Blues Research: Problems and Possibilities

Author(s): Paul Oliver

Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 377-390
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/763686
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 BLUES RESEARCH: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES

PAUL OLIVER
W hen MuddyWatersdied in April, 1983, the blues lost one of its
most respected and influentialfigures. Born in 1915 he was by no
means a representativeof the earliest generationof blues singers. Others,
less well-known, who died in 1983 included Roosevelt Sykes, Big Joe
Williams, and Sam Chatmon;all of them were older, the last named being
born in 1899. Every issue of Blues Unlimited or Living Blues carries a
roster of obituariesas the links with the formativedecades of the blues are
being brokenby death.'
Blues is arguably the most significant form of folk music to have
emerged in this centuryand one which has exerteda profoundinfluence on
the sound of popular music in the past twenty years. Its history is much
older than that: older than the history of powered flight, with the first
examples being noted by folklorists when the Wright Brotherswere pre-
paring their flying machine. But though it has been collected since 1903,
published since 1912, and recorded since 1920 it was not the subject of
serious discussion until the late 1950s. One or two autobiographieshad
been published before this, and a few collections of songs which included
blues, but it was the appearanceof The CountryBlues by Samuel Charters
in 1959 and my own Blues Fell This Morning early the following year
which disengagedblues from its customaryacknowledgmentas a late branch
of black folk song, or as a tributaryto jazz, and distinguishedthe idiom as
a phenomenonto be studied in its own right.2
Since 1960 scores of books have been publishedon blues. They include
a couple of general histories surveying the evolution of the music over
seventy years and others of a more regional emphasis, which discuss blues
historyin the easternPiedmontor Mississippi, or in such cities as Memphis,
New Orleansand Chicago.3Some books examine the contentof blues lyrics
relating them to the milieu which produced the song form; others place
importanceon their poetic qualities or their relevance to the experience of
the singers.4 Sociological and ethnomusicological techniques have been
applied to blues and a couple of studies relate the music to the larger
'See for example, Living Blues No 57, (Chicago and Oxford, Mississippi, Autumn 1983); Blues Unlimited, No
144 (London, Spring 1983)
2SamuelCharters,The CountryBlues, (New York, 1959); Paul Oliver, Blues Fell This Morning(London, 1960).
3PaulOliver, The Story of the Blues (London 1969); Giles Oakley, The Devil's Music (London, 1976); Bruce
Bastin, Cryingfor the Carolines (London, 1970); RobertPalmer, Deep Blues (New York, 1982): Bengt Olsson, The
MemphisBlues and Jug Bands (London, 1970); John Broven, Walkingto New Orleans (Bexhill-on-Sea, 1974); Mike
Rowe, Chicago Breakdown(London, 1973).
4PaulOliver, Screening the Blues (London, 1968); HarryOster, Living CountryBlues, (Detroit, 1969); Samuel
Charters,The Poetry of the Blues (New York, 1963); Paul Garon, Blues and the Poetic Spirit (London, 1975)
377

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378 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

frameworkof black culture in the United States.5Collections include tran-

scribed interviews with blues singers and anthologiesof blues lyrics taken
down from recordings.6A numberof biographicalstudies have been pub-
lished, ranging from portraitsof Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey to mono-
graphson such ruralsingersas CharleyPatton,TommyJohnsonor somewhat
more urban performerslike Peetie Wheatstrawand Little Brother Mont-
gomery.7The enthusiast'sinsatiabledemandfor more informationon sing-
ers has been met by three biographical dictionaries, and the collector's
interestsby discographiesof recordingsfrom the 1920s to the 1960s.8 The
influence of blues on more sophisticatedforms of black song and on popular
music in general has been examined, while the exchange between black
and white performershas also been discussed and speculationson the re-
lationshipof blues to forms of African music have appearedin print.9
Augmenting these books have been the blues magazines, one, Blues
Unlimited, being published in Britain for over twenty years, and another
Living Blues, an American publication, for fourteen. Regular publication
of blues magazines in France, Germany,Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Finland,
even Australiaand Japan have maintaineda constant flow of information
based on interviews, reportingand analysis of phonographrecords.10There
is much more, but this summarymust be evidence enough of the volumi-
nous literatureon the subject which has proliferatedover the past twenty-
five years. It would be reasonableto question whetherthere is much more
that needs to be written;whetherthere are any areas remainingthat would
be fruitful to investigate or whetherthe blues is not alreadyoverburdened
with duplicationof effort and a plethoraof information.
On the face of it the literatureseems remarkablycomprehensiveand
the spread of themes commendablywide. But blues researchto date has
had its limitationsand a lack of any coordinationof researchenterprisehas
meantthatthere are considerablelacunaeeven in the areaswhich have been
most thoroughlyexamined, and anomaliesabound.As an instancewe might
consider the field of "discography," or the detailed documentationof is-
sued recordings in a given subject. It is generally recognized that blues

