Just
imagine how awesome the original Blues
Brothers movie soundtrack would have been if it also included Muddy Waters.
That had been the intention, but the ailing Muddy was not able to make the
shoot with John Lee Hooker on Maxwell Street. However, Muddy’s longtime sidemen
Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith can be seen backing Hooker on “Boom
Boom.” Still, only hardcore blues fans recognized them. They played on legendary
recordings, but Perkins, Smith, and Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin received
their overdue ovations very late in their lives and careers. Scott D. Rosenbaum
profiles the three late great blues masters amid their eleventh-hour
renaissances in Sidemen: Long Road to
Glory
(trailer here),
which opens this Friday in New York.
Let’s
make it clear, without Muddy and Wolf, there would be no Rolling Stones, no
Eric Clapton, no Jimi Hendrix, and not much rock & roll to speak of.
Without Perkins, Smith, and Sumlin, Muddy and Wolf would not have had the same
potent groove. The musicians and listeners who really dove deeply into the
blues understood their significance, but not casual listeners. As a result, all
three found themselves scuffling when their bread-and-butter employers died in
the early 1980s. Since Sumlin had always considered Wolf a surrogate
father-figure, his death hit the guitarist even harder.
Rosenbaum
includes long excerpts of the three legendary sidemen jamming together and with
their admirers. He also interviewed each of them at length, so this film has
obviously been a long time coming, considering all three men passed way in
2011, within an eight-month span. The film also features appreciations from
Johnny Winter and Gregg Allman, both of whom subsequently played their final
bars, as well. However, the film gives off positive vibes, rather than
wallowing in elegiac melancholy. Nevertheless, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
(which Sumlin felt had unjustly overlooked him) comes off looking like a bunch
of jerks for not inducting Sumlin while he was still alive.
Their
music pretty much speaks for itself—and Rosenbaum showcases it to maximum
effect. Still, we also hear from some pretty talented colleagues and admirers,
including Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Bobby Rush, Elvin Bishop, and Shemekia
Copeland, who are all, happily, very much alive and well, who say whatever is
left to be said.
