Obligatory wandering blues lines

Subject: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: mousethief
Date: 30 Jun 10 - 11:21 PM

If you were going to write a blues song that contains nothing but lines found in multiple blues songs, what would those lines be?

My suggestions to start out:

• Woke up this morning, saw the blues walkin' like a man
• Sun's gonna shine in my backdoor someday

What else should we add?

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: GUEST,The Pom
Date: 01 Jul 10 - 03:40 AM

Mah mamma she dun left me
Please baby please come home

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 01 Jul 10 - 04:19 AM

Squeeze by lemon till the juice runs down my leg

Rock Me baby, one more time

Wonder if a match box hold my clothes

Asked for water she gave me gasoline

and so forth

RtS

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Jul 10 - 11:14 AM

I've got a woman mean as she can be.

One of my favorites: If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: Joe_F
Date: 01 Jul 10 - 04:16 PM

Been down so long, it feels like up to me.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: mrdux
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 01:30 AM

Drink muddy water and/or sleep in a hollow log.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: PoppaGator
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 02:58 PM

Blues ain't nuthin' but a good man feelin bad.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 06:40 PM

Here I am in Memphis, sitting in jail.
Ain't got nobody, for to go my bail.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 08:19 PM

These worried blues have got the best of me
Nobody gets the blues like me.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: Bobert
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 08:44 PM

Well, I'm not too sure exactly what "obligatory" means here but my guess is that it ain't a compliment to the blues...

How about a thread "Obligatory Shanty Sing Lines" or "Obligatory Folk Song Lines"??? I mean, I think the entire idea that the blues is this monolithic form of music is downright insulting to both current and deceased blues players...

Nuthin' "Obligatory" to it any more than any other genre of music...

B~ (bluesman)

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 09:20 PM

I was just going with the flow of the thread. I didn't know what
obligatory means either, but I wasn't trying to be offensive to the
blues. I sing real blues songs, too. But, none with the lyrics mentioned above. I was just going with the flow.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: frogprince
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 10:09 PM

Bobert, bro, didja get up on the wrong side of the bed? There are "floater" lines that turn up all over in the blues, just like in other "strains" of folky stuff; nobody said that they thought the blues was "this monolithic form of music", except me when I suggested that title "There's Only One Shade of Blues".

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: fat B****rd
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 04:16 AM

"I shake my head and slowly walk away"

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 12:06 PM

Don't know about obligatory but some of my favourites are


He left out here dis mo'nin didn carry nothin but his hat

I got da worse kinda gin house blues

You got a bad habit daddy of talkin in yo sleep

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: mousethief
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 12:14 PM

Bobert, if you were an efficient stalker you'd know that most of what I have to say (intelligently) about music on the 'cat is about Blues because that's the form I know best. I love folk music when I hear it, but am a total nebbish about its history, roots, etc. It's the blues that hits me where I live.

In other words, I love love love the blues and am not attacking it in any way, shape, or form.

But can't we be a little silly once in a while? I think it's fun that there are so many lines that show up in so many different blues songs. I was thinking it would be fun to write a blues song that has nothing but lines that show up in (say) 3 or more blues songs. Just because you can.

It really is "the folk process" writ large, with thick black letters. The Blues (the old stuff, the stuff that really passed around via a folk process) is the ultimate democratic (small-d) music.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 03:06 PM

mousethief... right there with you, only my affinity is only recently discovered.

Now I got the too much music and not enough time blues.

Subject: RE: Obligatory wandering blues lines
From: Smokey.
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 03:14 PM

"Gin done took ma momma,
Gin done took my dad.
Gin done split ma vision,
Now things look twice as bad."

(Moonshine Mills)