Friday, July 22, 2005

JOHN WILLIAM BALDRY - 1941 to 2005



The Making of a Legend
by Rod Stewart / Readers' Digest

"For me, just shaking his hand – knowing all the great musicians

whose hand he’d shaken before –was mind-blowing.
But so was John. Picture this elegant man with a proper English
accent, never without a tie, a towering six-foot-seven. I was
a huge fan and I was intimidated by his offer. Rod Stewart wasn’t
in demand in those days; no one was interested. I immediately
said yes. John had a knack for discovering talent. Ginger Baker,
Jeff Beck and Brian Jones all worked with him early on.
Elton John played piano in one of his bands, other Rolling Stones
too – Charlie, Ron Wood, and Keith. In 1962, when the
Rolling Stones were just getting started, they opened for him in
London. Eric Clapton has said many times that John was one of
the musicians that inspired him to play the Blues.
And for their internationally televised special in 1964, the
Beatles invited John to perform his version of
'I Got My Mojo Working'. In those days the only music we fell in
love with was the Blues, and John was the first white guy singing it,
in his wonderful voice. It was the true Blues and everyone
looked up to him." -


No comments:

Post a Comment