Publisher's Synopsis
Showcases 40 legendary Blues players from Muddy Waters to John Lee Hooker with fascinating stories and inside information. Includes the geographical, social and political history around the time of the blues, from life on the cotton plantations to vibrant city night-life and features previously unpublished photographs of famous blues locations and key players from Bill's personal archive. In this evocative and intensely personal history of the Blues Bill Wyman pays tribute to the musicians who inspired him and whose music he took around the world as a member of the Rolling Stones. The starting point of Bill's Odyssey is the journey of African slaves to the plantations of America's Deep South. We follow their descendants as they walk travel the highways and ride the railroads out of the Delta and the troubled South via Memphis to the northern cites of Chicago and St. Louis. But this is no superficial history: a society is revealed where poverty and injustice as well as love and faith found their expression in a musical style that gave birth to rock 'n' roll. Location shots of smokey juke joints railroad stations and endless highways combine with stunning maps to bring the Blues alive. Feature spreads with preveiously unpublished photographs from Bill Wyman's personal showcase 38 Blues legends from Robert Johnson to John Lee Hooker telling the story of their fascinating and often troubled lives. Bill Wyman is a legend in his own right. He has known and played with many of the Blue legends and his personal knowledge and unprecedented access give this book an authenticity that is almost impossible to match.