5JeffTodd Titon, Early DownhomeBlues (Urbana, 1977); David EvansBig Road Blues (Berkeley, 1982); LeRoi
Jones, Blues People, (New York, 1963); LawrenceW. Levine, Black Cultureand Black Consciousness (New York,
1977).
6Paul Oliver, Conversationwith the Blues (London 1965); Robert Neff & Anthony O'Connor, Blues (London,
1976); Eric Sackheim, The Blues Line (Tokyo, 1969); Jeff Todd Titon, DownhomeBlues Lyrics (Boston, 1981).
7ChrisAlbertson, Bessie (New York, 1972); SandraLieb, Mother of the Blues (Amherst, 1981); John Fahey,
Charley Patton (London, 1970); David Evans, TommyJohnson (London, 1971); Paul Garon, The Devil's Son-in-Law
(London, 1971); Karl Gert zur Heide, Deep South Piano (London, 1970); CharlesSawyer, The Arrival of B.B. King
(New York, 1980).
8SheldonHarris,Blues Who's Who (New Rochelle, 1979); Jean-ClaudeArnaudon,Dictionnairedu Blues (Paris,
1977); GerardHerzhaft,Encyclopediedu Blues (Lyons, 1979); R. M. W. Dixon and John Godrich,Blues and Gospel
Records 1902-1943 (3rd Edition, Chigwell, 1982); Mike Leadbitter& Neil Slaven, Blues Records, 1943-1966 (Lon-
don, 1968).
9CharlieGillett, The Sound of the City (New York, 1970); Michael Haralambos,Right On: From Blues to Soul
in Black America (London, 1972); Richard Middleton, Pop Music and the Blues (London, 1972); Tony Russell,
Blacks, Whites and Blues (London, 1970); Paul Oliver, Savannah Syncopators:African Retentions in the Blues
(London, 1970); Samuel Charters,The Roots of the Blues (New York, 1981).
'?An incomplete list of currentblues magazines includes Blues Forum(Berlin);Sydsian (Malmo);BN (Helsinki);
Block (Almelo); Il Blues (Milano); Jefferson (Vallentuna);Blues Life (Vienna);Juke (Tokyo) and Picking the Blues
(West Lothian).

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BLUESRESEARCH: PROBLEMSAND POSSIBILITIES 379

discographyhas set the standardby which other discographicalworks are

evaluated. The publication of Blues and Gospel Records 1902-1943 (3rd
Edition) by R.M.W. Dixon and John Godrich in 1983 established a new
bench-markfor the listing of record details, not only of issued items on
commercialrecordsbut also, with the help of John Cowley, the uncovering
of immense resourcesof field recordingsmade by the Libraryof Congress
and other institutions. The third edition surpassedthe previous editions in
many ways, but the second edition containeda valuable annotationof mi-
crogroove reissues which was omitted in the later one. The criteriafor the
inclusion or exclusion of specific items also shifted; the legend "despite
appearingin the ParamountRace series, these artists are of no blues in-
terest," or a similar one, continuedto appear, leaving the user to take on
trustthis interpretationof the quality of the items concerned.
When Blues and Gospel Records is compared with Leadbitterand
Slaven's Blues Records 1943-1966 the lack of comparablecriteriabecomes
evident. The formerwork also includedgospel and preachingrecords;these
were rigorouslyexcluded from the latter. True, it only claimed to deal with
"blues," but what this meantto the compilerswas narrowlydefined. Thus,
nearly nine pages were devoted to the detailed listing of Leadbelly (Huddie
Ledbetter)and his total pre-warrecordings,whereashis considerablepost-
war recordingswere whittled down to a score "thoughtto be of interestto
blues collectors" by Leadbitterand Slaven. Thoughthe latercompilershad
a far more difficultjob in listing post-WorldWarII records, of which many
hundredswere made by minorindependentcompaniesthatkept few, if any,
files, the disparitybetween the two works is marked. Nevertheless, while
Dixon and Godrich listed recordings comprehensively giving personnel,
instruments,matrixnumbers,alternatetakes, titles, release numbers,dates
and places of recording,and even the day of the week on which items were
recorded,they omittedto list composercredits. These figure on large num-
bers of blues records, as the label "numericals," or listing in sequence of
issues by such companies as Paramountor Columbia show. At one time
composer credits were consideredto be of no importance,or merely indi-
cations of claims for copyrightby artistmanagers;now however, it is clear
that they contain importantinformationon the transmissionof lyrics, and
theiromission from the discographiesis unfortunate.So too, is the indexing
of titles which would help considerablyin tracing influences or the popu-
larityof specific blues compositions.These dataare missing too, fromBlues
Records 1943-1966, a work which does include details of microgroove
reissues-but on Americanrecordlabels only. To blues enthusiasts,writers
and researchersthese books are indispensabletools, but they are not without
fault and they do not correlatewell.
Recordings provide access to the sounds of the blues over a span of
some sixty years and they have consequently played a significant part in
all writing on the subject. Throughthe analysis of their content it has been
possible to deduce the relationshipsbetween singers and musicians, or the
creative processes whereby blues are developed. Transcriptionsof lyric

