IT AINT THE BLUES IF.......................

We've all heard this before. "It aint blues if its played by a white man/woman",
"It aint blues if it aint the pentatonic minor",
"It aint blues if the solo is overdubbed"!
Got any good ones to add to this?

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Permalink Reply by Jake Green on September 2, 2009 at 5:28am

I've heard a couple in my time.

"You can't play the blues in an airconditioned room" - note on the door of my local bluesbar. Luckily I found out its not true when I played in Thailand...

"If you can't play it with clean sound, go home and practise" - ban on effectpedals and any form of distorted sound at the jam back in the old days.

"If its more than 3 chords, its Jazz not blues."
"If its more than 3 chords, we don't want it here..."

"[insert roots blues forefather here] didn't need more than an old guitar and his voice. Why you need all this equipment?"

Narrowminded ideas, labels and boxes, and ideas of "right and wrong ways of playing music" are just silly. Its all music and its all related. If you wanna mix up blues and trancetechno, well go right ahead. You migth not get many people listening, but noone can tell you its wrong.

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Permalink Reply by PEDRO WYANT on September 2, 2009 at 3:58pm

good ones, Jake. I just remembered another; "It aint blues if its played with a full stomach"

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Permalink Reply by CHC Network on September 2, 2009 at 9:40am

We've already talked this matter to death, so I am going to state our arrived at consensus and then run:

"It ain't the Blues if played by an eight year old; it's a "circus act. ""

Is this how things were summed up?

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Permalink Reply by PEDRO WYANT on September 2, 2009 at 8:00pm

Hey Dave,
With all due respect, and I have previously stated my respect for you a devotee of keeping this art alive, I think you need to relax a little. The purpose of "this excercise" as you call it, is just to bring a bit of a chuckle to my fellow LBW members. The statement that "It aint blues if...(fill in the blank) is one of the silliest remarks one can make. Id like to hear from the others about some of the classic misconceptions that are stated with this remark, Id kinda like to collect them. I think that from what I have seen in the blogs on this page that its well agreed that the blues is really subjective, undefinable in the confines of a language.
I appreciate the articles you recommended and read all 3 pages. But you do lightly offend me by assuming that I didnt know the grist of these articles. Ive played this music since the early sixties and studied this subject in every detail that I can. Robert Johnson surely had no idea that his music would be dissected and analyzed by musicoligists decades after his death, he wanted to pay the rent, so to speak, and have some fun and make some cool music. Let me continue........

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Permalink Reply by PEDRO WYANT on September 2, 2009 at 8:18pm

Let me offer another of verse of the same song that you completely misinterpretted but, for my money, is relevant to what we are talking about.
Bessie, Blind Lemon, Howlin',
Albert and Mississippi Fred,
They way they talk about those names like they gotta a halo on their head(s),
You talk about Robert Johnson,
You ought not to genuflect,
Thats just another form of Jim Crow if it dont come with respect, hello satan......
Now, before you go off half cocked on this one too, let me explain. A lot of people think of these artists as some form of god, created by some sort of mythical force that made them create this music as a form of worship to the grand dioses of the great beyond. What I am TRYING to say with this is that somewhere along the line, the humanity of these artists has to be recognized. They were living for their time on not for the benefit of young hero worshippers of the future. The pedestal that these artists are put upon is deserved, but as creative human beings. This is something that I see, and this is just MY opinion Dave, nothing written in stone mind you, that a good part of blues worshippers are overlooking. In the same vein that young guitar gunslingers learn to play the pentatonic scale at mach 1 speed, declare themselves blues gods, without learning anything about whats behind the music, or what Chad Nordoff states as the "debt that is owed". The only thing more I can say to you Dave is RELAX and smell the flowers!

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Permalink Reply by PEDRO WYANT on September 3, 2009 at 7:27pm

I hope we can ignore this banter between meand Dave, and have some fun with this.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Zirins on September 3, 2009 at 2:17am

I've just recently had "It ain't the blues ...if its sung by a 17 year old girl, because she hasn't the life experience" I wonder how old RJ, HW et al were when they started writing and performing? Check her out and see just how much heart she plays with...www.myspace.com/lucyzirins

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Permalink Reply by PEDRO WYANT on September 7, 2009 at 5:05pm

Hey Ian,
I don't know why anyone would say that young Lucy isnt playin' blues. She shows a lot of musical maturity at such a young age, I dug it thoroughly, doesnt play a bad dobro, pretty decent I would say.