The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold (Chicago Visions and Revisions)

About this book

The frank funny and unforgettable autobiography of a living legend of Chicago blues. Simply put Billy Boy Arnold is one of the last men standing from the Chicago blues scenes raucous heyday. Whats more unlike most artists in this electrifying melting pot who were Southern transplants Arnolda harmonica master who shared stages with Bo Diddley Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf plus a singer and hitmaker in his own right who first recorded the standards I Wish You Would and I Aint Got Youwas born right here and has lived nowhere else. This makes his perspective on Chicago blues its players and its locales all the rarer and all the more valuable. Arnold has witnessed musical generations come and go from the decline of prewar country blues to the birth of the electric blues and the worldwide spread of rock and roll. Working here in collaboration with writer and fellow musician Kim Field he gets it all down. The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold is a remarkably clear-eyed testament to more than eighty years of musical love and creation from Arnolds adolescent quest to locate the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson the story of how he named Bo Diddley Bo Diddley and the ups and downs of his seven-decade recording career. Arnolds talecandidly told with humor insight and gritis one that no fan of modern American music can afford to miss.