re:MG/Who/Zep/Blues etc.

[mleaman@sccoast.net (Mark Leaman)]

>Mark-who is this "we" that has decided what to recognize as the blues? Muddy,
>Son House, Robert Johnson, heck, even Buddy Guy worked and played on
>plantations.  My definition of the Blues is no more broad than your
>definition of Jazz or C&W.  When I started college I took a "History of Rock
>And Roll" course.  The instructor informed us that the blues was 12 bars
>long, and that lyrically the 2nd and 4th verses were identical to the 1st,
>while the 3rd verse was different.  Is this the form that "We recognize"?
> "We" are missing an awful lot if that is the case.  Muddy and Robert Johnson
>and all the other Delta Bluesmen rarely played any Blues that fit into this
>narrow formula.

Scotty:

I think by "plantation" music, the authors are talking about what was around
during the slavery period. Again, you're putting to broad a definition on
this. If my band played in a prison, would the music therefore be called
Prison Rock?
Who is the "we," you ask? We, and I'm not necessarily including myself in
this, are the people who don't call Hendrix a Bluesman even though he did
play some Blues and used a Blues form for most of his songs. We who attempt
to define something for what it is, rather than what it could be if changed
into another form.
We, I guess, denotes those who (at least from my reading) see the form of
Blues as it is thought of today as beginning with Ledbelly, Johnson, Blind
Lemon Jefferson, and so on.

>Regarding "Prehistoric Blues" by Thaag and the Sabre-Tooths, everyone knows
>that this is a total ripoff of the famous Neanderthal folk song "Darling,
>What's For Tea?"  

I don't know...I once heard a song called Alley Oop that may have been the
direct influence for Thaag. It's a hard area to pin down, since most of the
music of that time was preserved on crude little items known as Eight Track
Tapes.



                   Cheers                   ML

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."  L. Long