The Blues

• Mississippi Delta Blues tradition

• WC Handy

The Blues

•Bessie Smith’s autobiographical confession

• sensitive interpretation and broad phrasing

• perfect intonation and blue-note inflections

• wide, expressive range

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out

By Bessie Smith

• bottle neck slide technique

• 12 bar structure and I IV V chords

• lyrics have double entendres

Come on In My KitchenBy Robert Johnson

• slide

• striking to keep the beat

• accenting beat 2 or half off beat

• "I got up this morning..." clichéd text

Walkin’ BluesBy Robert Johnson

• most famous and influential songs

• more chord changes

• strumming

• car = woman = sexual metaphor?

Terraplane BluesBy Robert Johnson

• small band, electric guitar, and harmonica

• small amplifier distorts sound; sometimes smooth, sometimes raucous

• Muddy’s voice slides up and down notes like the slide guitar

• very sexual

I Got My Mojo WorkingBy Muddy Waters

• originally by Howlin’ Wolf

• covered by many including: The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Animals, The Grateful Dead, and George Thorgood

• the rhyming scheme is mostly abandoned

• consequently, the lyrics are often re-worked

Smokestack LightningBy Muddy Waters

• boogie woogie guitar style

• up-tempo shuffle rhythm

• electric guitar

• classic Chicago style blues

One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer

By John Lee Hooker

• recurring riff

• groove on a single rhythm

• declamatory style of singing

• strong bass support

• imitation

• traditional symbols (train, woman, another man)

Smokestack LightningBy The Yardbirds

• Eric Clapton singing; best vocalist of the group

• the band sounds young and tentative

• slavish but earnest imitation of traditional blues

• Clapton’s guitar hints at the instrumental aggressiveness/virtuosity to come

• beginning of “psychedelic blues”

CrossroadsBy Cream