David Bowie on the folk group that showed “how it should be done”
When comparing himself to Prince, David Bowie said they both shared a penchant for sartorial indulgences, that they both wrote too much, but that one of the key differences was that Prince had “a far tighter genre of music”. In truth, you could say that about anyone. Bowie’s output was a cornucopia of delights happily blended together to fit the populous palate.
His own tastes were even more eclectic. His favourite records ranged from The Last Poets’ self-titled rap precursor and the psychedelia of The Incredible String Bands’ The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion to simple roots of John Lee Hooker’s Tupelo Blues and the sweet jazz of Charles Mingus’ Oh Yeah. Each of these also played an important role in Bowie honing his idea of how an array of art interacted differently with society.
Nevertheless, he was also always grounded in the notion that there is sometimes simply a correct way to go about things even within the subjective world of art. And so, when he dabbled in folk with his pre-fame project, Feathers, he looked at the best that the genre had to offer and how he could add his own unique twist to it. One of the albums he found remained a firm favourite for the rest of his life.
The 1963 record Blues, Rags and Holler by Koerner, Ray & Glover had a huge influence on his musical stylings. He cited it among his favourites, telling Vanity Fair: “Bought at Dobell’s. In his own way, ‘Spider’ John Koerner was an influence on Bob Dylan, with whom he used to play in the coffee bars of Dinkytown, the arty section around the University of Minnesota.”
Bowie continued: “Demolishing the puny vocalisations of ‘folk’ trios like the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Whatsit, Koerner and company showed how it should be done. First time I had heard a 12-string guitar.” And he soon picked one up and added an extra lashing of character to his affected cockney vocals.
The trio might’ve only made three records in the 1960s – 1963’s Blues, Rags and Hollers, 1964’s Lots More Blues, Rags and Hollers and 1965’s The Return of Koerner, Ray & Glover – but they had a notable impact on the folk revival movement thanks to the way they vitalised things with an infusion of the blues and a gruffness that spoke of revolution; not to mention their ties with Dylan.
Bonnie Raitt would later comment on the trio in the documentary Blues, Rags & Hollers – The Story of Koerner, Ray & Glover: “John was the ‘Old Venerable One’, the guy that influenced a lot of other musicians that would come up. It was like having a big celebrity living right in town (Cambridge,MA). He became the fulcrum of the whole scene. I watched his hands, I learned a lot of things from him. It looked like he was having fun & that’s just what I wanted to do & that’s why I’m doing it still.”
Adding: “He has a real unique style of guitar playing and a great talking blues style of delivery. They just don’t make anybody like Spider John Koerner. They broke the mould. As all great originators, like Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan, anybody else who tries to imitate them would just look like that, an imitator. I do “I Ain’t Blue” in my shows and recorded it on my first album. It’s one of my favourite songs of John’s, but his other songs I love to play just for my own enjoyment; but I can never come close to playing them as well as he does.”