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380 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

content have not only thrown light on the blues singers' milieu but some-
times on the details of the lives of the singers themselves-in some in-
stances, Bukka White or Mississippi John Hurtfor example, even leading
to the rediscovery of these artists. Discographicalinformationhas greatly
assisted this aspect of blues research, providingdetails on recordingloca-
tions which have given clues to the origins of blues singers or to the ex-
istence of local traditions, and establishing reference points which have
aided interviewersengaged in research.
Discographyhas been made possible by the arm-chairresearcherwho
uses his recordcollection as a startingpoint. The files of recordcompanies
have been invaluable when they have been located, but often such files
were destroyed, obliging discographersto piece togetherinformationfrom
label data, matrix numbersimpressed in record wax and the memories of
blues singers. Interviews with singers have been conducted by dozens of
collectors and the specialist magazinesoffer a readyvehicle for publication.
Over the years they have changed;reportedspeech was customaryin earlier
interviews, while verbatimtranscriptionsof every questionand reply, every
repetition or hesitation has become the norm from the mid-1970s. This
makes for greateraccuracyand the inclusion of names or places which may
seem irrelevant in themselves but which may lead eventually to further
clues of an historical or biographicalnature. Such interviews are only as
good as the questions asked. These revolve principally on details of the
singer's musical life and the filling in of discographicalinformation.Such
research, as data collection of this kind is considered to be, results in a
fairly tight loop of supportivedata, much conditioned by the knowledge
and the tastes of the interviewersthemselves. Apart from a very few stu-
dents engaged in thesis work in recent years, the majorityof those engaged
in blues documentationof either kind-discographical or biographical/his-
torical-are amateurs. It is a field to which few professional skills have
been brought, and the disregardof the subject for half a century by the
musicological, or for that matter, ethnomusicologicaland folkloristic es-
tablishments,has meant that blues researchhas remaineddeficient in many
respects. Were it not for the amateurs-using the termin the best and literal
sense-there would have been little researchat all; most have dippeddeeply
into their own pockets to finance the work, which is in the majority of
cases a spare time and vacation activity. If the shortcomingsin blues re-
search are to be met before it is too late for any reliable work to be con-
ducted, musicologists and folklorists may have to change their attitudes,
not to mention loosen their purse-strings.
Quite the most deficient area in blues researchto date has been mu-
sicological. Blues is sometimes published as sheet music but not for the
use of blues singers. Few blues singers can read music-in fact a great
many are illiterate and cannot even sign a contract. Though it is not as
improvised as has been sometimes assumed, blues is at least in part an
extemporemusic and it displays in all its forms qualities of pitch, tone and
timbre that are essential to its characterbut by no means easy to define.

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BLUES RESEARCH:PROBLEMSAND POSSIBILITIES 381

Attempts at music transcriptionfrom recordingsare usually compromises

at best, and most writerswho have attemptedto do so have had to qualify
their work with notationaldevices invented to convey these blues charac-
teristics.
Only three books have been published which take an essentially mu-
sicological approachto blues: John Fahey's study of CharleyPatton, Early
DownhomeBlues by Jeff Todd Titon, andBig Road Blues by David Evans.
Comparisonof the transcriptionsmade by the authorsshows discrepancies
in perceptions of pitch, metronome marking, time, note value and even
key, as well as differences in the mannerin which microtonalvariations,
slurs and "bends" are expressed. Pony Blues, recordedby CharleyPatton
in June, 1929 is transcribedby all three writersand comparisonreveals the
problemsthat they encountered.(See Examples 1, 2, and 3).

Examples 1-3. Comparativetranscriptionsof Pony Blues by Charley Patton, Paramount12792. Re-

corded June 14, 1929. Reissued on Yazoo L-1020.

Example 1. Transcribedby John Fahey in Charley Patton, p. 74.

E

Hitch up my po - ny sad-dieup my blackmare

A E

/, I_ L:
-Lw---l
__ifl I 1 -
Hitch up my po- ny sad-dieup my blackmare

3 E

p-!Jf
L'Lia m" I[ "
'I !-
rm gon-nafind a ri - der ba - by in the worldsome-where

Example 2. Transcribedby Jeff Todd Titon in Early DownhomeBlues, pp. 67-68.

