The real blues, or just an imitation?

REALLY, Jim, What is (what are) The Blues?. Really?

      You might just as easily have asked. 'Which came first, the chicken or the egg'! Or 'If a tree falls in the forest...yada yada'. Oh man, if I had known there was gonna be a test the first week I would have thought twice about joining your little Blues party. But anyway, since you posed the question, perhaps you might want to step back a little while Mr. BLUZER opens up an existential can of Whup-a** (I added the stars...if I get edited I'll add a footnote).

    The short answer would, of course, come from the dictionary. According to The American Heritage College Dictionary (third Edition) Blues is defined as, ' 1. A state of depression or melancholy, 2. A style of music evolved from southern Black American secular songs and usually distinguished by slow tempo and flatted thirds and sevenths. (short for 'Blue Devils).' 'Bluenote', by the way, is defined as, 'A flatted note, especially the third or seventh note of a chord, in place of an expected major interval'. As a matter of curiousity I googled 'The Blues' and it led to Wikipedia which had a far more technical explanation that I won't go into here. Wikipedia also gave a brief timeline of the development of different Blues styles and key artists in the field. This is the neat and tidy answer to your question, 'What is (what are?) The Blues'.

      And now comes the long answer...gleaned from 30+ years of listening to and reading about this music.

      The Blues is everywhere and nowhere. It's everything to all people and nothing to nobody. It's 'Rip up the joint' and Rest In Peace. It's 'Up jumped the Devil' and 'Going Down Slow'. It's 'Get outta here and get me some money, too'. It's 'Moanin' at Midnight' and 'Rooster crowed 'fore day'. It's 'Stuck In Folsom Prison' and 'Take these chains from my heart'. It's young Elvis and bloated Elvis dead at 43. It's Sonny Boy Williamson (the first) dying on his doorstep. It's Pinetop Smith killed by a stray bullet. It's little Walter dying from a bottle upside his head. It's Robert Johnson poisoned by a jealous husband. Bessie Smith being refused treatment because of her skin color (even if that might be only a myth). It's Ma Rainey and her necklace of twenty dollar gold pieces. It's minstrel shows and Bert Williams in Black-face make-up. It's Tampa Red and his gold guitar. It's the Fender Telecaster and The Gibson Les Paul and the Richenbacher Bass. It's Son House and Blind Willie Johnson torn between singing the music of the Devil or of the Lord. It's Skip James and John Hurt re-discovered. It's Blind Lemon Jefferson dying at the age of 36 in a snow storm. It's Hank Sr. dead at 29 and Buddy Holly dead at 21 along with The Big Bopper and Richie Valens. It's Bill Haley living in obscurity in New Mexico (Or was it Mexico?). It's Fats Domino being rescued from the flood. It's the Mississippi flood of 1927. It's Elmore James and Jimmy Reed leaving a tremendous musical legacy but hardly any film footage or pictures. It's Champion Jack Dupree finding the respect in Europe he never got at home. It's a Grammy for B.B. King while most Bluesmen struggle to pay their bills. It's Jimi and Janis and 'The Needle And The Damage Done'. It's 'The Key to The Highway' and 'Gone Dead Train'. It's the Beatles and the Stones and the Animals teaching America the Blues all over again. It's Jim Crow, Jim Beam, and Jack Daniels. It's 'Mojo Hand' and 'Drinkin' wine Spo-Dee-Oh-dee' and 'Bad, Bad Whiskey'. It's long days and lonely nights. It's making it to the gig even though the temperature outside is zero degrees. It's Don Robey and Leonard Chess and Syd Nathan and Sam Phillips. It's 'Baby, Please Don't Go' and 'Baby Let's Play House'. It's Hank Ballard and Chubby Checker or Little Richard and Pat Boone'. It's Dinah Washington and Patty Page and Georgia Gibbs. It's Thousands of 78s melted down for scrap during World War two. It's a gravestone for Blind Lemon Jefferson 69 years after his death. It's Juke Joints and Honky Tonks and Carnegie Hall. It's the seventh son of the seventh son. It's Parchman and Angola. It's happiness and joy mixed with fear and despair. It's leg-irons and 'Thank God almighty I'm Free At