baldry & the blues

Passion is a word that comes up frequently when speaking with Paul Myers.

The music journalist and author of two rock biographies, says it was passion that drove him to write about the legendary, if little-known figure of Long John Baldry.

"I had pitched to Rob Sanders (the publisher of Greystone Books) an idea for a book about Derek Taylor (the legendary music publicist)," he says excitedly, "I wanted to trace his influence, but I when pitched it, Rob's eyes glazed over. He didn't get it. I had to prove to him I knew how to tell a story. Baldry had just died, and Sanders, being in Vancouver, knew him as a kind of local guy. He knew there was a story, but no one person seemed to know the whole thing. Rob said 'well, what do you know about this guy?'"

Myers had to dig.

In doing so, he unearthed a treasure-trove of near-forgotten gems from popular music history, that culminated in a new biography, It Ain't Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues (Greystone Books).

"Baldry discovered Elton John -Elton partly took his name from him," Myers explains, "The song 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' is about an incident where John Baldry did actually save Elton's life. Baldry also discovered Rod Stewart. I found out The Rolling Stones formed around a social club of his that appreciated blues music, and they had gone to school with Baldry. The more I dug, the more I discovered Baldry was the lynchpin for the British blues rock movement."

Myers then faced the "daunting task" of finding people to talk about Baldry, and their relationship to him. The project also forced him to question his own resolve, admitting that "I'm more schooled in post-new wave and pop music, honestly. In my teen years, I was a rock fan -I still am, but I thought, what could I bring to Baldry? Would I have enough passion to sustain the chase? Would I be able to chase down rock stars and lesser-known characters involved in his life?"

As it turns out, Myers did sustain the passion, and managed a stellar line-up for the book, including Sir Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood, Rod Stewart, and yes, Elton John.

"It wasn't an easy job, getting hold of them," Myers says a bit warily, "especially after so many rejections. Some wanted to know if Baldry's family was on-board -they were protective of him because he was gay. Tabloid action had tried to destroy him years ago. Still, the fact someone like Paul McCartney took a second to say nice things about Baldry -that's a testament to him and his influence."

Indeed, Baldry's influence was huge, and still resonates with us in popular culture today.

"Baldry was the guy who brought the black artists in to Britain at the time -people like Muddy (Waters) and Willie (Dixon). To me, that is almost an archological find -it's like the missing link! How did London become the 3rd cradle of the blues and end up exporting it back to America? Baldry was one of the handful of people who saved American Blues for Americans. I'm as surprised as anyone."

He notes that "a lot of these bands from the '60s re-defined popular music with what they added. And you see that culminating in the (Led) Zepppelin Cadillac commercial -it went all the way to that. That song (Rock and Roll) has a bluesy feel that is undeniably descended from American rock, now it's gone around and is being sold back to us via car commercials."

And the Vancouver connection with Baldry?

"The political climate was more liberal than other places he'd been," he says thoughtfully, "I think the Trudeau years advertised Canada to the world, as being sort of like America with a European accent. That's what defined Canada in the '60s. We should still be proud of that."

Myers, having already authored a book on The Barenaked Ladies, is hoping to embark on, yes, the life and times of Derek Taylor, the publicist for The Beatles and creator of The Beach Boys fun-loving image.

"His position is strangely simliar to Baldry's, except (Taylor) was a PR guy, not a musician. While Baldry was unseen hand in music, Taylor was the unseen hand in publicity. He was the poet of the press release."

Now he's on another passionate rush.

"It's like the (Woody Allen) movie Zelig. With every picture, Baldry is standing just to the left of history. In every picture, he's the elbow, and Taylor's the same. I mean, let's give it up for someone fascinating no one ever talks about! I'm guess obsessed with the elbows of history, but I bring my own passion to this stuff, as well as equal parts humility and confidence. Passion is the fuel that lets you push a rock up a hill, and it's the part people relate to."

It Ain't Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues is published by Greystone Books and is available now.

Paul Myers wrote and appears in the documentary Long John Baldry: In the Shadow of the Blues, airing on Bravo! on Saturday, November 10th, @ 10pm.

Go to http://www.bravo.ca/schedule/Default.aspx?date=11-10-2007 for schedule.

For more information on Paul Myers, go to www.pulmyears.com

For more information on Greystone Books, go to www.greystonebooks.com