Delta Blues Songs (11.10.11) Week 12

“Corrina, Corinnnaa, where’d you stay last night?

Corina, Corina, where’d you stay last night? Your shoes aint buttoned, girl, don’t you fit right?....

Delta blues? Chicago blues? Blues music? This week we focused on the Delta blues, featuring Skip James and Robert Johnson. Delta style is so expressive and unique because it links to the voice of the musician and the expressive playing on the guitar. We talked about the differences between front porch (country style) vs. performance (studio) blues music…..could songs be a combination of both?

O the versions of “Careless Love”:

Max Hutchinson, Max Hunter, Blind Man Fuller, Odetta, Janice Joplin

Which one did I like most? I liked Janice Joplin’s version.

Odetta was really interesting; the way she sang “careless Love” seemed so personal. The young Janice Joplin’s version seemed more edgy, as if her experience with careless love was more regrettable, and truly “broke that heart of hers.”

Bob Dylan is just a genius. His songs are like poetry at its best and come up with great lines: “going where the closet suits my clothes.” I think it is appropriate to say that listening to Bob Dylan and his smooth guitar playing needs a Kant Emmanuel quote: “You can’t tell someone it’s beautiful. Hold it up and say ‘yes.”

We looked at a number of art work from Crumb, Guston, Rembrandt, and George Bellows. I personally liked the expressive sketch that Rembrandt made of the man bent over his desk: it looked like the drawing had a lot of energy surrounding it.

Who is this Legba figure that we looked at? If it is the source of blues music and lyrics, then why have I never seen it before? Is it a god or creation from the people?

Skip James singing “Worried Blues,” was surrounded by a group of people (his friends? Workers from the studio he was recording in?) and really dug his fingers into his guitar, feeling the beat and rhythm through his feet and body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhrqBOSazzA

I watched Skip James sing “Crow Jane.” The lyrics were pretty dark, but the video is interesting to watch Skip James’ movement and gestures with the guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytVww5r4Nk0

CROW JANE

1967: “Crow Jane, Crow Jane, don’t hold your head too high,

Someday baby, you know you got to die,

you got to lay down and you got to die, you got to

You know I want to buy me a pistol,

Want me 40 rounds of ball,

Shoot crow Jane just to see her fall,

She got to fall, she got to

And I went to dig her a grave, with a silver spade,

I aint going to let nobody take her place,

No you can’t take her….”

I also listened to his “Devil Got my Woman.”

I'd rather be the devil, to be that woman man
I'd rather be the devil, to be that woman man
Aw, nothin' but the devil, changed my baby's mind
Was nothin' but the devil, changed my baby's mind
I laid down last night, laid down last night
I laid down last night, tried to take my rest
My mind got to ramblin', like a wild geese
From the west, from the west
The woman I love, woman that I loved
Woman I loved, took her from my best friend
But he got lucky, stoled her back again
But he got lucky, stoled her back again”

Furry Lewis plays the guitar very differently is his video singing “When I lay my Burden down”. Its like he is possessed by the song and his guitar….he is acting out the lyrics of the song, as his soul is on “fire”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCqbKdnHZTs

I LOVED “Drop Down Mama-Sleepy” by John Estes.