Barry Goldberg, Blues keyboardist, marked the history of rock with Bob Dylan, but he also played with other big names.
Summer 1965. When he moved to the organ behind Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, Barry Goldberg did not know what was going to happen. “” At first, it was just a concerthe told Rolling Stone In 2013. Bob said to me, “Do you want to play with me tonight?”. I was not a folk artist and I did not know how serious these people were. We started doing our thing, playing this song [‘Like a Rolling Stone’]. In the end, there were huae, but also cheers. They felt betrayed. But Bob created a new type of music, and once we finished, everyone knew how special it was. »
Barry Goldberg, a discreet musician who specializes in writing Blues songs and in the keyboard game, a reference for many big names in rock and pop, died Wednesday at 83 years old from a non -lymphoma Hodgkinian. His death was announced by his friend and a publicist, Bob Merlis.
As a keyboardist of Electric Flag, he was a member of one of the first groups of interracial blues. With the lyricist Gerry Goffin, he co -wrote ” I’ve Got to Use My Imagination », The success of Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1974, and it is his organ which appears on the hymn garage of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels” Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly », A number 4 in 1966. (Bruce Springsteen took over this song during the concerts No Nukes from 1979 to Madison Square Garden).
The keyboard game or the writing of Goldberg were also heard on albums of the Flying Burrito Brothers (Gram Parsons and he co -wrote ” Do You Know How It Feels ” on The Gilded Palace of Sin), by Leonard Cohen (Death of a Ladies’ Man), des Ramones (End of the Century), among others. Goldberg was also a member of wrinkles, a group of Blues-Rocks trained in 2012 with Stephen Stills and guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
« We do not always hear his name, but he has been present at many crucial moments in the history of rock & rollraconte Kenny Wayne Shepherd. He left a considerable imprint. He was there and did everything. We could make a film about his life. »
Born on Christmas day 1941 (his uncle Arthur Goldberg was a judge at the United States Supreme Court), Goldberg grew up with music; His mother was a pianist of Boogie Woogie. “” At 13 or 14, I listened to my little transistor and I was passionate about rock & roll: Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richardhe tells Rs. But one evening, at midnight, I heard a [DJ] Extraordinary who said to me: “I’m going to bring you down to the basement: light a blue light, we are going to listen to blues”. The reverberation and the harmonica returned me. It was supernatural music. It threw me a spell. I couldn’t tell any of my classmates about it: “What is the blues?”. They loved rock. Rock & roll is great, but it was another feeling of freedom in my little room, and it brought me into another world. »
With other local talents such as the harpist Paul Butterfield and the guitarist Michael Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg begins to immerse himself in music. It was Bloomfield (who also accompanied Dylan to Newport) who prompted Goldberg to venture into some of the intimidating blues clubs on the northern suburbs of Chicago. “” Michael said to me, “You should come and play with me”tells Goldberg to RS. I told myself that it was incredible, that it was such a daring gesture. No one has ever crossed these limits to Chicago. It was dangerous, let’s say it like that. There were gangs. But Michael took his mother’s car and we went to a club called Silvio. It was the strength of the blues that pushed us. We wanted to learn masters so much. We entered and it was like this scene in Animal House : “Wait that Totis will see us!” Howlin ‘Wolf saw us in the club and a silence has settled. It was really weird. We were there, two small whites. “What do they want, these kids? What are they doing here? ” But Wolf invited us and we played “Killing Floor”, And my destiny was sealed. »
-Thanks to Bloomfield, Goldberg was quickly committed to accompanying Dylan in Newport, after which he formed a group of blues with his compatriot of Chicago Steve Miller. When Miller left for San Francisco to know the glory, Goldberg released an album, Blowing My Mind, With the Barry Goldberg Blues Band. In 1967, he and Bloomfield were among the founding members of the Electric Flag, pioneer of the mixture of blues, rock and roll, pop and brass, in particular on his first album, A Long Time Comin’. The group’s performance at Monterey International Pop Festival that year is widely considered one of its strengths.
The group did not last long, but the career of Goldberg continued. At the request of Dylan, he produced a solo album in 1974, which Dylan produced himself (the only time Dylan produced another artist) but Goldberg has always seemed more comfortable when he was back. He and Goffin also wrote “ It’s Not the Spotlight », A tube taken up by Rod Stewart.
Later, Goldberg was the keyboardist and the co -author of the wrinkles, who recorded two albums, and he also toured with the group. It is one of the central figures of the recent documentary Born in Chicago And also directs the Chicago Blues Reunion, a group that includes other veterans of the scene, notably singer Nick Gravenites, the former butterfield drummer Sam Lay, the harpist Charlie Musselwhite and Corky Siegel.
About his career, Goldberg said: ” We remained faithful to our roots, we played this kind of music, then we continued to play rock, and we took the blues with us. He gave rock more feeling and soul. He added more depth, more realism to music. Whatever the difficulties you have encountered in your family, the blues is your therapy. »
David Browne
Translated by the editorial staff
