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The Blues

Blues—evolved from African-inspired church music ("gospel")

Big Bill Broonzy (son of ex-slave & blues singer with over 200 recordings) states "blues won't die because spirituals won't die. Blues—a steal from spirituals. And rock is a steal from the blues … Blues singers start out singing spirituals."

video includes performances by Big Bill Broonzy and Sun House

Robert Johnson

"blue" notes & lament lyrics
harmonic structure ...12-bar blues
"bottleneck" guitar style ("Preaching Blues")
predictable lyric structure: aab (e.g., "Me & the Devil")
sing first phrase
repeat first phrase (repetition)
sing contrasting phrase (contrast)


For example, examine this excerpt from "Me & the Devil" ...
(a)	Early this mornin, when you knocked upon my door,
(a)		 Early this mornin, when you knocked upon my door,
(b)	And I said, “Hello, Satan, I believe it's time to go.



		Me & the Devil (complete)
Early this mornin, when you knocked upon my door,
	 Early this mornin, when you knocked upon my door,
And I said, “Hello, Satan, I believe it's time to go.

Me and the Devil was walkin' side by side,
	 Me and the Devil was walkin' side by side,
I'm goin' to beat my woman until I get satisfied.

She say you don't see why that I will dog her 'round,
	 She say you don't see why that I will dog her 'round,
It must-a be that old evil spirit so deep down in the ground.

You may bury my body down by the highway side,
	 You may bury my body down by the highway side,
So my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride.

Kindhearted Woman Blues

Preaching Blues

Hell Hound on My Trail

Listen to one chorus of a 12-bar blues (Presley's version of "Hound Dog")
Listen carefully to the background vocals
to hear when the chords change.

Here's the complete song ...
see if you can follow the 12-bar form

Hound Dog by Elvis Presley

listen to Big Mama Thornton's version of "Hound Dog"

Interactive Flash Movies - "The 12-bar Blues" [more examples]
"Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley (230 KB)
"Me & the Devil" by Robert Johnson (497 KB)
"Blues Before Sunrise" recorded by Eric Clapton (374 KB)
"Directly From My Heart to You" by Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention (1.4 MB)
"Delirious" by Prince
"Lemon Song" by Led Zeppelin
"Rock & Roll" by Led Zeppelin

Click <here> for more examples of the "12-bar blues" form

"Big Joe" Turner (commentary )**

linking the Blues with Rock & Roll

late 20s—singing bartender in Kansas City
teamed up with boogie-woogie pianist, Pete Johnson
1938—John Hammond (Columbia) brought Turner & Johnson to NYC to appear at Carnegie Hall concert that sparked the "boogie woogie" craze

Piney Brown Blues

Roll 'em Pete

Ruth Brown ("Miss Rhythm")

began singing in church choirs
performed with jazz big bands
Atlantic Records was often referred to as "... the house that Ruth built"

Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean

also, "Teardrops From My Eyes"

Jazz Influence

New Orleans Dixieland

simultaneous improvisation
beginnings of jazz (e.g. Cotton Club in Harlem) leading to swing

Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues"

Swing

Benny Goodman's "Don't Be That Way"

Urban Blues

"T-Bone" Walker
"Gatemouth" Brown (L) & T-Bone Walker (R)

(a.k.a., Aaron Thibaeaux Walker)
self-taught on the guitar
played at drive-in soft drink stands with his stepfather then with Blind Lemon Jefferson; won the 1970 Grammy for "Best Ethnic/Traditional Recording"

1^st to exploit electric guitar; birth of urban electric blues (harbingers of R&B and Rock)
techniques: finger vibrato, sustain (volume)

T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday"

Muddy Waters

(a.k.a. McKinley Morganfield)

learned music in the church
- "moaning & trembling"
1941—recorded by Alan Lomax
1943—moved to Chicago
1944—bought first electric guitar
- amplification became necessary, because often acoustic music couldn't be heard over the audience
- reflected the tension, volume, & confusion of the big-city streets (blues with "pep")
c. 1947—signed with Aristocrat Records owned by Leonard & Phil Chess (later became Chess Records)
(comments from Mick Jagger)
*band in the early 50s:
- Otis Spann, piano
- Little Walter, harmonica
- Leroy "Baby Face" Foster, drums

Muddy Waters' "Hoochie Coochie Man"

cover version by Eric Clapton

Chester "Howlin' Wolf" Burnett

rivalry w/Muddy Waters
wild stage performances

"Smokestack Lightnin'" (recorded 1956); early music video?

Buddy Guy

Other centers:

Memphis in the late 1940s:
- Riley B. King ("B.B. King")
  - stretching the strings instead of bottleneck

BB King in the mid-50s	BB King in the mid-60s	Headed to Vegas

Los Angeles as the center of recorded music scene
- notoriously egailitarian
- after hours jam sessions to sunrise
- 2/28/45--War Manpower Commission ordered a midnight curfew
- there was still radio (Mills Bros., Ink Spots, Nat Cole)