Bad little scooter man

August 25, 2007 12:50 AM

Jammin' with Buddy GuyYou are a good guitar player, you are a really good guitar player, but you are eight years old, but whoa, here you are on the stage with one of the greatest bluesmen ever, Buddy Guy, and he is digging your sh**.
posted by caddis (68 comments total)

...by the way, Buddy helped make Jimi. Jimi Hendrix himself once said that “Heaven is lying at Buddy Guy’s feet while listening to him play guitar.”
posted by caddis at 12:55 AM on August 25, 2007

IOW... this 8 year old kid is better at playing the guitar than you'll ever be at anything in your entire life.
posted by Poolio at 1:01 AM on August 25, 2007

Jammin' with Buddy Rich.
posted by homunculus at 1:11 AM on August 25, 2007

Jammin' with Buddy Hackett.
posted by Kinbote at 2:19 AM on August 25, 2007

Poolio: IOW... this 8 year old kid is better at playing the guitar than you'll ever be at anything in your entire life.

Yeah no kidding; if ever I needed a compelling reason to pull the trigger, that's pretty much it. Most of us ectoplasmic blobs just ain't got no reason to be...
posted by hincandenza at 2:20 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

this kid is angus or the omen
posted by atomicmedia at 2:55 AM on August 25, 2007

8 year olds dude
posted by poppo at 2:58 AM on August 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

I'm sorry, but there are a lot of guitar prodigies these days. There was a similar kid in my hometown before I left (and, I imagine, every town now that guitars are cheap and so many people play well)

*shrug* Someone taught him some blues licks, and he plays them well. There's a lot more to guitar than that.
posted by chuckdarwin at 3:10 AM on August 25, 2007

What chuckdarwin said. He's obviously outstanding for 8, but in the grander scheme, don't pull that trigger just yet, hincandenza.
posted by psmealey at 3:50 AM on August 25, 2007

And furthermore, he's never shot (or stabbed) a man in Memphis, and "Quinn" is not an appropriate blues name....
posted by Floydd at 3:54 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

C'mon dude. You're cutting down an eight year old for keeping up with Buddy Guy. It doesn't have to be unique to be impressive, and in this case it was awfully entertaining too.

Yeah, there's more to guitar playing than that. But the kids who can master the mechanics at eight have another decade to build their skills and develop a mature voice before their peers decide that starting a band can get them chicks.
posted by ardgedee at 3:58 AM on August 25, 2007

give him another ten years and he'll be playing like this guy.
posted by vronsky at 4:26 AM on August 25, 2007

vronsky, as long as he doesn't take whatever drugs that bass player was taking...
posted by bashos_frog at 5:53 AM on August 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

I think I saw this kid in the trailer for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
posted by thejoshu at 6:05 AM on August 25, 2007

But the kids who can master the mechanics at eight have another decade to build their skills and develop a mature voice before their peers decide that starting a band can get them chicks.

That assumes that he'll move onto a different genre. Let's be clear: playing blues guitar only gets you chicks if you're African-American. If you're a white boy, it only gets you a coterie of slobbering middle-aged suburban white guys.
posted by Gervais Brooke-Hamster at 6:23 AM on August 25, 2007 [3 favorites]

what?
posted by empath at 7:02 AM on August 25, 2007

Unless your name is John Mayer.
posted by emelenjr at 7:12 AM on August 25, 2007

Well, really, especially if you're John Mayer. Mayer gets his chicks from his milquetoast folk-pop stuff.
posted by psmealey at 7:21 AM on August 25, 2007

give him another ten years and he'll be playing like this guy.

WTF BASS PLAYER!


I'm totally dressing up like that dude for Halloween.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:15 AM on August 25, 2007

Buddy Guy would better serve the cause of the blues if he were to go around strangling 8-year-old white blues prodigies.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:15 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

7/28/2003: Four-year-old Quinn Sullivan of New Bedford does his best Dickie Betts impersonation...
posted by quonsar at 8:22 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

Someone taught him some blues licks, and he plays them well. There's a lot more to guitar than that.

Yeah, like knowing precisely what a wah pedal is for, and singing and stuff.

