Blues for beginners...

Subject: Blues for beginners...
From: Zorro
Date: 08 Jan 99 - 09:48 AM

This came from our local Folk Music Society newsletter:

Hi my friend, Brian, I thought you might enjoy this. It came out of our Houston Folklore & Music Society newsletter:

1. Most blues begin "woke up this morning>" 2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line. "I got a good woman - with the meanest dog in town..." 3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes, sort of Got a good woman with the meanest dog in town. He got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and he weights 500 pounds. 4. The blues are not about limitless choice. 5. Blues cars are Chevies and Cadillacs. Other acceptable blues transporetation is Greyhouse bus, or a southbound train. Walking plays a major part in the blues lifesytle. So does fixin' to die. 6. Teen agers can't sing the blues. Adults sing the blues. Blues adulthood means old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis. 7. You can have the blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont or North Dakota are just a depression. Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City are still the best places to have the blues. 8. The following colors do not belong in the blues: Viloet, beige, mauve. 9. You can't have the blues in an office or a shopping mall - the lighting is all wrong. 10. Good places for the blues: The highway, the jailhouse, the empty bed. . Bad places for the blues: Ashrams, gallery openings, week end in the hamptons. 11. No one will believe it's the blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man. 12. Do you have the right to sing the blues? Yes: if: Your first name is a southern state like Georgia. You're blind. You shot a man in memphis. You can't be satisfied. No, if: You were once blind but now can see. You are deaf. You have a trust fund. 13. Neither Julio Iglesias nor Barbra Streisand can sing the blues. 14. If you ask for water and Baby gives you gasoline, it's the blues. Other blues beverages are: Wine, Irish Whiskey, Muddy water. Blues beverages are not: Any mixed drink, any wine kosher for Passover. 15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, or being denied treatment in an emergency room. It is not a blues death, if you die during a liposuction treatment. 16. Some blues names for women: Sadie; Big Mama; Bessie. 17. Some blues names for men: Joe; Willie; Little Willie; Lightning. (Persons with names like Sierra or Sequoia will not be permitted to sing the blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis. ) 17B: Other blues names (starter kit) Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Asthmatic) First name (see above) or name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi) Last name of President: Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)

*No discriminations intended, physical, race or otherwise. I just wrote it like it was written.

Subject: RE: Blues for beginners...
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 08 Jan 99 - 10:01 AM

I hate to be indelicate, but on this side of the Pond (the right-hand side, that is), no-one would admit to being called "Little Willie". However, having a little willie puts you firmly (whoops, no pun intended!) in the Personal Problems camp, and is a good Blues subject, but probably only for a woman. Cf from the Scottish Tradition (not technically a Blues song).

Steve

Subject: RE: Blues for beginners...
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 08 Jan 99 - 10:02 AM

Sorry, for "curage" read "courage" - I washed my hands this morning and now I can't do a thing with them!

Steve

Subject: RE: Blues for beginners...
From: Roger The Zimmer
Date: 08 Jan 99 - 10:37 AM

Re: 17B Thanks for the idea! Of course, that's where I've been going wrong- I should have sung under a better pseudonym , from now on it's Deaf Lime Clinton rather than Whimpering Gerbil or Mal Canto (and the Malcontents) On second thoughts...

Subject: RE: Blues for beginners...
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 08 Jan 99 - 08:05 PM

Zorro,

The blues for beginner hints showed up in a songwriting thread a few months ago. CLICK HERE and go down to Bseed's post. He credits it as HOW TO SING THE BLUES (attributed to Memphis Earline Gray, with help from Uncle Plunky).

Thought it sounded familiar.

Roger in Baltimore