Essay, Research Paper
Never Get Outta
These Blues Alive
How the Blues Have Affected Modern Poetry
a term paper by: Bernard Dolan
1.
Blues Performers
&
What are the Blues?
Of all the varied and exotic foundations of today’s rock and roll music, none can be said to have had the
impact made by Blues music. Only recently has this influence been rightly recognized, however, leading
to the creation of such establishments as The House of Blues, a club owned by several actors, which
salutes the blues and offers a medium to get noticed for new blues performers. (House of Blues, p.1-2)
Blues performers have always been colorful and down-to-earth people, and their music has reflected it.
Perhaps the reason America loves the blues so much is it’s avoidance of fancy lyrics and colorful
metaphors. Rather, the blues prefers to get straight at
“Well you talk about the people that
the root of the problem, telling it like it is. you don’t know;
you yak, yak, yak,
yak all the time
ya head so hard
While other musicians sang of passionate love affairs you don’t pay me no mind
you just talk pretty baby
that the everyday person would never have, musicians talk all the time
Talk, talk, talk
like John Lee Hooker were complaining in colorful songs baby, ya talk too much
about how their woman “talk to much.” For this reason Ya talk, to your neighbor,
Stay on the phone,
the blues has a unique ability to make you smile, to make An hour or more;
All you do is talk about
you marvel and say-”I know exactly how he feels.” For People all the time.”
-John Lee Hooker; Hard-Headed Woman
this reason Americans everywhere connected to the Blues.
(Stark, p.120-124)
But make no mistake-the blues were not all fun and games, and they never were. From the depths of
African-American oppression and everyday problems came the Blue movement, and such topics as death,
debt, homelessness and economics were not uncommon. For this reason people everywhere could listen to
the Blues and know that things were hard, yes, but others were going through the same problems as they.
Someone once said that the Blues gave people hope, even though they seemed to accentuate the negative
at times. (Blackmore, p.220)