BOBBY PARKER

El pasado 31 de Octubre nos dejó este guitarrista de Lafayette, Louisiana , nacido en 1937 , aunque criado en Los Angeles aprendió a tocar la guitarra escuchando a T. Bone Walker entre otros , ya de adolescente iniciaría su carrera tocando al lado de Johnny Otis , ó Bo Didley , muy solicitado como músico de estudio participó en numerosas sesiones desde donde era reclamado.Ya más tarde se instaló en Washington D.C. lo que le representaría una pésima elección para el desarrollo de su carrera, su tema Watch your steep  ( video ) fué versionado por Spencer Davis Group , lo que le supuso poder realizar una gira inglesa. La aparición de la música disco no le fué nada bien a Parker que sobrevivió tocando en las bases americanas durante las décadas siguientes , fué como consecuencia de una jam session donde estaban tocando los Nighthawks que despertó el interés de los aficionados al Blues. Fué un brillante guitarrista y su estilo comparado con Freddie King.

En los videos siguientes podéis verle en la que sería una de sus últimas actuaciones en Silver Spring Blues Festival de Junio 2013. 

Tocando con Steve Strongman en el Kitchener Blues Festival de 2010

Y finalmente con Carlos SANTANA el 2004 en el festival de Montreaux.

                

Bobby Parker at Silver Spring Blues Festival June 15 2013

                 

Legendary guitarist Bobby Parker, lion of the blues at age 73, brings up local cats Steve Strongman (guitar and vocals) and Leo Valvassori (bass) to keep the energy rolling at The Hive, Sunday August 8, 2010 following the Kitchener Blues Festival. 

                                    

Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 2004

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Bobby Parker, the guitarist and singer, who has died aged 76, was once described as “the biggest blues legend you’ve never heard of”.

Parker played with everyone from Bo Diddley, Sam Cooke, Chuck Berry, Paul Williams and Little Richard to John Lee Hooker and BB King, and was cited as a major influence by British artists as diverse as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Mick Fleetwood and John Lennon.

In the 1960s, when many British musicians began collecting obscure American R&B singles, one of their favourites was Watch Your Step, which Parker recorded in 1961 for V-Tone records. The song’s insistent, pounding riff became a staple of the mod club scene; The Beatles purloined it for I Feel Fine (1964), Led Zeppelin for their 1969 track Moby Dick, and Robin Trower for Procol Harum’s Whiskey Train (1970).

No one acknowledged the debt at the time (the Led Zeppelin track was credited to John Bonham and John Paul Jones), though in 1974 John Lennon admitted in an interview that both I Feel Fine and Day Tripper had been built on variations of Parker’s riff. Meanwhile, the Spencer Davis Group covered Watch Your Step as a single in 1967 as did Carlos Santana on his Havana Moon album in 1983.

Parker himself never made much money. He got no royalties from V-Tone and never sued anyone for copyright infringement. In the early 1970s he sold 75 per cent of the rights to his songs for $1,000. It was only in the 1990s that he got around to issuing an album.