Actual
KeyD J = 96 (initial),136(final)

=tS,w,.cn^^J lY ol Ij -
Hitch_up my po - ny saddl' up my_ black_mare_

Hitch_ up my po - ny saddl'up my black_ mare

l7g Ind__ ar-droh

~ a.~zLizTI_lJ
wodsm-er_____
b -byith
rm gon' find a ri -der ooh ba-by in the world some-where__

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382 THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

Example 3. Transcribed by David Evans in Big Road Blues, p. 147.

J =92 -126
e StanzaI []
J - L 0
voice -t 2 m-
j J II r1- 1- I IJ --1
- f: ~
4j L-JI 6

Hitchup my po-ny_ sad-dieup my blackmare

$
-1 I
,A ... I r. I. . .. F.
Guitar

e VV i 6 -

:?Jp. It- F jI-J1 ,''

Hitch up my po - ny sad-dle up my black mare-

I.! L F
,I,

^
=^?*O J t12- ''j^tr Lrr
rmgon-na find a ri - der

_A1
A^ I-Io
,p P"nj-j1j_j ii - 1

ba-by in the world some-where

Of the three David Evans was the most ambitious, also making a
transcriptionof Patton's own guitaraccompanimentto his singing. For the
listener to the record the relationshipof guitarand voice is essential to the
quality of the performance,Patton'suniquerhythmicsense and deceptively
difficult fingerwork giving additional value to the expressiveness of his
blues. But the timbre of his voice and the subtle changes of emphasis on
the syllables, the whine of the guitarstrings as they are slightly slid across
the frets or the off-beat tappingof the box as he plays, elude notation:the
transcriptionscapture little of the characterof the recording, though they
do help us in understandingits complexity.
Fahey's book was devoted to one singer-guitarist,whereasEvans' Big
Road Blues was concernedwith the processesof creativitywithina localized
traditioncentered on Crystal Springs, Mississippi, the importancein this
traditionof one singer, Tommy Johnson, and of a core theme, which pro-

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BLUES RESEARCH:PROBLEMSAND POSSIBILITIES 383

vided the title of the book, in shapingthattradition.Broaderin implication,

Titon's analysis of "downhome" blues was not tied to one artistor region,
but drew upon variousruralblues traditionsfor examples. However, though
the latter appearsto be more comprehensive, the book draws conclusions
from a sample of fewer than fifty titles, of which four were by Tommy
Johnson, three each by Blind Lemon Jeffersonand CharliePattonand five
other singers were representedby two titles each. The criteriafor the se-
lection are by no means clear, especially in view of the fact that a number
of singers quoted had only recorded a couple of titles. Whereas Evans
transcribedfrom both commercial recordings and field recordings, Titon
and Fahey used commercialissues only. This might seem to be a limitation,
as indeed it is in some respects, as the field work done by David Evans
reveals. Nevertheless, when all the singers representedin the books men-
tioned are broughttogetherthe total is surprisinglysmall.
From 1920, when the first "blues" recordingswere made, until 1942
when World War II and the Petrilloban on recordingbroughtan end to the
first two phases of commercialblues on disc, some 11,000 titles by about
800 artists had been issued. Since World War II the numbersin each cat-
egory could be doubled and still be an underestimateof the commercial
issues. In addition, many hundredsof singers were recordedafter 1933 by
collectors in the field. In spite of these numbersit seems that blues writers
have a restrictedlist of singers consideredworthy of serious examination,
of which the three works noted above make a narrowselection.
The figures above are drawn from the work of Ronald C. Foreman,
Dixon and Godrichand other discographers.1 Each has had to make some
decision on what constitutes "blues," with the anomalies already men-
tioned. But the problem is a real one. Dixon and Godrich include under
the term all titles by black vaudeville artists and jazz-blues singers whose
recordsappearedin the "Race" series marketedfor black purchasers.They
also included the recordingsof folk singers and songsters, or "pre-blues"
performersand occasional non-vocal piano or harmonicasoli. Some jug
bands were included;others were excluded but enteredin BrianRust's Jazz
Records. 2 'In general they included as "blues" those records that were
marketedunder that term in the 1920s and 1930s. Leadbitterand Slaven
did not have this problemas far as vaudevillesingers were concerned, since
performersof this type had long since disappeared.But theirpolicy towards
folk entertainerswas equivocal, while many of the vocal groups marketed
under the general name of "Rhythm and Blues" in the post-war years-
the Orioles, the Pelicans, and so on-were omitted. On the other hand,
zydeco performerslike Clifton Chenieror Boozoo Chavis were acceptable
in their definition. This uncertaintyof nomenclatureand criteria reflects
problemsin blues scholarshipas a whole; problemsthat are generally min-
imized by simply ignoring them.

"R.M.W. Dixon and John Godrich,Recordingthe Blues (London, 1970); RonaldC. ForemanJr, Jazz and Race
Records 1920-1932 (unpub. Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Illinois, 1968).
'2BrianRust, Jazz Records 1897-1942 (4th Edition, New Rochelle, 1978).

