Origins

“Father of the Blues”

“Classic” Blues

Country / Delta Blues

Urban / Electric Blues

“Got de blues, but too damn

mean to cry” - traditional

I. What are the Blues? A. Blues Psychology

1. “Blues is a natural fact, something that a fellow lives. If you don’t live it, you don’t have it”

Big Bill Broonzy

2. The blues had an outgoing social aspect a. Antidote from the hard and grueling labor in the Deep

South

b. Also an introspective, negative portrayal of suffering and frustration Relationships, imprisonment, and forced labor are examples

3. blends: a. sadness and humor

b. realism and imagination

c. satire and sexuality all while mixing repetition and spontaneity

I. What are the Blues? B. Origin of the Blues

“When a lowly black man plowing in some hot, silent river bottom

raised his voice in a wailing ‘cornfield holler,’ he was heralding

the birth of the blues.” – John and Allen Lomax

1. began in the Deep South, post-emancipation

2. Mississippi Delta, up to Vicksburg and Memphis

3. African Americans began to migrate in the 1890s with

promises of jobs with reasonable wages

○ blues originate as this transformation from slavery to small-scale

agriculture failed

4. some men began to make a living playing for the crowds

rather than performing the physical labor jobs

○ such as Big Bill Broonzy who “would be playing and sitting under

screened porches while other blacks had to work in the hot sun.”

I. What are the Blues? B. Origin of the Blues

5. field holler – precursor to the blues

○ a. a fragmented bit of yodeling, half sung, half yelled

○ b. in slow time

○ c. melancholy in nature

○ d. preference for flatted thirds [fifths and sevenths] blues or “worried” note

○ e. characteristic cadence all these elements are found in hollers and the blues

6. dance hollers

○ exception, used in the same way that upbeat blues tunes are played and sang to chase away the “blues”

7. hollers and slurs give more meaning and emotion that the words alone

I. What are the Blues? B. Origin of the Blues

8. Blues are one of the three major forms of popular

Afro-American music [Ragtime, Jazz, and the Blues]

○ the blues are unquestionably a deeply rooted and widely

influential type of musical and verbal expression.

9. whereas jazz and ragtime were easily introduced and

assimilated by white audiences, blues are essentially an

expression of Black Americans

II. William Christopher Handy [1873-1958]]

A. Father of the Blues

1. black traveling band leader and composer

○ a. schooled in music theory and composition

○ b. first composer of the blues

2. moved to New York City as music publisher

3. gave a sophisticated polish to the blues

○ but more authentic than other Tin Pan Alley blues

knockoffs

○ "Life is something like a trumpet. If you don't put anything

in, you won't get anything out.“ – W.C. Handy

II. William Christopher Handy [1873-1958]

B. Encounter in Tutwiler, Mississippi

1. waiting on a train, heard a man playing a song

○ a. with the lyrics “where the Southern cross’ the Dog”

○ b. played with a knife as a slide

○ c. described it as “the weirdest music I had ever heard”

2. “discovered” and documented the AAB format

○ a. adapted the AAB format for his later composed music

○ “Boll Weevil, where you been so long? A

Boll Weevil, oh where you been so long? A

You stole my cotton, now you want my corn” B

III. 12-Bar Blues

A. one of the most popular chord

progressions in popular music

B. blues progression has a distinctive form

in lyrics and phrase and chord structure

and duration.

based on the I-IV-V chords of a key.

C. blues can be played in any key,

but guitar and bass players prefer open chords

○ chords with several open strings: E-A-B7 or A-D-E7 and

pianists may prefer chords with fewer black keys, such as

C-F-G7 or G-C-D7.

III. 12-Bar Blues D. A basic example of the instrumental

progression 1. T indicates the tonic, S is the subdominant, and D is

the dominant; representing one chord. ○ The tonic is also called the 1-chord, the sub-dominant, the 4-

chord , and the dominant, the 5-chord.

2. as Function and Roman Numeral

T T T T I I I I

S S T T IV IV I I

D S T T V IV I I

3. first line = 16 quarter notes (4 bars × 4 beats) ○ (for a total of 48 beats and 12 bars).

4. However, the vocal do not match up with the above three lines.

5. variations include: Quick to Four, 10th Bar Dominate, Seventh Chord, as well as 8, 16, and 32 Bar Blues

III. 12-Bar Blues E. Most commonly, lyrics are in three lines, with the first

two lines almost the same with slight differences in phrasing and interjections. “I hate to see the evening sun go down,

Yes, I hate to see that evening sun go down

'Cause it makes me think I'm on my last go 'round

○ W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues“

I - - - IV - - - I - - - I7 - - -

Woke up this morning with an awful aching head

IV - - - IV7 - - - I - - - I7 - - -

Woke up this morning with an awful aching head

V - - V7 IV - - IV7 I - - - I - V V7

My new man had left me, just a room and an empty bed. - From Bessie Smith's "Empty Bed Blues"

F. This overlap between the grouping of the accompaniment and the vocal is part of what creates interest in the twelve bar blues.

III. 12-Bar Blues G. notable 12-Bar Blues Songs

"Shake, Rattle and Roll"

"Hound Dog"

"One O‘Clock Jump"

The Beatles' "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"

The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go"

Fabian's "Turn Me Loose"

"At the Hop" by Danny and the Juniors

Theme from the Batman TV Series