Blues

[Robb Bingham <robbingham@xxxxxxxxx>]

<What is the blues is a fair question-it's not
<stupid. The Harvard Dictionary of Music has
an answer for this, and they're no dummies
<at Harvard. Does the entry say, "if you have
<to ask, you're a hopeless 
<idiot?" No-it attempts a serious 
<definition. And how many spiels have you 
<heard or read by black artists
<philosophizing about what the blues are? 
<Zillions. So let's see, if I'm 
<a guitar picking sharecropper from the Delta 
<I can talk about what the blues are, 
<but if I'm some educated cat from New Jersey I 
<have to shut up. I don't think so.
<The blues may not be easy to define, but they 
<are nonetheless a big part of the 
<harmonica's reportoire. IMO this thread is 
<entirely within bounds.

<Glenn Weiser
http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/harppage.htm

Point conceded. It's certainly well within bounds [I'm
just still licking my wounds from the ~tone~
discussion].

But. Truth is, like ~Tone~, I don't think it's ~up in
the air~, defying definition [as is so popular here to
conclude].  I know EXACTLY what it ~is~. I could list
5 or 6 attributes which mark any song as ~Blues~
[which you notice as you listen], and sometimes
they'll be there- and sometimes not. Sometimes, like
SRV, a couple Blues-defining characteristics are
yanked off the first few bars, and stuck on the end.

It's like in my field, a diagnostic ~disorder~ [in the
DSM-7]; has to have 4 of six describers to be
considered a particular disorder [~A depressed person
might have 3 of these 4 things: flattened affect, low
energy, increased sleep time, less interest in sex]
Hey! It occurs to me this is the opposite of anyone in
the Blues Business: We get no sleep, have tons of
energy, have lots of sex [or at least sing about it a
lot] and are very affected.

Ahem. But, point is, Blues isn't always 12 bar. Blues
isn't always repeating the first line. Blues doesn't
always have flattened 3rds. But it's going to have 4
of 7 specific things; or it isn't Blues. Also, name a
classic ~Blues~ that didn't, at least in the original,
have a ~Blue Note~ or two. It's NOT ~just a feeling~. 

And it does trace it's roots from Chicago down the
Mississippi-- with a couple stops before the Delta. 

All this to say: ~touche/you're right~/have at it~.

With feeling,
Robb

http://mp3.com/robbingham