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384 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

Apart from the biographies of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey already

mentioned,DerrickStewart-Baxter'sMa Raineyand the Classic Blues Sing-
ers,'3 published in 1970 remains the only book on the women stage blues
artists. Necessarily brief within the format of a series, Stewart-Baxter's
sixty pages of text could scarcely do justice to the recordings of Viola
McCoy, Rosa Henderson, Alberta Hunter, Mamie Smith, Eva Taylor and
their contemporaries,many of whom have made literally hundredsof re-
corded titles. The natureof their songs, the relationshipof lyrics, perform-
ance styles, musical structure,publishedmusic and the blues have received
virtuallyno attention.Only the facts of their careershave been compiled-
in the pages of Record Research or in Sheldon Harris'Blues Who's Who;
Jean-ClaudeAraudon chose to exclude these singers altogetherfrom his
Dictionnaire du Blues.
If the problem of the "Classic blues" lies in the close connections
between the repertoiresof the singers and the published compositions of
the black professional stage, no such problem exists where the singers of
the 1930s are concerned. But as the two or three books already cited in-
dicate, there is a surprisingmeasureof agreementamong blues writers on
the small numberof singers who deserve critical attention:Patton, Tommy
Johnson, Son House figure prominently.Singers who recordedin the Thir-
ties have been, by comparison,grossly neglected. Peetie Wheatstrawis the
only singer to be the subjectof a study apartfrom the Mississippi guitarist,
Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson's short life (he was murderedin his early
twenties), his individual, though very manneredstyle of singing and play-
ing, his rathertorturedblues with their morbidsymbolism have made him
the embodiment of the blues, at least as white writers have pictured the
music. Though only one monographhas been publishedon him, two others
have fought each other for publication;in the meantimethe myth grows.14
By comparison with Big Bill Broonzy, Bumble Bee Slim or Tampa
Red, Robert Johnson's recordedoutput was quite meagre and made more
ample only by the number of alternate, but virtually identical, takes that
were issued of his blues. These singers, each of whom made over 150 titles,
have been given no seriouscriticalappraisal,andnor have LittleBill Gaither,
WalterDavis, Blind Boy Fuller or MemphisMinnie, each having recorded
more than a hundredtitles. While the importanceof the sheer volume of
issues can be overstated, the fact remains that these singers, along with
many othersonly a little less prolific, were extremelypopularin the period.
Their approachmarkedchanges in the blues which a combined socio-mu-
sicological study may explain. And too, there is a need for an examination
of the subject of the popularityof blues itself. Regrettably, much of the
evidence has been lost. Phonographrecordsof the period were easily dam-
aged and as every collector is well aware, could become heavily worn under
steel needles in wind-up phonographs.Still, thousandsof copies of Race

13DerrickStewart-Baxter,Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues Singers, (London, 1970)

14SamuelCharters,Robert Johnson (New York, 1973). Other books were planned by Mack McCormickand
Steve LaVere.

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BLUES RESEARCH:PROBLEMSAND POSSIBILITIES 385

records have survived to the present, and many collectors have found it
profitableto canvass black neighborhoodsfor them, seeking a rare item or
two among the more familiartitles. Their enthusiasm, if not rapacity, has
meantthatthe recordsnot consideredof sufficientinteresthave been rapidly
dispersed through deals and auctions and the opportunityto analyse the
relative balance of blues singers against jazz music or popular entertain-
ment, or against recordings of gospel song and sermons, has been sadly
missed.
Nevertheless, it should be perfectly possible for a black community,
which has escaped the attentionsof avid collectors in search of plunder, to
be identifiedand made the subjectof a researchproject. Fromthe surviving
records alone, much informationcould be obtainedas to the tastes of two
or more generations, as well as a better understandingof the context in
which they were purchasedand played, throughinterviews with members
of different age groups. Hardly anything is known, or at any rate, docu-
mented, on the quantities of records sold, their distributionpatterns, the
means by which they were made known to people in ruralareas;even for
what purposesthey were purchased.
This emphasis on records arises from their value as indicatorsof past
artists, styles, themes and traditions,but localised researchshould result in
a much clearer picture of the significance of blues within black culture,
whether in country or town. Blues research is, in practice, research into
the blues as a phenomenon, ratherthan researchinto the cultureof which
blues was a part. The natureof the interviewer'squestions and motivations
is bound to throw up replies that directly or indirectlyreflect them. But if
we are to understandhow importantblues was within black culture, or to
what extent it ousted other song or entertainmenttraditions,a more com-
prehensive approachis needed. My own researchover the past few years
has confirmedthe presence in the 1920s of a large repertoireof black song
from the ragtime era, and often from long before, within the Race record
lists generally categorized as blues. On the evidence of recordingsin the
1930s such song types were apparentlyextinct, yet field recordingsin the
1960s and even later, have revealed that many still survive in many rural
areas, particularlyin the Easterncoastal states. What does this tell us?-
that 1930s recordingswere promotedas a new music? That recordsdo not
accuratelyreflect currentsong types? Or that the most recent recordings
were throwbacksor of insignificant numbers, made apparentonly by the
interest of the biased collector? Only detailed research in the field will
provide the answer. And it will have to be soon, for the culture that pro-
duced the blues is fast disappearingand the teenagerswho bought the first
Okehs when they came out are now in their seventies.
As yet blues does not enjoy the benefit of an anthropologicalstudy
that places it within the context of folksay, belief systems, materialculture
or world view that for example, is providedby Henry Glassie in his local
study of Irish culture, Passing the Time in Ballymenone.15 Though its prose
15HenryGlassie, Passing the Time in Ballymenone(Philadelphia,1982).

