (1954), and “I’m Ready” (1954). Released on the Chess subsidiary Aristocrat, these recordings were distributed by Chess’s competitor, Chicago-based Mercury Records.

The Chicago Scene

Chicago’s South Side became the epicenter of electric blues in the 1950s, with Muddy Waters’ label Chess Records leading the way. The city spawned a new generation of greats including Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, and Koko Taylor. In the 1960s, these artists were joined by younger musicians like Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and Otis Rush, who brought their own brand of urban blues to the scene. All of these artists continued to perform and record throughout the 1970s, making Chicago the undisputed capital of electric blues.

The British Blues Invasion

The 1970s saw a resurgence in popularity for the blues, thanks in part to the British blues invasion. Musicians like Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Alexis Korner helped to reintroduce the style to a new generation of fans. The best of 1970s blues music is characterized by its raw, soulful sound.

The Rolling Stones

Formed in London in 1962, the Rolling Stones have been described as the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” With hits like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Paint It Black,” and “Start Me Up,” the Rolling Stones are considered one of the most influential bands of all time.

The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. They have received numerous awards, including 12 Grammy Awards, and were ranked number 4 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”

Led Zeppelin

Formed in 1968, Led Zeppelin consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. The band’s heavy, guitar-driven sound has led them to be cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal. They achieved significant commercial success with eight studio albums released over eleven years, from Led Zeppelin (1969) to In Through the Out Door (1979). Their untitled fourth studio album, commonly known as Led Zeppelin IV and featuring the song “Stairway to Heaven”, is among the most popular and influential works in rock music, and it helped to secure their place as “the heaviest band of all time”, a title they have held ever since.

Cream

Formed in 1966, Cream was a power trio consisting of drummer Ginger Baker, bassist/singer Jack Bruce, and guitarist/singer Eric Clapton. One of the first supergroups, they fuse blues rock with a heavy dose of psychedelia and were extremely popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They released four studio albums before breaking up in 1968, but left behind a lasting legacy and are credited as one of the founders of heavy metal.

Their debut album, Fresh Cream (1966), was hugely successful and contained their signature hit, “Crossroads”. Disraeli Gears (1967) followed and is often considered their best work – it reached #5 on the US charts and #4 in the UK. The double album Wheels of Fire (1968) was recorded live at the Fillmore West and charted at #1 in both countries. Finally, Goodbye (1969) was their last studio album before disbanding.

Cream’s music has been influential to many subsequent generations of rock musicians and they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

The Blues-Rock Revolution

The early 1970s saw the rise of a new style of blues music, known as blues-rock. This style combined the hard-driving sounds of rock with the soulful sounds of the blues. The result was a sound that was both new and familiar, and it quickly caught on with fans of both genres. The best of 1970s blues-rock can be heard on the following albums.

Jimi Hendrix

When it comes to the blues, there are few artists as influential as Jimi Hendrix. His unique style of playing, which blended elements of rock and blues, helped to create a new genre of music known as blues-rock. Hendrix’s most famous album, Electric Ladyland, is often cited as one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

The Allman Brothers Band

The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards, songwriting), as well as Dickey Betts (lead guitar, vocals, songwriting), Berry Oakley (bass guitar), Butch Trucks (drums), and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson (drums). The band’s first two studio releases stalled commercially, but their 1971 live release, At Fillmore East, represented an artistic and commercial breakthrough. The album features extended renderings of their songs “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Whipping Post”, both of which are over 20 minutes in length. It was among the first double live albums ever released and was certified platinum by the RIAA. The band’s next release was Eat a Peach (1972), also a commercial success that reached the top five.

Santana

Santana is a Latin rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966 by Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana. The band first came to public attention with their performance of “Soul Sacrifice” at the Woodstock Music and Art Festival in 1969. SATA became known for their fusion of Latin and rock music, as well as their energetic stage performances.

The band’s early success was followed by a number of lineup changes, culminating with the addition of singer-songwriter Gregg Rolie, keyboardist/vocalist Michael Carabello, and drummer Michael Shrieve in 1971. The new lineup’s first two albums, “Santana” (1969) and “Abraxas” (1970), were highly successful and established the band as one of the world’s foremost rock bands.

The group experienced a number of personnel changes in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with only Santana and bassist David Brown remaining from the original lineup. The group underwent a creative resurgence in the mid-1980s with the addition of singer-songwriter-guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist/vocalist Alan Pasqua, releasing the album “Freedom” in 1987. This album was followed by the highly successful 1989 release “Supernatural”, which featured hit singles “Smooth” and “Maria Maria”.

The 1970s Blues Revival

The 1970s brought a resurgence in interest in blues music. Young people, who had grown up listening to rock and roll, were now turning to the blues for its honesty and emotion. This new generation of blues fans helped to create a boom in the popularity of the genre.

B.B. King

B.B. King is a legendary blues musician who has had a profound impact on the genre. He is commonly known as “The King of the Blues” and is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. King has been active in the music industry for over 50 years and has released over 50 albums. His signature style of guitar playing has influenced generations of guitarists, and his distinctive vocal style has been emulated by many singers.

Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon was an American blues musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is renowned for his work with Chess Records in the 1950s and 1960s, where he wrote and produced some of the most influential blues and rock songs of the era.

Dixon’s songs have been recorded by countless artists, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, James Cotton, Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Winter, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane,is Rolling Stones, and many others. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who is often cited as the “father of modern Chicago blues”, and an important figure on the post-war blues scene. His style of playing was very influential to the development of the electric guitar sound that defined Chicago blues.

Waters was born McKinley Morganfield on April 4, 1913, in Issaquena County, Mississippi. He was raised by his grandmother, Della Grant, on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi. When he was three years old, he started to play the harmonica. Waters left Stovall Plantation in 1933 and moved to workplaces throughout the Mississippi Delta region, working on plantations and in juke joints and other service jobs. By the early 1940s, he had started performing with fellow blues musicians such as Lester Young and Big Bill Broonzy.

In 1943, he moved to Chicago to live with his mother and pursue a career in music. He joined the brothel scene on Chicago’s South Side and began playing with musician Jimmy Rogers. In 1947, he recorded his first single, “I Can’t Be Satisfied”, for Chess Records. The song became a hit and launched Waters’ career as a professional musician.