Artist:
Bobby "Blue" Bland
Born:
Jan 27, 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee
Representative Songs:
"Turn on Your Love Light," "I Pity the Fool," "Stormy Monday Blues"
Representative Albums:
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1: The Duke Recordings, Turn on Your Love Light: The Duke Recordings, Vols. 1-2, I Pity the Fool: The Duke Recordings, Vol. 1
Similar Artists:
Mel Waiters,
Clarence Hollimon,
Joe Medwick,
The Carter Brothers,
Junior Parker,
B.B. King,
Pat Hare,
Johnny Copeland,
Little Milton,
Johnny Adams,
Andrew Odom,
Floyd Miles,
Joe Hinton,
Tyrone Davis,
Jesse Belvin,
Chick Willis,
Little Johnny Taylor,
Etta James,
Z.Z. Hill,
Lowell Fulson,
Larry Davis
Influences:
Followers:
The Sugars,
Chris Whynaught,
Ronnie Lovejoy,
Lee "Shot" Williams,
Little Joe Blue,
Curtis Salgado,
Anthony Geraci,
Steve Conn,
Dan Penn,
Robert Ward,
McKinley Mitchell,
Kim Wilson,
Prince Phillip Mitchell,
L.V. Johnson,
Alan O'Day,
Dalton Reed,
Bobby Rush,
Rufus Thomas,
Grateful Dead,
The Dynatones,
Little Johnny Taylor,
Delbert McClinton,
Lonnie Mack,
Z.Z. Hill,
James "Thunderbird" Davis
Performed Songs By:
Vernon Davis,
John Riley Brown,
Pearl Woods,
Joseph Scott,
David Mattis,
Oscar Perry,
John Ward,
Robert A. Johnson,
Dan Walsh,
Don Robey,
Michael Price,
Michael Omartian,
Vernon Morrison,
Deadric Malone,
Robert Johnson,
Lorenz Hart,
Isaac Hayes,
Johnny Green ,
Bob Crowder,
Steve Barri,
Larry Addison,
George Jackson,
T-Bone Walker,
Tommy Tate,
Earl Hines,
Billy Eckstine,
Brook Benton
Worked With:
Carson Whitsett,
Harvey Thompson,
Wolf Stephenson,
Charles Rose,
James Robertson,
Dean Parks,
Jimmy Johnson,
Jim Horn,
Ray Griffin,
Wilton Felder,
Tommy Couch,
Harrison Calloway,
Jewel Bass,
Thomisene Anderson
- Birth Name: Robert Calvin Bland
- Genre: Blues
- Active: '50s - 2000s
- Instrument: Vocals
Biography
Bobby Bland earned his enduring blues superstar status the hard way: without a guitar, harmonica, or any other instrument to fall back upon. All Bland had to offer was his magnificent voice, a tremendously powerful instrument in his early heyday, injected with charisma and melisma to spare. Just ask his legion of female fans, who deemed him a sex symbol late into his career.For all his promise, Bland's musical career ignited slowly. He was a founding member of the Beale Streeters, the fabled Memphis aggregation that also included B.B. King and Johnny Ace. Singles for Chess in 1951 (produced by Sam Phillips) and Modern the next year bombed, but that didn't stop local DJ David Mattis from cutting Bland on a couple of 1952 singles for his fledgling Duke logo.
Bland's tormented crying style was still pretty rough around the edges before he entered the Army in late 1952. But his progress upon his 1955 return was remarkable; with saxist Bill Harvey's band (featuring guitarist Roy Gaines and trumpeter Joe Scott) providing sizzling support, Bland's assured vocal on the swaggering "It's My Life Baby" sounds like the work of a new man. By now, Duke was headed by hard-boiled Houston entrepreneur Don Robey, who provided top-flight bands for his artists. Scott soon became Bland's mentor, patiently teaching him the intricacies of phrasing when singing sophisticated fare (by 1962, Bland was credibly crooning "Blue Moon," a long way from Beale Street).
Most of Bland's savage Texas blues sides during the mid- to late '50s featured the slashing guitar of Clarence Hollimon, notably "I Smell Trouble," "I Don't Believe," "Don't Want No Woman," "You Got Me (Where You Want Me)," and the torrid "Loan a Helping Hand" and "Teach Me (How to Love You)." But the insistent guitar riffs guiding Bland's first national hit, 1957's driving "Farther Up the Road," were contributed by Pat Hare, another vicious picker who would eventually die in prison after murdering his girlfriend and a cop. Later, Wayne Bennett took over on guitar, his elegant fretwork prominent on Bland's Duke waxings throughout much of the '60s.
The gospel underpinnings inherent to Bland's powerhouse delivery were never more apparent than on the 1958 outing "Little Boy Blue," a vocal tour de force that wrings every ounce of emotion out of the grinding ballad. Scott steered his charge into smoother material as the decade turned: the seminal mixtures of blues, R&B, and primordial soul on "I Pity the Fool," the Brook Benton-penned "I'll Take Care of You," and "Two Steps From the Blues" were tremendously influential to a legion of up-and-coming Southern soulsters.
Scott's blazing brass arrangements upped the excitement ante on Bland's frantic rockers "Turn on Your Love Light" in 1961 and "Yield Not to Temptation" the next year. But the vocalist was learning his lessons so well that he sounded just as conversant on soulful R&B rhumbas (1963's "Call on Me") and polished ballads ("That's the Way Love Is," "Share Your Love With Me") as with an after-hours blues revival of T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday Blues" that proved a most unlikely pop hit for him in 1962. With "Ain't Nothing You Can Do," "Ain't Doing Too Bad," and "Poverty," Bland rolled through the mid-'60s, his superstar status diminishing not a whit.
In 1973, Robey sold his labels to ABC Records, and Bland was part of the deal. Without Scott and his familiar surroundings to lean on, Bland's releases grew less consistent artistically, though His California Album in 1973 and Dreamer the next year boasted some nice moments (there was even an album's worth of country standards). The singer re-teamed with his old pal B.B. King for a couple of mid-'70s albums that broke no new ground but further heightened Bland's profile, while his solo work for MCA teetered closer and closer to MOR (Bland has often expressed his admiration for ultra-mellow pop singer Perry Como).
Since the mid-'80s, Bland has recorded for Jackson, MS's Malaco Records. His pipes undeniably reflect the ravages of time, and those phlegm-flecked "snorts" he habitually emits become annoying in large doses. But Bobby "Blue" Bland endures as a blues superstar of the loftiest order, resurfacing in 1998 with Memphis Monday Morning. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide
