please include main points in the timeline etc...
Much appreciated thank you Some slaves got dragged over to America and brought their voices and music with them.
Then their children got sold to other people
Then the slaves got their freedom, but had no job, money, food, place to live.
Then they wrote songs about havin' no job, no money , no love, no home.
Then they got some jobs and money and a guitar, and a girlfriend, and some children.
Then the woman cheated on him, and he cheated on her, and he got drunk and lost all his money. And he lost his job,...and got thrown in jail, and his children had no daddy.
and he wished he had her back, but he had no money.
Then he sang his song to some white folks who RECORDED IT>
And da blues was done born, daddy! you said 'brief'. Oh, they say some people long ago
Were searching for a diff'rent tune
One that they could croon
As only they can
They only had the rhythm
So they started swaying to and fro
They didn't know just what to use
That is how the blues really began
They heard the breeze in the trees
Singing weird melodies
And they made that the start of the blues
And from a jail came the wail
Of a down-hearted frail
And they played that
As part of the blues
From a whippoorwill
Out on a hill
They took a new note
Pushed it through a horn
'Til it was worn
Into a blue note
And then they nursed it, rehearsed it
And gave out the news
That the Southland gave birth to the blues! It all started in the southern cotton and other fields as a way of passing the long hours away. It then began to filter out to the main stream and by the 50's and 60's made it across the big pond and took on another life.It is the basis of All popular forms of music today (Jazz,Rock,country) all have their roots in THE BLUES. Muddy Waters once said and sung "THE BLUES HAD A BABY and NAMED IT ROCK'N'ROLL!!!!!!!!!!! The music began as a blending of black spiritual type melodies - with a natural tendency to flaten the 3rd and 7th notes of the scale - with western harmony and a touch of latin rhythm.
The music is about healing through hard times.
1905 - WC Handy - A classically trained African American musician - publishes the FIRST blues song. "St. Louis Blues". He had said that he had heard the sound when he heard an itinerate guitar player playing at a train station one day using a bottleneck.
Blues was something of a vaudeville novelty at that time.
1920 - Mamie Smith records the first blues song "Crazy Blues" ...
With the invention of the radio - the fledgeling record companies of the day needed new sounds and new audiences to keep their share of the market - so a lot of music that was not yet widely popular was now brought to a wide audience - a lot of blues and counrty music was discovered at this time.
All of the first blues stars were women. In their search for more variety - they turned to men and found bluesmen in the prisons, work camps and juke joints all over the south. Through the 30's you can hear the delta, Texas, Piedmont, and other styles.
As the 30's wore on and Jazz was making bands popular, Blues also had bands and classic singers emerge. The depression would put a damper on recording, but a lot of great music was being made. When asked how the depression was effecting the Harlem music scene - Cab Calloway replied "What depression?"
The government also becaome involved. Realizing that with mass transportation and mass communication causing influence on cultural pockets all over the US - the Library of Congress sent John Lomax - and later his son Alan across the country with protable recording equipment to capture regional folk, blues, and country music before it disappeared. They discovered the likes of Huddie Leadbetter (Leadbelly) and Muddy Waters.
After WWII - returning troops found it hard to settle back into rural farm life so their was a great migration of people to the cities and around train lines. The blues settled in Chicago where blues men when to perform for new willing audiences.
Chess records was a major force in shaping this Chicago sound with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon and the like.
In the 1950's White audiences picked up on this sound and more white musicians were starting to play the music with their own twist. Thus, Rock n Roll was born. Rock n Roll was rebellious, and not being able get rid of this sort of music, concerned society helped turn it into something 'safe' with acts like Fabian and Ricky Nelson.
The blues was forgotten in America.
1960s - In England they were HUNGRY for American Rock and blues. Blues artists who were NEVER famous outside of limited, regional black audiences in the south were finding new careers in England. People like the now long dead Robert Johnson, the still living Son House and and Bukka White were have new sales and America took notice.
The Stones, John Mayall, Eric Clapton, and others were bringing our music back to us and now we didn;t have to listen to surf music ever again.
Since ten, the blues was now open to anyone who understand the need for healing from hard times.
Johnny Winter, SRV, and many others kept the music alive and it is still with us today. |
