Living Proof

Buddy Guy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Jive
• ASIN: B0040HJNKC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,255 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. 74 Years Young

2. Thank Me Someday

3. On The Road

4. Stay Around A Little Longer (Featuring B.B. King)

5. Key Don't Fit

6. Living Proof

7. Where The Blues Begins (Featuring Carlos Santana)

8. Too Soon

9. Everybody's Got To Go

10. Let The Door Knob Hit Ya

11. Guess What

12. Skanky

Editorial Reviews

2010 album from the legendary Blues guitarist. Featuring guest appearances from B.B. King and Carlos Santana.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

121 of 128 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars QUITE POSSIBLY CAREER DEFINING October 13, 2010

By James N. Perlman

Format:Vinyl|Amazon Verified Purchase

This triumphant album opens with the song "74 Years Young." The song begins quietly as Buddy looks back at his life. But when he hits the bridge he lays down a savage guitar solo that: a) owes as much to Link Wray as it does to the blues and b) displays what 74 years young really means. This song is followed by another autobiographical song where he tells the story of his early life in Louisiana where, as a child, he taught himself to play a two-string guitar. Again, a blistering lead is the musical centerpiece. Track three, "On The Road" is a more "conventional" blues work-up, horns and all. Another fantastic track, where, after the fade at the end, one can hear a band-member saying "Yeah" in appreciation. Track four is the duet with B.B. King. It's pure magic. And the coda, where Buddy and B.B. speak to one another, is just about as moving a moment as one can find in recorded music. In the duet with Carlos Santana, Buddy shows he can do Latin rhythms side-by-side with the master. And so it goes for an hour or so, one great track after another.

Frankly, I can find possibly only one track, "Too Soon" that might be just a tad too tame or formulaic. But this is followed by the terrific final fours songs on the album, which include "Let The Door Hit Ya" and "Guess What" (both with Buddy in full sexual swagger). So one possibly formulaic song in an hour's worth of new music is a something I will take any day of the week.

An argument could be mounted that this is Buddy's career defining album. At 74, his skills are still intact and he remains a consummate songwriter, with something new to offer, both in his lyrics and certainly in his music....** It is kind of a wonder that people like Buddy, and the lesser know and somewhat older Hubert Sumlin, can still excite you with high level performances.

The production, at least on the vinyl pressing, is outstanding. I don't know if, or how much, compression will appear on the CD, but this is an album that was clearly recorded pretty much live in the studio, with probably few, if any, overdubs; so the sound is organic and real. Consequently, it benefits from being heard in the analog domain of vinyl. Plus, the vinyl may end up being some sort of collector's item as all the music appears on the first three sides leaving the fourth side blank so it can be devoted to a really cool etching in the vinyl of a portion of the guitar on the back of the LP cover. My only complaint about the vinyl release is there are no liner notes to show songwriting credits, song personnel, etc. But, at this price, for a double LP which is a very quiet pressing, this is a very small complaint.

The pre-release rumors here in Chicago were: "You got to hear this one when it comes out." Boy, were the rumors right!

** 10/24/10 At the time I wrote this review, as indicated above, I was without songwriting credit. Now that I have learned the songwriting credits, this sentence requires modification. Buddy shares songwriting credit on five of the twelve tracks on this album with drummer/producer, Tom Hambridge. On six of the seven the remaining tracks, Hambridge shares songwriting credit with either Gary Nicholson or Richard Fleming (Who also receives songwriting credit on two of the Guy/Hambridge compositions.). One song is credited to Hambridge alone. Read more ›

46 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "THIS MY BROTHER... IS WHAT ELECTRIC BLUES IS ALL ABOUT!!** October 26, 2010

By Rick Shaq Goldstein

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Though Buddy dedicates this CD to the fact that he's *SEVENTY-FOUR-YEARS-OLD*... his one of a kind electric blues performance says more than words can ever hope to... that he is absolutely ageless. His emanating power... song selection... which melds lyrics... voice... and mind boggling electrical guitar dominance... speaks of a man one-third his age with blues talent that has to come straight from the Lord. Way before you've even finished listening to this instant electric blues classic for the first time... a true lover of electric blues is thinking and praying way past the obvious next move of playing it again... you're selfishly dreaming of his next CD.

His voice and enthusiasm are a marvel unto itself... and as a lifetime electric blues lover I can wholeheartedly say that the way he bends the strings and squeezes out a sound... that one can easily imagine being similar to a muscular blacksmith or iron worker reshaping steel girders into musical electric blues with the mere strength of his hands.

1) 74 YEARS YOUNG - Buddy tells you "WHEN IT COMES TO LOVIN I AIN'T EVER DONE. I'M SEVENTY-FOUR-YEARS-YOUNG". His power will make anyone a believer.

2) THANK ME SOMEDAY - This has a John Lee Hooker "Boom-Boom" beat and Buddy proceeds to tell you the story of his youth in Louisiana.

