Anyone who is interested in black resistance and protest in the blues might enjoy reading an article I've written for The African American Folklorist. It has not yet appeared in the AAF, but a preview of it is available on my website (I've included a link to it below.) It deals mostly with blues, but it also briefly gets into a John Henry recording and black spirituals.

The article includes quotes from black musicians about what lies below the surface of blues lyrics, including coded protest through double entendre and veiled meanings. The quotes are from W.C. Handy, B.B. King, Brownie McGhee, Big Bill Broonzy, Willie Foster, Willie King, Ray Charles, and Sidney Bechet.

For example, the quote below is from McGhee. It's from an interview conducted by Lawrence Redd and was published in his little-known book Rock Is Rhythm and Blues.

Most of my blues deep down inside, is resentment, persecution. I want to know why certain things happen to me because my skin is black...People don't understand double entendre--that's what we write a lot of times.


Some of the songs and recordings I discuss in relation to protest include "Joe Turner," "Key to the Highway," Bessie Tucker's "Key to the Bushes," "John Henry Blues" by The Two Poor Boys, and Belton Sutherland's "Blues #1. I also cover songs with verses that contain the line "I can't be satisfied" and a long string of songs which openly protest police harassment, false arrest, and forced labor with verses that contain the line "I was standin' on the corner"or small variations to it.

My discussion of the line "I can't be satisfied" includes a quote from Muddy Waters in which he identifies that phrase as a response to oppression in Mississippi. (It appears in Paul Oliver's book Conversation with the Blues.)

Of course, the blues was about much more than protest. Blues musicians did not spend all of their time singing about oppression, but through my research I've come to believe that racial resistance and protest is one of the foundations of the blues.

You can find the article on my website at the link below.
https://sites.google.com/view/johnhenrytherebelversions/that-joe-turner-blues-cry-that-blues-cry-for-freedom