i have to create a history of the blues powerpoint presentation ?
October 26, 2009 by
Filed under blues history
i need it to be entertaining though, i know all the facts like how it started with slavery and things, but i need to make the presentation interesting, not boring.. any ideas? or fun facts ?
You might want to bring attention to the fact in regards to blues folklore, which I am very interested in myself. Read some information on Robert Johnson and the crossroads. I think you’d find it very interesting, and I believe that this could present you with the opportunity to inject plenty of interest on this topic.
As far as a visual, I’ve got a blues history timeline made out of flash that you could let people wade through. Here’s the link to the direct flash:
http://www.bluescentric.com/history/BLUESflash_timeline.swf
And here’s one for the page its on:
http://www.bluescentric.com/history/
Here’s some trivia/interesting blues facts I gave someone the other day, plus a couple. I think they could work well in your making the history interesting.
* The Rolling Stones started life as a Blues band. In fact they got their name from their idol Muddy Water’s song Rolling Stone
* In 1977, Chuck Berry’s 1958 hit “Johnny B. Goode” was sent aboard the Voyager deep space probe as part of a package of earth’s culture.
* Blues rocker George Thorogood also played semi-professional baseball for a period when his band was in hiatus.
* The famous intro at the beginning of Eric Clapton’s “Layla”, also heard throughout the song, was taken from the Albert King song “As The Years Go Passing By”. Duane Allman (of the Allman Brothers Band) actually played the famous riff, not Eric Clapton.
* Robert Johnson, one of the most famous bluesmen of all time, is the father and founding member of the “27 Club”, whose cost of admittance is dying as a well known musican at age 27. (Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, etc.) Interestingly, many of those that died were purportedly directly influenced by Johnson, and occasionally sang his songs. Kinda spooky!
* B.B. King has won an amazing FIFTEEN Grammy awards!
* Buddy Guy has 92557 engraved on all of his guitars to commemorate the day he moved to Chicago with only his guitar and the clothes on his back on September 25th, 1957
* Deceased Bluesman Lonnie Pitchford has a working Diddley Bow affixed to his headstone.
* B.B. King’s “The Thrill is Gone” was written by Roy Hawkins in 1951. B.B. wouldn’t record the song until 1969, as he thought people wouldn’t like it. It’s long been one of B.B.’s most famous songs.
* Les Paul, (who just recently passed away), the namesake of the famous Gibson electric guitar, also invented the 8-Track player.
* John Lee Hooker was the best man at extremely talented Blues harpist Charlie Musselwhite’s wedding.
* Willie Dixon was a professional boxer before he was a Bluesman. (He was a musician and a writer for over 100 songs for Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, and many others) He won the Golden Gloves in Illinois before his career was cut short after he got into a fight in the Boxing Comissioner’s office.
* Muddy Waters’ real name is McKinley Morganfield.
* Robert Lockwood Jr. was taught to play the guitar by Robert Johnson.
* The first person to ever document Blues was W.C. Handy. In 1903 he was awakened by a thin black man playing guitar by sliding his pocketknife across the strings (presumably like modern slide guitar). He said the man was playing the weirdest music he’d ever heard. He was singing about “where the southern cross the dog”. This was what would quickly come to be known as Blues.
(Find more about that here: http://www.bluescentric.com/music/dictio…
* The “B.B.” in B.B. King’s name stands for “Blues Boy”.
Also, if need be, I believe I’ve got some kinda cool pictures around that you might be able to use. Here’s an example of one…
http://www.bluescentric.com/images/TBD/08_02_buckner_snake.jpg
You could also include a YouTube video of a blues performance. Video can really spice up a presentation. Check out this tutorial on embeding YouTube videos in PowerPoint: http://www.labnol.org/software/insert-youtube-video-in-powerpoint-presentations/5393/
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Cheers,
Andy
MSFT Office Outreach Team