Give the kid his due.
posted by flabdablet at 8:23 AM on August 25, 2007

i give him his due, but *that* is *not* precisely what a wah pedal is for.

also, dad: the lil dude is jammin' with buddy guy. time to trash the squire and buy him a real strat, fer cryin' out loud.
posted by quonsar at 8:29 AM on August 25, 2007

Here he is at 6 on Ellen. I say you guys should quit badmouthing a little kid just because people are appreciating that he's learning how to do something he clearly enjoys and clearly has a possible talent for. He's not that little prodigy painter girl whose dad directs her to keep painting when she'd rather wander off & play with dolls, this boy is obviously doing this because he likes it & is having fun making music. And frankly, while he may not be perfect with the Wah pedal AT EIGHT YEARS OLD, by the time he's your age he may well be more masterful at every aspect of that guitar than you've ever dreamed of being. So quit actin' all jealous & junk.

Also, BitterOldPunk went all eponysterical on us! Whee!
posted by miss lynnster at 8:53 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

And lastly, if that was your little kid? You'd be beaming with pride. And you know it.
posted by miss lynnster at 8:54 AM on August 25, 2007

I hate kids.
posted by Bearman at 9:01 AM on August 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

I wonder what happened to the Gibson Ellen gave him?
posted by flabdablet at 9:02 AM on August 25, 2007

I'm not convinced he's been taught those licks, either. He plays 'em like he learned 'em. He speaks the language. Which is all of a piece with grooving on Dickie Betts at four.
posted by flabdablet at 9:05 AM on August 25, 2007

Didn't someone come along and ego-shit on the last young musician thread, too? I'm sensing a trend.
posted by majick at 9:14 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

::ahem::

I'm going to try to be really really delicate here.

Firstly, the kid is super, super talented. When I was eight years old, basic chords were all I could master. The fact that he has the muscle memory and dexterity to pull of some of those licks is nothing short of admirable.

Secondly, he is not a prodigy. Sorry. I've watched the video several times now, and he just isn't. Is he good? Yes. Can he play some awesome blues licks? Yes. But he can't link them. It sounds like he has listened to a lot of blues records, and he can reproduce many of those licks himself. But they don't link together, they don't flow, and to be completely honest....they aren't original. There really wasn't a single lick in there that surprised me. It's all standard stuff.


That said, the fact that he has mastered the standards at 8 years old speaks very well for his potential down the road. Rock on, kiddo!
posted by lazaruslong at 9:23 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

6 years old on Ellenn DeGeneres
posted by Quidam at 9:30 AM on August 25, 2007

*Ellen, rather
posted by Quidam at 9:30 AM on August 25, 2007

It's all standard stuff.

That pretty much describes the blues, no?
posted by letitrain at 9:35 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

give him another ten years and he'll be playing like this guy.

The bass player, hahahhaha I can't stop laughing. That is the funniest thing I have seen in weeks.
posted by Mr_Zero at 9:45 AM on August 25, 2007

the kid is good, miss lynnster, but what lazaruslong and chuckdarwin say is true. and it's not ego driving my remarks - you are woefully ignorant on this topic if you think so, and you've not been paying attention to young guitarists. anyone with access to youtube can find boatloads of kids who have acheived a mastery, (both in terms of gut AND technical chops) far beyond what i'll ever have.

also, there is just something icky about that pre-pubescent soprano voice singing about a thrill being gone.
posted by quonsar at 9:48 AM on August 25, 2007

letitrain: Standards and recognizable licks are certainly a big part of being a great bluesman. But to be really good, say, prodigious, one possesses a unique voice, a special tone, and perhaps adds a few licks of one's own to the recipe book.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:50 AM on August 25, 2007

Every time I hear the name "Buddy Guy" now, I can't help but think of a letter to the editor (of some regional newspaper) I read regarding the treatment some goers of the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena Ark., thanks to legal threats from the King Biscuit Flour Hour rock show, received from his backstage crew. Guy, it appeared, had hired Aerosmith's crew, or most of it. And they were pushed people around who'd earlier been chatting with Robert Lockwood Jr. and Co. They also compared the experience to being backstage with B.B. King, who was impossibly gracious and didn't have any rock show assholes hired for security.

"And that," the letter writer noted, "is why B.B. will always be a King, and Buddy will never be anything more than just a Guy."

(For background purposes, the King Biscuit Blues Festival changed its name a few years ago to the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival due to legal threats from the producers of the King Biscuit Flour Hour rock show, despite Helena's being the home of KFFA, which broadcast King Biscuit Time, a popular blues radio show that predated the rock show by a few decades.)
posted by raysmj at 9:52 AM on August 25, 2007

raysmj: Sorry, but from my experience, I would find it very hard to believe that Buddy Guy personally hired Aerosmith's backstage crew. The artist rarely handles those sorts of things.

