Buddy Guy

Induction Year: 2005

Induction Category: Performer

Inductee: Buddy Guy (guitar, vocals; born July 30, 1936)

Buddy Guy is one of the titans of the blues, straddling traditional and modern forms, as well as musical generations. He’s worked with , Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf, on one hand, and , Stevie Ray Vaughan and , on the other. There are few notable blues figures that Guy hasn’t brushed up against. He was even an influence on .

The genre’s most electrifying guitarist, Guy has remained a vital and current musician, moving blues forward without losing sight of its roots. He’s renowned for his raw, blistering vocals and high-voltage guitar playing. His plays a Fender Stratocaster, employing feedback, distortion and extreme string-bending. He spent much of the Sixties on the venerable Chess label and thereafter recorded for Vanguard, Atco, Silvertone and others. Guy attained great stature within blues circles over the course of three decades, but his career broke wide open in 1991 with the release of Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues. This landmark release won him a Grammy and five W.C. Handy awards, and he recorded and toured prolifically in its wake.

Clapton has proclaimed Guy “by far without a doubt the best guitar player alive…He really changed the course of rock and roll blues.” Guy regards himself as a “caretaker of the blues.” Having learned from the likes of Waters, Otis Rush, Guitar Slim and Magic Sam, he explains, “I just take what they taught me and keep adding to it.”

George “Buddy” Guy was born in 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana. His earliest influences included , Lightnin’ Slim and Lightnin’ Hopkins - blues musicians who were all uniquely expressive stylists and showmen. Guy’s high-energy showmanship also owed a debt to Guitar Slim (a.k.a. Eddie Jones), of “The Things That I Used to Do” fame. As Guy stated in his autobiography, “I wanted to play like B.B. King but act like Guitar Slim.” Along the way, he developed his own style, typified by a fierce, staccato attack and tense, single-note solos.

He spent a year and a half playing with John “Big Poppa” Tilley’s band in Baton Rouge. After sending a tape to Chess Records, Guy headed to Chicago in 1958 to seek his fortune. He drew attention on the club circuit for his fiery fretwork and showmanship. With assistance from his friend and fellow bluesman, Magic Sam, Guy got signed to Cobra Records (releasing a few singles on its Artistic subsidiary). A year later Cobra folded and Guy - along with labelmates and Otis Rush - moved to Chess, where he played recorded from 1960 to 1967.

Guy’s Chess sides never won the recognition that accrued to some of his labelmates, but he scored a hit with “Stone Crazy,” his fourth single for the label. In an edited version - the original ran for seven minutes - it went to #12 R&B in 1962. Another highlight of his Chess tenure was “When My Left Eye Jumps,” a menacing slow blues penned by . While at Chess, Guy also served as an in-house guitarist, playing on sessions for , Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Koko Taylor and others. Notably, he performed on Koko Taylor’s “Wang Dang Doodle” and Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.”

Taking notice of the evolving blues-rock scene in England, Guy left Chess in 1968 and moved to Vanguard Records, where he cut the classic albums A Man and His Blues and Hold That Plane. In 1970 Buddy and the Juniors - a trio of Guy, harmonica player Junior Wells and pianist Junior Mance - was released on Blue Thumb. Guy’s partnership with Wells yielded the 1972 album Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Play the Blues. A spontaneous, tradition-minded blues set, it was produced by the impressive triumvirate of , and Tom Dowd and released on Atco Records. Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman produced and played on the Guy-Wells live album Drinkin’ TNT ‘n’ Smokin’ Dynamite, recorded in 1974.

Though he continued to perform, Guy’s recording career stalled somewhat in the Eighties. In 1989, he opened the blues club Legends in Chicago, which became a favorite hangout for blues musicians. Guy’s comeback began when he joined onstage at London’s Royal Albert Hall during the guitarist’s multi-night run in 1990-91. That exposure led to a new recording contract. Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues - the first of many albums on the Silvertone label - ignited a full-blown renaissance that made Guy the preeminent blues guitarist of the Nineties. In fact, Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues became that rarity: a blues accord that sold well enough to earn a gold record (500,000 copies sold). The star-studded album included cameos by such acolytes as , Jeff Beck and Mark Knopfler. Two years later he released Feels Like Rain, which included contributions from , Travis Tritt and John Mayall. Later that same year Guy received the prestigious Century Award “for distinguished artistic achievement” from Billboard magazine.

Nearing seventy, Guy is still going strong. Recent releases have included Sweet Tea an electric blues album recorded in Mississippi, and Blues Singer, a 2004 acoustic set in which Guy covers favorites by such peers as Skip James, Son House and .

TIMELINE

July 30, 1936: George “Buddy” Guy is born in Lettsworth, Louisiana.

September 23, 1957: Buddy Guy boards a train from Louisiana to Chicago, where he’ll quickly sink roots on the blues scene.

August 1958: Buddy Guy’s debut single - “Sit and Cry (The Blues),” written by - is released on the Artistic label.

March 2, 1960: Buddy Guy’s first session at Chess Records as a solo artist yields the classic “First Time I Met the Blues.”

December 16, 1960: Buddy Guy records “Ten Years Ago,” the first of many collaborations with harmonica player Junior Wells.

February 24, 1962: Buddy Guy’s “Stone Crazy” enters Billboard’s R&B chart, peaking at #12.

February 1965: Buddy guy tours Britain for the first time, where he shares stages with and .

1968: Buddy Guy releases A Man and His Blues, his first album for the Vanguard label.

July 1970: A informal acoustic session involving Buddy Guy, Junior Mance and Junior Wells yields Buddy and the Juniors, released on Blue Thumb.

August 14, 1972: The duo album Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues - produced two years earlier by , and Tom Dowd - is finally released on Atco.

July 28, 1974: Buddy Guy performs at the Montreux Jazz Festival with a band that includes bassist Bill Wyman, pianist Pinetop Perkins and harmonica player Junior Wells. Years later it will be released as Drinkin’ TNT ‘n’ Smokin’ Dynamite.

December 1981: A Buddy Guy session in Chicago yields an album issued in the U.K. a year later as DJ Play My Blues. It will be his last recording for nine years.

1989: Buddy Guy opens Legends, a blues club, in his hometown of Chicago.

February 1990: Buddy Guy’s career gets a boost with his head-turning performances as a guest on the last three night’s of ’s stand at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

October 19, 1991: Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues, by Buddy Guy, enters Billboard’s Top 200 album chart. It is the first album in his lengthy career to do so.

March 27, 1993: Buddy Guy’s Feels Like Rain, the hotly anticipated followup to 1991’s Damn Right I Got the Blues, is released.

1993: Buddy Guy receives Billboard’s prestigious Century Award.

March 26, 1996: Buddy Guy’s Live! The Real Deal, recorded in New York and Chicago with pianist Johnnie Johnson, guitarist G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band, is released.

July 2000: Buddy Guy records the album Sweet Tea at a rural studio in north Mississippi.

March 14, 2005: Buddy Guy is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the twentieth annual induction dinner. tk is his presenter.

Essential Songs

First Time I Met the Blues
Let Me Love You Baby
Stone Crazy
Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues
A Man of Many Words (by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells)
My Time After Awhile
Ten Years Ago
Five Long Years
When My Left Eye Jumps
Leave My Girl Alone

Al Green's White Leather Jacket With Embroidery

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Collection of Al Green