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 386 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

is at times lush, it describes a way of life in which songs, tales, building

repairs or work on the land find their places in relation to one another.
Blues does not even enjoy the depiction of its place within other folklore
and custom as AlessandroFalassi has describedthe "fireside folklore" of
the Tuscan veglia.'6 But the processes of innovation, and particularlyof
group creativityand the role of the blues as a vehicle for expression within
a fairly tight-knit Mississippi Delta community has been documented in
both text and film by William Ferris. In Chicago, the younger, modem
singers on the route from blues to Soul, have been the subject of a socio-
logical work by Charles Keil, the main strengthof which is its account of
the relationshipof the star performeron stage to his audience.17Keil, as
long ago as 1966, appealedfor a multidisciplinarystudy lamenting,justi-
fiably enough, that "for the most part, however, musicologistsgo one way,
anthropologistsanother,and the critics continueto tell us what they do and
don't like." He presenteda "general formulationof the groundto be cov-
ered if we are to explain or understanda given musical style" identifying
as "kinds of explanation" the Syntactic, the Pragmaticand the Semantic,
the Kinesic and the Genetic.18There is little sign that anyone has taken up
his programmeof eighteen years ago.
Keil believed that in order to understand"urbanNegro culture" we
"had best view entertainersand hustlersas cultureheroes, integralpartsof
the whole, ratherthan as deviants and shadow figures."19But the role of
the blues singer, who was the subject of his book, seems to be both more
complex and more ambiguous. Blues singers are, or were, culture heroes
to some blacks, but to many they were "griefers" or ratherunstable, failed.
personalities, whose achievementsas recordingfigures or club entertainers
were appreciatedbut without their being necessarily respectedor regarded
as "heroes." Or at least, this was my conclusion when interviewing in
various contexts some years ago. But the investigation was exploratory
only, promptedby curiosity as to whetherthe ordinarymemberof the black
community perceived the blues, and the blues singer, as I did. Frankly, I
don't know, and I see no indicationthat the status of the blues singer and
the attitudesto him-or her-and his music are being scrutinized.
Similarquestions arise from the contentof the blues. Much of my own
work in the past has been concernedwith the subjectmatterof blues lyrics.
Most blues of the traditionalthree-line, twelve-barform are personalized;
it is a rare blues that does not have the singer as its central figure. Some
blues singers appear to have been more socially aware than others, and
their lyrics, often employing in-groupphrasingand terminologywhich re-
quires decoding, make observationson unemploymentand migration,per-
sonal tragediesand naturaldisasters,gambling,prostitutionandpettycrime,
broken affairs and personal relationships.The physical environmentrarely

'6AlessandroFalassi, Folklore by the Fireside (Austin, 1980).

'7WilliamFerris, Blues From the Delta (New York, 1978); CharlesKeil, UrbanBlues (Chicago, 1966).
18Keil,ibid. Appendix B. pp. 203-16.
'9Keil, ibid. p. 20.

