Canned Heat: Living The Blues

(Book, English edition)

More about Canned Heat

19.90 Euro

written by Fito de la Parra

Release date

7/2001

Release Notes

Living The Blues
Canned Heat's Story of Music, Drugs, Death, Sex and Survival

Afraid to admit you do remember the 60s? Here's everything you hoped your kids - and your parents - would never find out. This is the true story of the kaleidoscopic hippie days as lived by Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra, a man who never forgot how to boogie and still escaped with his life. Enter his mind-boggling journey of four decades on the road with boogie-blues music legends Canned Heat... a saga of hit records, world tours, drugs, sex, outrageous behaviour, and death.
An intense, talented kid bursting with energy and a sense of disciplined determination that made him a standout as he grew up in the weirdly wonderful world of Mexico City Rock'n Roll, Fito dreamed of moving to the U.S. and "making it" in the big-time music industry. As drummer for Canned Heat, his dreams and nightmares became reality.
From the heights of their world-wide fame during the Woodstock era, through the steady downward slide after the death of the Blind Owl (Alan Wilson), to their rebirth in the '90s, here is the "real shit" with no punches pulled, the real story of the wild and excessive lifestyles of the music world. Fito will not surrender: Music, Canned Heat and the blues are his life ...
He is "Living The Blues"!
Musical trends may come and go, but those that truly resonate are timeless. Such is the case for the blues and it's offspring, Rock'n roll and boogie music. And just as basic roots music has not only survived but also prospered, so have some of its "living legends". Canned Heat were one of the headliners and the 3rd highest paid artist at WOODSTOCK after Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin (13.000$), and along with Grateful Dead, Santana and Jefferson Airplane one of the few bands of the "Psychedelic San Francisco Era" who were able to attract real big audiences.
Right from the start, Canned Heat has been at the forefront of popularising blues music, as evidenced by such Top Ten hits as the three above mentioned. Over the years the family that is Canned Heat has included such as legendary musicians as Larry Taylor, Harvey Mandel, Walter Trout and Junior Watson. They can boast of collaborations with Little Richard, John Mayall, and blues great John Lee Hooker (Hooker 'N Heat, 1970) and Hooker's 1990 Grammy Award-winning classic, (The Healer).
While many people all over the world commemorate the 30th anniversary of the legendary Woodstock festival, Canned Heat enter the next millennium with fresh blues & boogie.