Alan Wilson (musician)

Alan "Blind Owl" Christie Wilson (born July 4, 1943 in Boston , Massachusetts , † September 3, 1970 in Topanga , California ) was an American singer , harmonica player, guitarist and composer , primarily as a founding member of the band Canned Heat was known.

Career

Wilson grew up in his hometown of Boston, studied music at Boston University and graduated with a master's degree . He earned additional money by performing in cafes and folk clubs in Cambridge , such as the well-known Club 47 (later Club Passim), where well-known musicians such as Joan Baez , Bob Dylan , Tom Rush (or later Suzanne Vega ) performed .

Wilson was a blues historian and record collector and wrote various articles about blues musicians for the music magazine Broadside Of Boston , including Robert Pete Williams and Son House , during his studies and afterwards .

After Son House was rediscovered in 1964 by Dick Waterman, Nick Perls, and Phil Spiro, Wilson helped him recreate the repertoire of songs he had played and recorded in the 1930s and 1940s but had since forgotten. Together they released the album Father of the Delta Blues ( Columbia Records ), in which Wilson played the second guitar or harmonica on some tracks .

In 1965 Wilson went on a minor tour from Boston to Los Angeles with John Fahey . Wilson was nicknamed the Blind Owl by Fahey because he needed thick glasses to compensate for his poor eyesight. Wilson later helped Fahey with his master's thesis on Charley Patton .

Through Fahey, Wilson met Bob Hite , with whom he formed the band Canned Heat in 1965. With Canned Heat he celebrated his greatest successes. He played rhythm and slide guitar , harmonica, and occasionally piano and took over the vocals alongside Hite. Together with Canned Heat he performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 . His high tenor voice is one of the few that can be clearly heard in the documentation . At the time, he and Henry Vestine were considered the best guitarist duo , according to Downbeat music magazine , with Vestine being considered the better guitarist and Wilson being the better harmonica player.

In addition to his work with Canned Heat, Wilson performed with other musicians.

In 1969, Wilson met Sunnyland Slim by chance , with whom he recorded and released the album Slim's Got His Thing Going On . Besides him, other well-known musicians such as Shakey Horton, Johnny Shines and Willie Dixon also worked on the album.

In 1970 he recorded another album, John The Revelator: The 1970 London Sessions, with Son House at a live performance at 100 Club , London .

Also in 1970 Wilson worked with his role model John Lee Hooker and took part in the album Hooker 'n Heat , where the song The World Today was created, which he accompanied on the piano.

death

Wilson, who could not cope with his success, fell more and more into depression and tried several times to take his own life.

Wilson died of a barbiturate overdose in Topanga in September 1970 at the age of 27 . This is now consensually viewed as suicide , although he did not leave a suicide note and, according to the investigation, it could also have been an accidental overdose. In addition, he was not considered a drug addict, but rather depressed.

Trivia

Wilson was a staunch supporter of nature conservation . In 1969 he wrote the song Poor Moon on the subject of " moon pollution" and the essay Grim Harvest about the giant sequoia forests in California, which stretch from San Francisco to Oregon , which is printed in the inlay of the canned Heat album Future Blues .

Wilson is also mentioned in Peter Handke's novel The Long Farewell Letter . The narrator is constantly hurt by Wilson's death. In addition, two songs and lines of text are built into the plot.

Discography

With canned heat

1967: Canned Heat (Liberty)
1968: Boogie with Canned Heat (Liberty)
1968: Living the Blues (Liberty)
1969: Hallelujah (Liberty)
1970: Vintage (recordings from 1966) (Janus)
1970: Canned Heat Cookbook (Best of 1967–1969) (Liberty)
1970: '70 Concert: Recorded Live in Europe (Liberty)
1970: Future Blues (Liberty)
1970: Woodstock (Cotillion)
1971: Woodstock Two (Cotillion)
1971: Hooker 'n Heat (with John Lee Hooker) (Liberty)
1971: Live at Topanga Corral (recordings from 1969) (wall)
1994: Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music (4-CD box) (Atlantic)
2000: The Boogie House Tapes Vol. 1 (Ruf)
2004: The Boogie House Tapes Vol. 2 (Ruf)
2006: Instrumentals 1967–1996 (call)
2008: The Boogie House Tapes Vol. 3 (Ruf)
2013: The Blind Owl (compilation) (Severn)

→ for a complete discography of the band see discography of Canned Heat

With other musicians

1965: Father of the Delta Blues with Son House (Columbia)
1966: Guitar Vol. 4: The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party with John Fahey (Takoma)
1967: Fred Neil with Fred Neil (Capitol)
1969: Slim's Got His Thing Goin 'On with Sunnyland Slim (World Pacific)
1970: John the Revelator: The 1970 London Sessions with Son House (sequel)
1971: Hooker 'n Heat with John Lee Hooker (Liberty)
1992: Old Girlfriends and Other Horrible Memories with John Fahey (A recording from 1968) (Varrick)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Helmut Böttiger: Writer Peter Handke and the 1968 movement. The provocateur. Deutschlandfunk Kultur from January 25, 2019, accessed on July 31, 2020.

personal data
SURNAME	Wilson, Alan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Wilson, Alan Christie (full name); Wilson, Blind Owl (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American guitarist and founding member of the band Canned Heat
DATE OF BIRTH	4th July 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH	Boston , Massachusetts, USA
DATE OF DEATH	3rd September 1970
Place of death	Topanga , California, USA

[1] Helmut Böttiger: Writer Peter Handke and the 1968 movement. The provocateur. Deutschlandfunk Kultur from January 25, 2019, accessed on July 31, 2020.