Life & Mysterious Death at 27. Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson of Canned Heat.

This video was surprisingly so personal to me. I grew up in the area around Westwood and Topanga Cyn, grew up listening to those guys, seeing them at beach parties, sitting in the back of the Topanga Corral at 15 yrs old, stoned out of my mind hearing some of the best music in the world. You know there're times I wonder if I actually did stuff like that!? Thanx for the reminder. And Thank you Allen!❤

One of the real joys of having a YT channel is getting to feature an artist I love who for whatever reason might not have gotten their proper due. IMO Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson is one of those guys. Enjoy!:hand-purple-blue-peace:

Thank You for putting Blind Owl story out for the world. Canned Heat was Awesome

That record store that Alan met Bob was Rancho Music my father owned. Worked with him until Canned Heat got signed. Great memories.

Excellent video on a true artist who rarely gets his due. Thank you.

You've never been full of it in any of your videos. Blind owl is such a great blues name. Glad he got to play with John Lee Hooker a true genius!! I love this obscure gem🔥👓🎸💯

You are just dripping with LA rock history :) Thanks for another great video.

One of the best blues bands ever, period!! Thank you for this great video

"Hooker and Heat" was one of my first albums. Thanks for the memories........again.

You hit a home run with this one Tim! Poor Alan was a tormented soul indeed, you can hear his life story with every haunted note he played and sang. I never listen to Alan's songs around other people. It's just me, the night sky, still green water and the blues.

Hi Tim great great great ! Been on a bit of a canned heat kick lately and Al Wilson has always facinated me. Thanks for the amazing content ....as usual

I was friends with Richard Hite , when he and his mom lived in Memphis. I’d go over there and Richard would take a mint condition 78 of Robert Johnson, Ishman Bracey, etc. and we’d listen to them. They had thousands of 78 blues records and multi thousand blues albums. He had their Woodstock and Going Up the Country GOLD records on their record room wall. Richard and Bob were serious blues collectors. Richard said he and Bob would travel all over the Deep South in the early 60s and buy these records. Richard is gone now too. 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Cool documentary Tim . Love those blues harmonica players ." Out in the woods with a sleeping bag is the only place where he finds peace ".... is probably where his hit " Going to the country " came from . Thanks again Rock Essentials Tim 🎸🎸🎸

Thank you. Canned Heat was an incredible band and Alan Wilson was, as you say, incomparable. We all truly appreciate your efforts to keep this amazing part of American culture and history alive. FYI my Gen Z daughter and a group of her friends love canned heat and spin their records to this day. Thank god for the vinyl albums they left behind.

My late wife, Tracey, was Alan’s first cousin. I was always a big Canned Heat fan from the late 1960’s. I found out about this, however, when Tracey and I were dating while living in Stockton CA in the late 1970’s. “On the Road Again” came on the car radio and Tracey blurted out, “Hey! That’s my cousin” when Alan started singing. It was all I could do to avoid running my car off of the road out of distracted disbelief when she said that. I only met Alan’s Mom (Shirley) once along with his youngest sister Heidi while we were living in Baltimore and they came down from Boston to visit. We did correspond with Alan’s oldest sister, Darrell, occasionally over the years prior to her death around 2011. Darrell once told me that she never quite came to terms with Alan’s death and she sometimes felt he was just out on the road touring.

This is a kind, respectful, and informative look back on an interesting person. Thanks for posting it.

As a teenager, I worked at Baher Chevrolet as a painter's helper. While I was working, there was a concert going on at Devonshire Downs not too far away. I could hear Canned Heat playing. I remember wanting to be there rather than sanding and priming cars.

Great stuff. I've been friends with Alan's younger sister Jayne for 30 years now

Excellent video Professor Tim. So enjoyable to watch a video with so much research that gives us so much insight. Waiting for your next one. Thanks

Definitely way overlooked in the annals of history. Loved his guitar playing. Their Woodstock set was epic.