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BLUES RESEARCH:PROBLEMSAND POSSIBILITIES 387

enters the blues except by the name of a city or street;there are few com-
ments on housing, hardly any on landscapeexcept in cliche terms, few on
animals except as sexual symbols. Much of the blues is expressed in sym-
bols and this applies to the strongvein of sexual aggressivenesswhich runs
throughthe idiom in all its phases.
To whatextent do the blues lyrics representthe values of the individual
singer and to what extent the values of the group, or the black community
as a whole? If one considers the blues singer as an articulateand creative
spokesmanor poet, who provides a voice for the workingclass black com-
munity, his songs may be expressive of the aspirationsof the many. But is
this a true reading?Is the self-centerednatureof the blues an outcome of
the introvertedcharacterof the blues singer, or is the voice of one the voice
of many? Answers to these questions are likely to be subjective and more
indicativeof the importancethatone ascribesto the blues, thanof informed
opinion. It is a subjecton which therehas been virtuallyno research,though
there are pointers in the large numbersof blues on social themes in the
1930s, and the few which are so concerned after the early 1950s, which
suggest that certain forces have determinedthem. But whether these are
political, or the result of social change, or matters of fashion or of the
influence of recordingexecutives is conjectural.
Influenceclearly plays a part, as David Evans has shown, and so does
the use of formulae. Titon, using the concepts of formulaic composition
advancedby Milman Party and Albert R. Lord, suggests that the half-line
is the basic unit for the formulaicconstructionof blues.20Michael Taft has
appliedtransformative-generative grammarto blues lyrics, Titon notes, but
the studyremainsunpublished;unfortunately,Titonhimself seems to adhere
to the view that blues are frequentlycomposed of "traditional"lyric frag-
ments, but the sources of such phrasesare unidentified.My own research
leads me to believe that many are derived from nineteenth-centurypopular
song-but the latter could have borrowedthe phrases from currentblack
usage.21It is a theme that demandsmore research.
In the past couple of years I have been discussing the binarynatureof
blues content and structureand have suggestedthat it is indicativeof binary
oppositionswithin black society, and between the black communityand the
white majority.22Obviously this teeters on the edge of structuralistargu-
ment and blues surely lends itself to the analysis of structureand meaning
that Roger deV. Renwick has appliedto English folk poetry and local song
in Yorkshire.23His methodbrings into focus precisely those motifs that are
normallyregardedas cliches and investigates their symbolic and structural
significance. Charles Keil's "general formulation"was expressed largely
in semiotic terms, though he did not explicitly advocate semiotic analysis.

20JeffTodd Titon, Early DownhomeBlues, Chapter5, pp 179-93.

21PaulOliver, Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditionson Race Records (Cambridge, 1984).
22PaulOliver, "Blues and the BinaryPrinciple," Popular Music Perspectives, Philip Tagg and David Horn, eds.
(Goteborg& Exeter, 1982) Paul Oliver, "Binarism, Blues and Black Culture," Popular Music 2, RichardMiddleton
and David Horn, eds. (Cambridge, 1982).
23RogerdeV. Renwick, English Folk Poetry (London, 1980)

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388 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

Taking a sample of about 150 English folksongs Renwick has examined

their content, exclusively concerned with sexual liaisons, using semiotic
techniques. His oppositional pairs and his identificationof some thirteen
precepts of the euphemistic codes employed in the songs, could provide a
basis for a semiotic enquiry into the structureand meaning of post-World
War II blues lyrics. Semiotics could also be valuable in the examinationof
musical style, as Keil inferred, but in spite of the currentinterest in the
semiotics of popular song (current, anyway, in a number of British uni-
versities), blues styles have not been subjectedto this kind of analysis as
far as I am aware.
Elements of style have been prominentin writing on blues with gen-
eralizations as to the stylistic features of Mississippi blues guitar, Texas
vocal lines or Chicago piano frequentlymade. Pete Welding's 1965 cate-
gorizationof "folk blues guitar,"24somewhatelaboratedby Keil, has not
been questioned in detail, or replaced by a more comprehensive model
which would accountfor the many singersand musicianswho do not readily
fit the description. Most essays into the problem of style are expressed in
subjective terms based on comparativelistening to records;the question of
blues style clearly demandsmusicological analysis and exposition.
In fact, the subjective method has led to many successes in the iden-
tification of the region from which some singers have come, promoting
inquiries that have helped to fill out blues history. But the romantic in-
volvement in the music which promptsenthusiasts,ratherthan scholars, to
undertakeblues research also results in bias. Mississippi attractsa steady
streamof enthusiasts, with parties underprofessorialguidance from as far
away as Germany,and any numberof individualspursuingtheirown quests;
Arkansasdoes not. Therehas been little researchdone in Alabama,virtually
nothing in Florida for over forty years. Border states like Kentucky and
Ohio have received little attention, even though Louisville and Cincinnati
have had long histories of black music. Blues and "Non-Blues" secular
music recordedby Kip Lornellin the late 1970s have shown how rich black
folk traditionswere in regions which have been disregardedhitherto.25
One advantageof blues researchin neglected areas is that the singers
themselves are unprepared;those who have done field work in localities
where previous studies have been made are soon aware that interviewees
quickly learnto provideanswersthat satisfy the curiosityof the interviewer.
Untrainedresearcherscan be easily misled this way. On the other hand,
trainedresearcherswith only an elementaryknowledge of blues artistsand
patterns, are likely to miss connections and attach undue importanceto
casual claims. Given knowledge and experience, researchin such untapped
regions can be rewarding if the focus is sufficiently concentrated.From
personal experience I am aware of the problems of casting the net too

24PeteWelding, "Stringin' the Blues: The Art of the Folk Blues. Guitar," Down Beat 32 (New York, 1965) pp
22-24, 56.
25KipLornell, Albumsand notes, VirginiaTraditions:Non-BluesSecularBlack Music, BRI Records001, Virginia
Traditions:WesternPiedmontBlues, BRI Records 003, 1980.

