Blues songs talking about blues singers

Subject: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: simon-pierre
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 03:53 PM

Hi everyone,

I was recently asked, as a supposed blues connaisseur, to find blues songs that talks about the reality of being a blues singer. That was little too much for me, as the best i could come up with was Travelin' Band by CCR. Any suggestions? I don't need lyrics, just a couple of titles would be ok.

Thanks,
SP

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: Declan
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 04:17 PM

Any song thats starts - "I woke up this morning - I had the ... Blues"

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: Leadbelly
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 04:41 PM

"blues songs that talk about the reality of being a blues singer"

What do you really expect? Hard traveling songs, stories about bad experiences on the road, discrimination? If so, there are a lot of songs.
Moreover, although I do like CCR this could be a misleading example because they are/ have been white people. No comparison to what problems black artists have had in former times.

Don't want to tell you all of these songs, but here'e a fine example: Traveler's Blues by Lightnin' Hopkins ( Verve)

Manfred

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: Steve-o
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 06:52 PM

David Bromberg does a wonderful song titled "You've Got To Suffer (if you want to sing the blues)".

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: alanabit
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 04:32 AM

I should have thought Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" would fit the bill. He also mentions another blues singer in it, "My poor friend Willie Brown".

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 05:23 AM

What about Charlie Patton's High Sheriff blues, a song about his getting drunk and ending up in Belzoni jail.

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: GUEST,baz parkes
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 05:51 AM

I don'tknow if it counts but Dory Previn's She bought a stone for Bessy Smith about Janis Joplin is a fine song

And don't forget Bonzo Dog's Can Blue Men Sing the Whites...:-))

baz

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 07:51 AM

Leadbelly's Silver City Bound - about Blind Lemon Jefferson

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: Bainbo
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 08:19 AM

I immediately thought of Greg Brown - but he's not really blues, is he? His song Mose Allison Played Here is a great evocation about playing gigs in dingy, smelly, apathetic bars where the floors are sticky and the manager doesn't really want you there, but it's worth it because ... well, it's in the title.

Subject: RE: Blues songs talking about blues singers
From: mrdux
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 05:42 PM

FOLK SINGER'S BLUES
by Shel Silverstein

Well, I'd like to sing a song about the chain gang,
Whack!
And swingin' twelve-pound hammers all the day,
Whack!
And how I'd like to kill my captain,
Whack!
And how a black man works his life away.

    But -- what do you do, if you're young and white and Jewish,
    And you've never swung a hammer against the spike,
    And you've never called a "Water Boy," [IMITATES HOLLER]
    Early in the morning,
    And your only chain is the chain that's on your bike,
    oh, your only chain is the chain that's on your bike?

Well, now -- I'd like to go walkin' up the highway,
Feelin' cold and wet and hungry all night long.
Doin' some hard ramblin', and hard gamblin',
And hard smamblin', and hard blamblin',
But always takin' time to write a song.

    But -- what do you do, if you're young and white and Jewish,
    And you've never heard an old freight whistle blow,
    And you've never slept a night in a cold an empty boxcar,
    And you take the subway everywhere you go, oh, oh,
    You take the subway everywhere you go?

Now, I'd like to sing a song about the coal mine,
A-chippin' away in tunnel 22.
And when I hear that timber crack,
Why, I support it with my back,
Until my comrades all crawl safely through.

    But -- what do you do, if you're young and white and Jewish,
    And you've got to be in class at half past nine,
    And in spite of all your urgin',
    An' your pleadin', an' your cryin',
    Your mother says it's too dirty down in the mine,
    That's what she says,
    Your mother says it's too dirty down in the mine.

Well, now -- I'd like to sing about the Mississippi,
Workin' on the levee all the day.
And when them cotton balls get rotten,
You got a lot of rotten cotton,
And on Saturday, you go and spend your pay.

    But -- what do you do, if you're young and white and Jewish,
    And you've never loaded cotton on the dock,
    And you've never worked a day,
    And never drunk up all your pay,
    And the only levee you know is the Levi who lived on the block,
    Oh yes,
    The only levee you know is the Levi who lived on the block?