Last'. It's a still born child in it's mothers arms and a grandmother passing away just days before her grandson becomes President. It's Highway 61 and Route 66 and 'Goin' Down To The Crossroads'. It's New Orleans to Memphis to Chicago. It's New Orleans to Texas to Los Angeles. It's 'The Day The Music Died' and 'Black Night Is Falling'. It's Hoodoo and Voodoo and Black Cat Bones. It's John The Conqueror root and John The Revelator. It's Sissy men and B.D. Women. It's 'Lost Highway' and 'Goin' Down That Road Feelin' Bad'. It's Leadbelly in New York and Jim Jacksons' Jamboree way down in Memphis. Its' Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. It's Tampa Red and Georgia Tom. It's BumbleBee Slim and Myrtle Jenkins. It's Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Lightnin' Slim and Guitar Gable. It's Bessie, Trixie, Clara and Willie 'The Lion' Smith. It's B.B., Albert, and Freddie King. It's Paul Oliver and Alan Lomax and Sam Charters. It's Saturday night sinners and Sunday morning saints. It's The Harlem Hamfats and the Mississippi Sheiks and The Memphis Jug Band and Cannons Jug Stompers. It's Paramount, Okeh, and Vocalion records. Its' Chess and Vee-Jay and Atlantic and Savoy. It's 'How long How Long' and 'How Many More Years' and 'Time is on my side'. 'I asked my gal for water and she gave me gasoline'. It's Doctor Ross (The Harmonica Boss!) and Professor Longhair and Doctor Clayton. It's Cripple Clarence Lofton and Jimmy Yancey and Sugar Chile Robinson. It's the piano and it's the guitar. It's Whiskey and Gin and 'Good liquor Gonna Carry Me down'. 'I got drunk last night and the night before and tonight I'm gonna go out and get drunk some more'. It's big cities and little towns. it's 'How Blue Can You Get' and Red Hot Mamas. It's 'Rockin' My Blues Away' and 'Rock Me Mama'. It's Elvis and Arthur Crudup. It's Patsy Cline and Otis Redding and Stevie Ray Vaughn. It's Big Joe Williams and Little Johnny Jones. 'It's Tight Like That'. It's Blues-Rock and Boogie-Woogie. It's 'Hoochie Coochie Man' and 'Big Boss Man'. It's Stovals Plantation and Dockerys plantation and all the plantations that ever existed. It's slavery and it's freedom. It's Sister Rosetta and Little Brother Montgomery. It's 'Cry, Cry, Cry' and laughin' to keep from cryin'. It's 'Hard Time Killing Floor' and 'Eyesight to the Blind'. It's WDIA and WLAC and Alan Freed. It's Lunch counters and movies theaters and public restrooms. It's 'Strange Angels' and 'Strange fruit'.  It's dignity amid humiliation. It's Billie Holiday and Aretha at the Inauguration and Marian Anderson. It's Cadillacs and Shark-Skin suits and 'Whose Muddy Shoes' and 'I need a suit to bury Grandpa in'. It's clarity and madness. It's 'The sun's gonna shine in my back door someday' and 'Don't the moon look lonesome shinin' down through the trees'. It's 'Ludella' and 'Little Delia' and 'Miss Martha King' and "Mattie Mae'. It's Wal-Mart and empty store-fronts and shopping malls all over America. It's 'Brother, Can You Spare A Dime' and 'I've Been Workin' On The Railroad' and 'Work With Me, Annie'. It's an empty bottle, empty pockets, and a broken heart. It's 'Too Much Monkey Business' and 'Let Me Play With Your Poodle'. It's broken homes and broken dreams and wasted lives. It's over-worked and underfed. It's 'Johnny B. Goode' and 'John Henry'. It's "Our Town' and 'It's A Wonderful Life'. It's Doom and Gloom and Sorrow and Pain and Death. It's Life And Love and Passion and Pride. It's colorless and odorless and tasteless. It's 'I Smell a Rat' and 'You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog' and 'The Signifyin' Monkey'. It's the upright Bass and a Low-down dirty shame. It's the past, the present , and the future. It's 'last call For Alcohol'. It's the Normandy invasion. It's Wall Street and Main Street and streets paved with gold. It's 'In The Midnight Hour' and 'Blues Before Sunrise' and 'Fore Day Creep'. It's finding love and losing love and finding love and losing love...ad infinitum. It's a babys cry and the last breath that leaves your body. It's saying good-bye or never getting the chance to say good-bye. It's finding out the Wizard isn't what or who you thought he was. It's 'Gone With The Wind' and 'The Birth Of A Nation'.