And while I adore B.B. King, comparing the two of them is useless. They are both wonderful musicians. Thank goodness we don't have to choose.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:55 AM on August 25, 2007

Let's be clear: playing blues guitar only gets you chicks if you're African-American.

Eh, I figure John Mayall, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn did all right for themselves.

And speaking as a white girl, here's how much I love the blues: For more than two years I dated a blues-playing dude -- and he was a bassist.
posted by GrammarMoses at 10:09 AM on August 25, 2007

And speaking as a white girl, here's how much I love the blues: For more than two years I dated a blues-playing dude -- and he was a bassist.


Snap. That's dedication.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:16 AM on August 25, 2007

When I was his age, I sold my soul to the devil at the crossroads from a box of Fruit Brute.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:20 AM on August 25, 2007

Eh, I figure John Mayall, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn did all right for themselves.

Sure... back then. But today?

The only people I know that gush about how fucking great John Mayer and Derek Trucks are these days are 50 year old lawyers.
posted by Gervais Brooke-Hamster at 10:41 AM on August 25, 2007

When I was his age, I thought it was funny that Fruity Pebbles mad me fart.
posted by Item at 10:41 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

lazaruslong: What experience? Experience on the blues show circuit? It has tended to be separate and different from the rock show experience. You don't typically see the pushy security people.
http://www.metafilter.com/64123/Bad-little-scooter-man#1812028
Bad little scooter man | MetaFilter
The letter, I think, was inspired as much by noticing that sort of difference as by noticing that Buddy Guy is a rock-show type of guy now. I'm not all into the what-is-rock/what-is-blues debate, and find it especially tiresome sometimes (I loved Stevie Ray, regardless of whatever combo of genre he was--genre lines are made to be broken, and are creations of marketing in the first place). But there's something of a difference in attitude or spirit with his shows than what I used to experience at blues festivals of 20 years ago or so, something ineffable but noticeable. If you want that older feel, go see T-Model Ford, and not because he's on the quasi-trendy Fat Possum. It's because he kicks ass, but in a decidedly non-flashy way. (He also never takes breaks.)
posted by raysmj at 10:45 AM on August 25, 2007

what's so funny about the bass player? i don't get it. that he rocked back and forth the whole time?
posted by mrmarley at 10:49 AM on August 25, 2007

lazaruslong: What experience?

Oh, just personal experience here in Nashville. I am an audio engineer by trade, and a live sound guy by night. Whenever I'm contracted to run sound or manage the backstage for an artist, frequently including blues and country acts, I've never dealt directly with the performer. Usually their label / agent / manager deals with that aspect of the biz.

I don't doubt that having a rock and roll crew added an unwelcome tone to a blues gig, I'm just saying I doubt the blame can be laid at Buddy's feet. Therefore, I feel like disparaging him as "just a guy" based on that show may be a tad unfair. That's all!
posted by lazaruslong at 10:55 AM on August 25, 2007

mrmarley - it's the bass player in vronsky's link.
posted by bashos_frog at 11:18 AM on August 25, 2007

This was in the mid-1990s, by the way, the apex of his wanna-be rock star era. I hadn't kept up with, because I was too turned off that. Apparently, he went to record with some of the Fat Possum people. The All Music Guide notes that album sounded like a response to critique of his modern-day shows, but tried too hard in the "authentic" department. (I don't think T-Model Ford is beyond posing, for the record. He goes on and on about his love of Jack Daniels in hammy fashion, but he's so Greenville/Delta. He couldn't hide that even if he wanted to. The "authenticity" debate is kind of silly, artifice is fine by me, but you have to believe in the artifice to make it work. Buddy sounds like he's trying too hard when imitating Stevie Ray, etc.--and he does that, blatantly, despite being a major influence on Stevie Ray.)
posted by raysmj at 11:21 AM on August 25, 2007

I'd met Buddy Guy a couple of times when putting together shows for my university's activities board back a decade or so ago. He was definitely a nice guy on the face of it, but he definitely had a bit of edge to him. Not as pronounced as Miles Davis's edge, but not altogether dissimilar either. I always kind of attributed it to the fact that he worked his ass of his whole career, pretty much everyone who played a guitar form 1960 on stole or borrowed from him, and his own financial/commercial success came very, very late. But I could be dead wrong about that. /derail
posted by psmealey at 11:27 AM on August 25, 2007

Yeah, but let's see him play fingerstyle.
posted by The White Hat at 11:42 AM on August 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

I was trying to say what lazaruslong said... he's just a lot more diplomatic than I am.

