1. The Blues

2. Listen Here Blues
Sweet girls, sweet girls, Listen here to me. All you sweet girls, Listen here to me: Gin an' whiskey Kin make you lose yo' 'ginity.
I used to be a good chile, Lawd, in Sunday School. Used to be a good chile,— Always in Sunday School, Till these licker-headed rounders Made me everybody's fool.

3. Wild wild young men like to have a good time Wild wild young men like to have a good time Wild wild boyfriends like to lose their minds Wild men dig me, but I love a cool one Wild men dig me, but I love a cool one To go home to, but I've had my fun Wild men hoop and holler and yell oh-wee Wild men hoop and holler and yell oh-wee! They can scream and break down, but they don't kill me

4. Origins
Descended from call-and-response work songs sung by freed slaves after the Civil War
They were a release of tension
Unlike the work songs or spirituals, the blues are solo songs.
They are full of irony, humor, earthy imagery, and commentary on daily life and love.

5. Musically Basic form is simple:
12 bars consisting of three lines of four measures each.
Each line of the lyric takes up about 2.5 measures with the rest of the line filled with improvisation.
Not major or minor, but in “blue mode.”

6. What else?
"The Blues...have a strict rhyme pattern: one long line repeated and a third line to rhyme with the first two. Sometimes the second line...is slightly changed and sometimes...it is omitted."

7. Background on Robert Johnson
Play Johnson’s Crossroads

8. Crossroads Blues
I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees Asked the lord above "Have mercy, save poor Bob, if you please “
Mmmmm, standin' at the crossroad, I tried to flag a ride Standin' at the crossroad, I tried to flag a ride Didn't nobody seem to know me, everybody pass me by

9. Mmmm, the sun goin' down, boy, dark gon' catch me here Oooo, eeee, boy, dark gon' catch me here I haven't got no lovin' sweet woman that love and feel my care
You can run, you can run, tell my friend-boy Willie Brown You can run, tell my friend-boy Willie Brown Lord I'm standin' at the crossroad, babe, I believe I'm sinkin' down

10. The Blues in Poetry When I was home de Sunshine seemed like gold.
Since I come up North de
Whole damn world's turned cold.
I was a good boy,
Never done no wrong.
Yes, I was a good boy,
Never done no wrong,
But this world is weary
An' de road is hard an' long.

11. Con’t
I fell in love with A gal I thought was kind. Fell in love with She made me lose ma money An' almost lose ma mind. Weary, weary, Weary early in de morn. Early, early in de morn. I's so weary I wish I'd never been born.

12. Langston Hughes Poetry
The Weary Blues. Imagine yourself in a club, listening to the music. Langston Hughes poetry imitates the way that the blues lyrics are written.
Listen

13. 2 Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, 3 I heard a Negro play.
1. Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
2          Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
3              I heard a Negro play.
4          Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
5          By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
6              He did a lazy sway ....
7              He did a lazy sway ....
8          To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
9          With his ebony hands on each ivory key
10        He made that poor piano moan with melody.
11            O Blues!
12        Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
13        He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
14            Sweet Blues!
15        Coming from a black man's soul.
16            O Blues!

14. 17 In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
18        I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--
19            "Ain't got nobody in all this world,
20            Ain't got nobody but ma self.
21             I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
22             And put ma troubles on the shelf."
2       Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
     He played a few chords then he sang some more--
25            "I got the Weary Blues
26            And I can't be satisfied.
27            Got the Weary Blues
28            And can't be satisfied--
29            I ain't happy no mo'
30            And I wish that I had died."
31        And far into the night he crooned that tune.
32        The stars went out and so did the moon.
33        The singer stopped playing and went to bed
34        While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.

15. Now- write your own! 4 stanzas
As a blues writer, remember the following:
Use repetition of words and whole phrases
Use dialect and slang expressions
Try not to sound completely hopeless
Don’t lose your sense of humor
End of the lines all rhyme
The Blues usually consist of a three line verse and the first and second lines are repeated.
MUST BE 4 STANZAS

16. Possible titles “I Got the Sunday Night Blues”
“My Girlfriend (or Boyfriend) Done Left Me Blues”
“I Got the D- Blues”
“The Nagging Parents Blues”
“Lost the Big Game Blues”
“I Got too Much Homework Blues”
“I didn’t do my Research Paper Blues”