     So to answer your question, Jim, the one unimpeachable, undeniable, and infallible truth I've learned about the meaning of THE BLUES is this: Blues is life. From the moment you're born until the moment you die The Blues are always gonna be there somewhere. Waiting. And my advise is to just do the best you can and take advantage of the gifts that you've been given. You only get one chance so make it count!!

What is “Blues”

Blues is style of music. It’s not “life”. It’s a part of life, but it’s not life. It’s just a style of music.

It’s really not that esoteric. It’s not all encompassing – it’s not magic. It’s just a style. I mean, really… you could write about any subject imaginable in a blues style. You could also do it in a country western style or a polka style or a Horah style.

Eric Clapton and Mike Welch are no more (or no less) “interpreters” of Blues music than Muddy Watters was.

Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed didn’t invent blues. It was around long before Muddy entered the picture.

To imply someone has to be black in order to perform authentic blues, or perform blues authentically – is just ignorant.

That’s what the argument comes down to, doesn’t it - is it authentic or not? Is it authentic if the performer is not black?

It’s like saying an impressionist painting is not authentic and of the impressionist style if the painter is not French.

Every artist that plays Blues, or any style for that matter, interprets, in some way, from those who came before.

"Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size."

      I'll address P. Baughmans comments in order.

"Just a style of music"...I disagree. In order for the music to be 'authentic' (your word) I believe a Bluesman has to transcend the 'style' and relay something much deeper. Something unique and sincere and heartfelt. Bessie Smith didn't just mimmick Ma Rainey. She put the whole of her life experiences into her work and that's why, even after 85+ years her performances are still quite powerful and moving. Bessie was totally unique and brought all the pain and hurt she felt as a result of her situation in life to bear on her music. When you hear her voice you know immediately that it's Bessie Smith and that she's been hurt and abused. I'll put forth the notion that she couldn't be as convincing or effective if she was anything BUT a Blues Singer. Ditto Robert Johnson. And the same holds true for nearly all of the Blues singers I hold in high regard. The Blues, more than any other genre of music, demands that the artist convey a complete sense of self, a sense of his or her personal conviction, in their work. The great Bluesmen believed in the Blues as a way to cope with life and for many of them it's what made their lives worth living when they could put little hope in anything else. Would Robert Johnson have been as phenominally successful had he been singing cowboy songs or religious music? I'm not so sure.

"It's not magic"...I disagree. As I mentioned in an earlier post watching or listening to a real, honest-to-goodness Bluesman is somewhat akin to a religious experience. I don't see it happen often but when it does, believe me, it's magic. Under the proper circumstances, a good Bluesman or even the right Blues song at the right time will make your troubles disappear!! (and trust me, I know what magic is!!). It helps immensely when you suddenly realize that you're not the only one in the world that has problems. That yours isn't the only heart that's ever been broken. Misery loves company and the Blues are mostly about misery of one kind or another. The roots of the Blues as a communal antidote goes all the way back to Africa.

"Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed didn't invent Blues"...I never said they did but perhaps I could have. In the case of Muddy Waters he was perhaps the most prominent figure in a totally new phase or direction of the Blues. The argument could perhaps be made that Muddy single-handedly took the Blues from the plantation to the raucous night clubs of Chicago and did in fact basically invent or at least refine the sound of electrified Blues. He took his music WAY beyond mere interpretation or imitation of the older Delta Blues. Muddy wasn't completely alone, I never said he was, but his talents as a singer and band-leader carried a lot of weight and were extremely influential. Just as Tampa Red before him was a pivotal figure in the transformation from solo Country Blues into the small combo configurations that ultimately led to what we now call a Blues band. Tampa didn't invent the Blues either but he made them his own and inspired alot of fellow musicians.

      On the other hand Jimmy Reed, from where I sit, seems to have created his sound almost entirely in a vacuum. I'd be interested to find out just where the roots of his music lie, who his influences were, as I'm of the feeling that it is indeed a sound wholly individual to him. Allow me to cite 'Jimmys Boogie' and 'Boogie in The Dark' as but two examples of Jimmy Reeds' sound which perhaps he did in fact invent. I find very little precedent for his style of Blues in any Pre-War or even early Post-War recordings that I'm familiar with.

"To Imply someone has to be black"...I clearly used the term 'colorless' in my comment as, yes, it would be ignorant to imply such a thing as only a Black musician can play the Blues. Of course, for a long time Blacks and Whites were not really permitted to play TOGETHER due to a greater cultural ignorance. I don't intend (nor did I intend in my comment) to ever approach a discussion of the Blues from a racial perspective. Race is not and should not be considered a defining factor except in certain cases. Neither should gender.

"Authenticity"...So how do we measure authenticity? What may be authentic to my ears may not be authentic to yours. I think it's a subjective quality that doesn't necessarily carry much significance. I cite Kim Wilson and Rod Piazza, both white guys, who I would undeniably call authentic Bluesmen. You are free to disagree. Both are masters of their instruments and talented singers and song-writers when it comes to the Blues. They would perhaps be 'out of place' if they tried to be something which they are not. (Rod Piazza doing Reggae??). There are alot of other Blues artists I would call 'authentic' based entirely on their talent and my own qualifications rather than their race or gender. Again, nowhere did I make the claim that only a Black musician can sing the Blues...I'm not that narrow-minded...but I can't control what others may believe. I can only speak for myself.

"those who came before"/"on the shoulders of giants"...I totally agree that an artist doesn't necessarily live or create in a cultural vacuum (if that's what you're saying) BUT I also believe that, especially in the Blues, individuality is the key ingredient toward making a lasting impression and achieving legendary status. If Muddy only sang the songs of Son House or Charley Patton he probably wouldn't be as revered among Blues aficionados as he is. Bo Diddley was Bo Diddley and he was the genesis of the Bo Diddley beat. It didn't come from anywhere else but Bo Diddleys head, heart, and soul. If, say, John Lee Hooker had played in a straight Chicago-style he might not have been as popular as he was during his heyday (and beyond) and consequently be remembered as an innovator. And innovation is what I'm talking about...something brand new from the same building blocks everybody else uses. 'Style', as I interpret it, refers to the TYPE of expression within the broad category of the music but to be a truly great and lasting Bluesmen I strongly believe that an artist must use his own voice to set himself apart. And the best Bluesmen do just that. Not every artist who 'stands on the shoulders of giants' becomes a giant himself (or herself!) but ya gotta start somewhere.