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BLUES RESEARCH:PROBLEMSAND POSSIBILITIES 389

widely: my joint research with Mack McCormickinto blues and related

traditionsin Texas buckled under the weight of material uncovered. At-
temptingto trace blues traditionsin so large an area, over so long a period,
and underlimitationsof personaltime and finance, meantthatit was almost
impossible to process the material. Computeraids, electronic information
retrievaland compilationon a word processor, all techniquesnot available
to us then, could make the work of similarresearchtoday much easier.
Whatis probablyneeded is a focused studyby a multidisciplinaryteam
which combines trainedobservers,ethnomusicologists,knowledgeableblues
enthusiastsand participantswith specific local experienceand contacts. For
a precedent, the Blue Ridge ParkwayProject, which was organizedby the
AmericanFolklife Centerwith the National ParkService in the summerof
1978 offers a kind of model.26A fifteen-personteam included folklorists,
workersfrom the National Park Service and photographers,and sound re-
cordings, video, photographyand drawingson site, apartfrom the custom-
ary field notes, were used in the two-monthprojectconductedin the Central
Blue Ridge. It would seem to me essential that any blues projecton similar
lines should include among the team black participantswith local knowl-
edge and contacts. Regrettably,there have been few black scholars in the
blues field, in spite of the obvious advantages- or because of them- of
culturecontact.
Generally, blues does not enjoy a particularlyhigh status in depart-
ments of musicology or ethnomusicology, and some students have com-
plained to me personally that they have been actively discouraged from
undertakingsuch work. Personal field work, the interviewing of singers
and musicians, the documentingof clubs and record companies, the com-
pilation of discographiesand biographicalworks of reference-these will
continue to be done by enthusiastsand amateurs,who have built up for-
midable bodies of informationover the past twenty-five years. Such data
will be all the more useful when a thoroughbibliographyof blues exists
(there have been a few attempts, but so far, nothing substantialin print).
But blues research of the kind that I have been discussing here, requires
appropriatetraining, musical ability, technical skills and desirably, multi-
disciplinaryapproaches.
As Visiting Professor in the Departmentof Anthropology,University
of California, Berkeley, in 1983 I taught a graduateseminarwith a small
groupof anthropologyand ethnomusicologystudentsfor the springquarter.
They came with little or no knowledge of blues, a problemwhich was met
by a few intensive sessions on the history, themes and forms of the music.
The circulatingof tapes, with a fairly randomset of examples, ensuredthat
each student in the group shared a basic reference of music from which
individual studies could develop. Out of the seminara numberof original
papers were produced. One student chose to test the applicabilityof Jeff
Todd Titon's "blues stanza families" to the randomselection of titles on

26Fordetails see CharlesK. Wolfe, notes to Childrenof the Heavenly King: Religious Expressionin the Central
Blue Ridge, Libraryof Congress AFC L69-L70, 1982.

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390 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

the group's tape. Another, makinguse of several reissue albums, examined

the recordings of Memphis Minnie, synchronically(1930), diachronically
(1929-c. 1954), and comparatively,using several recordingsof one theme,
BumbleBee. Assumptionsas to local blues style were questionedby another
student, who had the advantage of possessing perfect pitch; he chose to
examine "Memphis style" guitar duets. Still anotherconsideredthe rela-
tionship between blues and gospel singing techniques.27All the above-
mentioned papers merited furtherwork and one, at least, was eminently
publishablein the form presented.
In mentioningthem here, I am not so concernedwith their individual
merits as I am with the examples that they offer of the useful studies that
studentsof ethnomusicologyand anthropologycan produce, with relatively
little blues background.Substantialstridescould be made in blues research,
and of course, research in related fields, with a more solid groundingin
the subject, more time, and inducementsto submit the results for higher
degrees. That more experienced graduatescould advance studies in this
field considerably,seems self-evident. But the time is now. There are many
problems still confrontingblues research,but there are also rewardingpos-
sibilities. Soon however, the passing of the first two generationsof blues
singers will present an insuperableproblem;I only hope that the research
will be undertakenwhile it is still possible to pursueit.
OxfordPolytechnic, England

27PeggyDusenberry,The Tune Family Concept and the Blues; PamelaMyers, MemphisMinnie, Several Angles;
Ernest Rideout, Musical Styles in MemphisBlues; Pat Turner,Gospel and Blues: Two Idioms, One Voice, (unpubl.
quarterlypapers, Berkeley, 1983).

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