There have been any number of Southern blues, soul and rock'n'roll musicians whose souls have struggled with their pull of their secular and spiritual sides: Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Son House, Al Green . . . and the great guitarist Buchanan.
Arkansas-born Buchanan -- who died in an apparent jail-cell suicide in 1988 at age 48, although that has been seriously questioned -- was plagued by double demons: alcohol and religion.
He grew up drawn to the blues and gospel, taught the young Robbie Robertson for a while before he and "the band" hooked up with Dylan, was admired by Hendrix (he covered Hey Joe) and Lennon, and was called "the world's best unknown guitar player" in the Washington Post in '70.
He was allegedly one of many tipped to join the Rolling Stones when Mick Taylor quit.
Buchanan was by that time -- the early Seventies -- a virtuoso rock guitarist with a tone as distinctive as that of Santana, and Jeff Beck was a great admirer. But his heart was in blues and country, and he had that constantly troubled spiritual side which was exacerbated by booze and doubt.
His recorded output was uneven but this, from his album A Street Called Straight, is one of his finest moments: it starts with bluesy runs over whistling organ, moves into a spoken word lyric (“I’ve walked in a lot of places I never should’ve been, and I know that the Messiah . . . He will come again”) then spins off into a gorgeously melodic and echoed solo.
It ascends to the heavens through a stuttering cadenza and comes back to earth with a guitar crying so profoundly deep you can feel your heart breaking as it fades out into a long night of hope and redemption.
Merle Haggard said, "he gets me right in the heart. He's got soul" and in '76 Time hailed him as "a messiah on guitar".
The tragedy is that Buchanan, who walked in shadows and a lot of places he never should have been, seems never to have found the hope and redemption he deserved.
Added: 26 Aug 10
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