      I still stand by what I said...Blues is Life. To the casual listener it may not seem that the Blues is any more important than Jazz or Classical music or Country and Western or Rock and Roll or German Techno-Pop. To those of us who are long-time fans of the music and have seen and heard how powerful an art form it can be...well, there's something about the Blues that just touches us like no other genre. The Blues is (the Blues are?) a purely American creation and were being played and sung before nearly any other style of music was ever cultivated in America and will continue to be Americas' musical legacy to the world.  A mirror of our lives. It's the roots of the tree that continues to bear fruits unique to life in these United States while possessing a universal appeal. (There may be 'authentic' Russian or Japanese or Brazilian Blues artists but none come to mind. Nothing would surprise me though). In a broader sense the Blues serve to reflect and reveal and make sense of the mysteries of life that poets have similarly always searched for but in a way that never existed before in America...through the magic of the words and music that initially arose out of the despair and the need for hope born of a people enslaved who had very little means to otherwise express their condition.

I was exposed to Jazz as a young child by a neighboring family of musicians.  I remember listening to a radio memorial for Wes Montgomery after his death and being drawn to the 'feel' of what I heard.  My main musical draw as I entered adolescence was Rock, but by the mid 70's during my high school years I found myself drawn to the more elemental sound of the Blues.  I began a 30+ year journey into the music much like others I know.   I sought out the records and books that educated me to the past and pointed me ahead to a lovely obsession.

Like everyone else I have my feelings on what is and is not the blues.  At this point, however, I find my mantra being Blues is in the eyes of the beholder.  We've traveled far past the point of petty arguments to the core of the issue.  Does the music move you?  That which you answer yes to is indeed the Blues.  It's emotional release, a cleansing of the soul that leaves the listener capable of going about the tedious and sometimes painful business of living.

For me it's about ensemble playing werein the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  Long winded solos are eschewed in favor of the group mind.  The best folks are those capabale of delivering the sting while knowing when to swing, and sway.  By the late 50's into the early 60's white folks began to discover in growing numbers the magic of this music.  It forever changed what was into what would be next.

I got on board with the post war Chicago sound and traveled due south from there.  Whether it be the precise picking of the Piedmont style, raw Delta emotion or the joyous lilt of the west coast I'm continuly, effortlessly drawn like a moth to the flame.  Just how far is the step from T-Bone Walker to Duke Robillard?  It can be measured in years and miles, but most importantly, does it summon a smile, cause the toes to tap, head to nod?  If it carries you from the dayly concerns with near effortless glee, it's the Blues.

If it carries you from the dayly concerns with near effortless glee, it's the Blues.

Hmm...kinda of sounds to like you could be describing some sort of religious experience!! Either way,  The road to the Blues is usually a familiar one....you start with one kind of music and eventually realize that it's ancestor is the Blues. That's the way it was for a former arena-rock loving teenager who discovered the music hidden away in the public library.

What's a shame, and what devalues the music overall, is when some guitar heavy hack band hears Clapton doing "Further on Up the Road", which is lacks just about every once of soul and personality that made Bobby Bland's version so timeless, and instead just plays a standard shuffle groove and replaces the nuances (horns, organ, etc) with just a bunch of pseudo-blues jive guitar playing and throws the original lyrics in there just to remind the audience what the song is.  You needn't be a purist to spend the extra few minutes it might take to really learn the song.

I could be wrong, but I doubt Muddy et al. ever really threw serious thought into what the blues was, though I'm pretty sure they put a LOT of thought into transcribing what was going on around them into lyrics.  They saw, they recorded what they experienced, and then they recorded what they experienced as a tune.  I hate putting a definition to something inherently personal and soulful.  To some, ZZ Top is blues.  To me, ZZ Top is unlistenable.  That's just me.  Blues is a music about the heart's longing, and coping with life.  There are  no complicated changes ala jazz, so I would lean away from calling it just another music style.  Much like soul music, which evolved from the church, I think blues is a means of communicating something bigger than words would allow.  As Syl Johnson once said, it's not "Brother, my foot hurts, would you rub it?"  ... it's "I've been down so long, I don't have the strength to stand up."