12-bar 'Blues' 1908-1914

Subject: RE: 12-bar 'Blues' 1908-1914
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 04:17 AM

Add to the list

"New York Tango Blues" Spiller (if we accept that intro as the first four bars of a twelve-bar progression)
"Ft. Worth Blues" Bowman (there's a copyright from '14)

Subject: RE: 12-bar 'Blues' 1908-1914
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 07 Apr 17 - 04:07 AM

White called it "Negro Blues" when he copyrighted it in 1912.

Subject: RE: 12-bar 'Blues' 1908-1914
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Apr 17 - 01:31 AM

I assume the one you call "Negro Blues" by White was actually this one:

Nigger Blues by Leroy "Lasses" White, 1913. (Click for sheet music at University of Alabama.)

Subject: RE: 12-bar 'Blues' 1908-1914
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 26 Mar 17 - 06:17 AM

Oh, add to the list

"Blues" House and Patterson

Subject: 12-bar 'Blues' 1908-1914
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 26 Mar 17 - 05:40 AM

These may be the only tunes with "Blues" in the title as copyrighted or published during 1908-1914 that include the 12-bar blues progression:

"1913 Medley Blues" Valentine
"Baby Seals Blues" Seals
"Colorado Blues" Bowman
"Dallas Blues" Wand
"Florida Blues" Phillips
"I Got The Blues" Maggio
"Jogo Blues" Handy
"Kansas City Blues" Bowman
"Memphis Blues" Handy and Norton
"Negro Blues" White
"Original Blues" Barron
"St. Louis Blues" Handy

Only two of the above have AAB lyrics, "Negro Blues" and "St. Louis Blues." There are also AAB lyrics in the "Railroad Blues" that Will Thomas quoted in a 1912 article (without providing music).

I don't think I've ever seen or heard "I've Got The Weary Blues And Don't Know What To Do" by Johnnie Anderson and Jesse Smith, 1914.