You're right to make the point that white bluesmen didn't just copy the black bluesmen, The Animals & others often went one better and gave the songs a lilt and vitality lacking in the originals. And why not, they had more sophisticated recording equipment and better overall production values, not surprising they sounded that bit better on the car radio. There were one or two notable exceptions of course (few sought to cover Muddy Waters), but the newcomers to the genre felt free to add their own ingredients to the mix and the blues as a whole are all the better for it. Even Muddy Waters himself thought the young rockers of the 60's were a force to be reckoned with, though he added wrily that they could stop pretending they lived the blues. In that sense (and in that sense only) they were imposters -- though Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac was usually singled out as the exception that proved the rule. Ask B.B. King.
You're right to make the point that white bluesmen didn't just copy the black bluesmen, The Animals & others often went one better and gave the songs a lilt and vitality lacking in the originals. And why not, they had more sophisticated recording equipment and better overall production values, not surprising they sounded that bit better on the car radio. There were one or two notable exceptions of course (few sought to cover Muddy Waters), but the newcomers to the genre felt free to add their own ingredients to the mix and the blues as a whole are all the better for it. Even Muddy Waters himself thought the young rockers of the 60's were a force to be reckoned with, though he added wrily that they could stop pretending they lived the blues. In that sense (and in that sense only) they were imposters -- though Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac was usually singled out as the exception that proved the rule. Ask B.B. King.