3) ON THE ROAD - Foot tapping-guitar snapping. *CARS/MY BABY/THUNDER & LIGHTNING-UNDER-THE-HOOD* on the road. Coincidentally there's *THUNDER & LIGHTNING* in Buddy's guitar.

4) STAY AROUND A LITTLE LONGER - Soft, sweet and mellow. Buddy and B.B. King. Reminiscent of B.B.'s CD "Blues On The Bayou". Note: the video (not part of this CD package) is priceless with the body language and expressions of these two blues titans.... Telling each other that they both sound good and they're buddies.

5) KEY DON'T FIT - Electric blues power at full throttle! Buddy's voice has been to the fountain of youth, and he must have super human strength... because he snaps those guitar strings like they're molten steel girders.

6) LIVING PROOF - Roadhouse-stomping-blues. *SNARLING GUITAR* with background chorus reminiscent of Ray Charles's Raeletts. You could bottle up the kinetic energy in this song and light an entire city!

7) WHERE THE BLUES BEGINS - With Carlos Santana. A straight blues ballad.

8) TOO SOON - Back to foot stomping. Almost like the sound Jerry Lee Lewis would make if he played a guitar instead of a piano.

9) EVERYBODY'S GOT TO GO - A ballad very similar to *SKIN DEEP*. A very good searing guitar.

10) LET THE DOOR KNOB HIT YA - Rockin' blues with Buddy telling you like only Buddy can... TO GET OUT! "LET THE DOOR KNOB HIT YA... MY DAMx DOG SHOULDA BIT YA!"

11) GUESS WHAT - Want to know what blues guitar **SHOULD-SOUND LIKE?** Then listen to this. "SMELL LIKE A RAT" "GUESS WHAT? YOUR LITTLE SISTER WANTS TO TRY ME ON!" Buddy is an unleashed electric blues dynamo!

12) SKANKY - If you doubt anything I've said about Buddy's string bending guitar PREEMINENCE listen to this instrumental. Three sounds to keep in your soul whenever you dream of the way an electric blues guitar should sound: **ALBERT KING** - **STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN** - **BUDDY GUY** Read more ›

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I've been a dog, and I've been a tomcat... November 13, 2010

By Mike TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Ever since Buddy revitalized his recording career with 1991's Damn Right, I've Got the Blues (Expanded Edition), music lovers have been treated to one live grenade after another. The latest, "Living Proof," shows that Buddy isn't slowing down, he's only getting better and better. The opener, "74 Years Young," starts off seductively with just Buddy and his acoustic guitar. He's teasing, he's motioning you toward the place where he's coiled in the grass like the king of all crawling kingsnakes, and at the 3 minute mark, BLAM...shock & awe, Buddy in full electric mode, shredding everything in his path. I can see that grin, that big ear-to-ear expression of joy that Buddy gets when he knows he's got you right where he wants you.

Life is good. Buddy's back with a new album that should equally inspire and terrify every guitarist on the planet.

The next track, "Thank Me Someday," stomps and lumbers along in glorious Muddy mode, in the style of "Rolling Stone" and "Two Trains Coming." Is that a red house over yonder? Buddy yells "LISTEN! LISTEN TO ME" as he effortlessly peels the paint from the walls with a slow solo that morphs into an a rapid-fire whirlwind of arpeggios. Damn RIGHT he's got the blues.

"On The Road" is a laid-back shuffle that is reminiscent of Albert King and the Clapton-Green-Taylor era of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, but it's still pure Buddy. Two and a half minutes, there's the solo...we're only up to the third track and Buddy has already delivered 300% of your minimum daily requirement of mind-numbing, awe-inspiring blues guitar solos.

"Stay Around A Little Longer"...Buddy's duet with B.B. King......is a blues ballad, nice and relaxed, with an easy-going give and take of verses and solos.

"Key Don't Fit" is another thump-and-sting slow blues, back into heavy-duty soloing territory. The title track channels the Mick Taylor / Keith Richards blues of Exile on Main Street, then kicks it up a few notches.

"Where The Blues Begins" (with Carlos Santana) is another slow one, a "back down in the alley" blues that is a bot more restrained than the songs that have preceded it.

"Everybody's Got To Go" is a ballad, with sweet "ooooh" background vocals and a swirling organ that's right out of the Shelter Records albums Freddie King made with Leon Russell's crew.

"Let The Door Knob Hit Ya" is in the spirit of "Damn Right I've Got The Blues"..."Don't let the door hit ya where my damn dog should have bit ya"...more solos, another "stone crazy" track from Buddy.

"Guess What" is slow and deadly, and almost half of the track consists of soloing. Buddy closes out the album with "Skanky," a 4-minute instrumental for those of you in the audience who didn't get enough soloing in the previous 49 minutes.

You say you want a GREAT Buddy Guy album, one where the guitar takes center stage and he howls like a madman? This would be that album. One of the best albums of 2010, and one of the best in Buddy's career. Don't stop here, Buddy...keep 'em coming. Read more ›