I've taught a lot of brilliant students and known my share of prodigies. He's a good player for his age, but he's in no way unique.
posted by chuckdarwin at 12:12 PM on August 25, 2007

he's in no way unique

He's a little unique. Maybe not in terms of his ability or feel, but he definitely has more marketing and promotional machinery at his disposal than I did at that age.
posted by psmealey at 1:25 PM on August 25, 2007

Yeah, but let's see him play fingerstyle.
posted by The White Hat

I just want to say for the record, again, that you are a kick ass guitarist. Much respect.
posted by lazaruslong at 1:29 PM on August 25, 2007

That's no shit right there, lazaruslong.
posted by psmealey at 1:36 PM on August 25, 2007

/shoots psmealey
posted by lazaruslong at 1:51 PM on August 25, 2007

Nice! the white hat.
posted by vronsky at 1:53 PM on August 25, 2007

And speaking as a white girl, here's how much I love the blues: For more than two years I dated a blues-playing dude -- and he was a bassist.

alvin lee's bassist!
posted by quonsar at 2:47 PM on August 25, 2007

Well I went down the candy store
and I ate up my allowance.
I can't take me no more jelly-roll
and these Mike-and-Ikes are garbage.

Now my powerwheels' gone busted
since the last nine-volt ran dry.
So I'm gonna miss my curfew, dad,
And sleep in this here recess yard
Neath that LiteBrite in the sky.

*wah pedal*
posted by kid ichorous at 3:30 PM on August 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

What we need to see is an eight-year-old who plays guitar the same way the bass player did.
posted by bwg at 3:33 PM on August 25, 2007

Or can bust a move like this.
posted by bwg at 4:10 PM on August 25, 2007

Yah, so I'm actually not at all ignorant about the blues, but I'll letcha believe what you want to. I will say that admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of repetitive bar structure. I get bored with it, and I don't like performing it. But that's besides the point.

I just think any time an eight year old kid (or ANYONE of any age for that matter) works hard to learn and try to accomplish something at the best level he can instead of sitting around glued to a Playstation or eating paste, it's a freaking good thing. So I simply have nothing bad to say about this child. Good for him, I say, whether I like his choice of music or not means nothing. I hope he continues to put in lots of hard work & it all pays off for him.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:15 PM on August 25, 2007

Blues and jazz players run into these prodigies all the time - some pan out to greatness, others don't.

This kid used to hang in blues bars in Texas in his teens hoping to get noticed, it worked.

This one was discovered in Canada and found some success.

But when this 8-year-old has stage presence like this guy, I'm buying my ticket.
posted by Ber at 4:35 PM on August 25, 2007

Dammit, Ber, you sprang a Texas Flood on me. It doesn't matter how many times I've watched / heard / masturbated to SRV playing that song, I still have to watch it start to finish every time.


That's a great example of why the blues never feels repetitive to me. Depending on where I am and what I'm feeling, the same performances can inspire crazy different levels of awesomeness.

It's always fresh to my ears, somehow.
posted by lazaruslong at 4:57 PM on August 25, 2007

Yeah, he may not be Buddy Guy (the differences were clear in just that one video), but no matter what you think Buddy was impressed, and if Buddy is impressed, I am impressed.

dad: the lil dude is jammin' with buddy guy. time to trash the squire and buy him a real strat, fer cryin' out loud.

I can completely relate to that, but, we have looked and there are not many options for a kid this age. My kid plays a Squire, so does Joe Morris's kid, and Joe is the Buddy Guy of free jazz. Anyway, it's not a horrible guitar and it fits. If my kid were that good I would start thinking about having a custom guitar made for him. Hell, he could probably earn a custom one by playing gigs. As for a kid that young singing "The Thrill is Gone," well that is just wrong.
posted by caddis at 5:55 PM on August 25, 2007

I bet he gets a lot of eight year-old girl action with those skills.
posted by HTuttle at 8:04 PM on August 25, 2007

Dude, when I was 8 a solid body Gibson Les Paul would be way too freakin heavy. Those little Squire's aren't bad for someone that small, weight wise and finger wise. Action can be super low without being too buzzy, and they have fast necks.

Kids should have kid guitars. It's all good.


not that a squire strat is only a kiddie guitar, if anyone plays one, don't mean to offend. heh.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:47 PM on August 25, 2007

I am bad with apostrophes.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:47 PM on August 25, 2007

I finally clicked on vronsky's link. I doubt that bassist had any energy left for anything, um, datelike.
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:55 AM on August 26, 2007