Frank
5062 posts
Aug 06, 2014
6:10 PM
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We all like to hear songs about our common goings on - "let the good times roll"... "good mornin little school girl" ..."sweet home chicago" and a million others in a similar vein.
But what about songs that are not all happy go lucky?
What blues tunes are there, that carry with them a message that is a very serious one!
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JInx
835 posts
Aug 06, 2014
6:22 PM
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Please warm my Weiner by Bo Cnoarter
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Komuso
375 posts
Aug 06, 2014
6:52 PM
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Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Your harmonica Mojo Dojo
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
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Goldbrick
591 posts
Aug 06, 2014
7:11 PM
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And MC5 doing a John Lee Hooker tune
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Aug 06, 2014 7:45 PM
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sydeman
114 posts
Aug 06, 2014
7:19 PM
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nacoran
7903 posts
Aug 06, 2014
7:32 PM
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See, here is an example where being grounded in the tradition would help. Those are exactly the sorts of songs that draw me to the blues, but I'm blanking on any titles. (Well, not entirely, but the first two that popped to mind were instrumentals that just sort of evoked that feeling...
(James Cotton 'Slow Blues', Blind Willie Johnson 'Dark Was the Night, Cold was the ground'.)
Okay, now the brain is warming up a bit...
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues (saw Chris Thomas King do this live)
Billie Holiday "Strange Fruit"
Joan Osborne- Pensacola
Leadbelly- Where did you sleep last night
More folk than blues, but here is Springsteen covering an old classic that you could probably get away with at a blues show.
More Leadbelly
Some music from the O Brother soundtrack-
House of the Rising Sun
It's rock, not blues, but John Cougar Ketchup Billy Bo Bob Franklin Lonshanks Mellencamp McChangemyname has some bluesy songs like Blood on the Plow. I could probably name a lot of blues rock bands with serious songs- Aerosmith, Tom Petty, etc.
I've got a couple I've written that I hope cover serious issues well, but I don't have good recordings finished on any of them. I did manage to rhyme 'old Catalina'(the car) with 'Kansas Sweet Verbena' (the flower) but I'm not likely to get that one recorded anytime soon because it's a duet and I can only sing my part when I've got a bit of a cold (a couple notes are particularly deep).
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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BronzeWailer
1376 posts
Aug 06, 2014
9:28 PM
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BronzeWailer's YouTube
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STME58
1019 posts
Aug 06, 2014
10:39 PM
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Sometimes songs express a common situation and can really help show you you are not alone in having gone through it.
Here is a list that really helped me in a tough situation,
Albert Collins, "Don't Mistake Kindness for Weakness"
Jimmy Rogers, "That's Alright"
Rocky Zharp, "Writings on the wall"
Paul Lamb, "Hey Woman"
Paul Lamb, "Why do you treat me so"
Lynnwood Slim, "I’m not your clown"
Jerry Portnoy, "You Rascal You"
I might not have gravitated to these songs had I not gotten into the situation sung about.
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Honkin On Bobo
1228 posts
Aug 07, 2014
7:12 AM
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Honkin On Bobo
1229 posts
Aug 07, 2014
8:02 AM
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JustFuya
377 posts
Aug 07, 2014
8:10 AM
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1847
2030 posts
Aug 07, 2014
8:27 AM
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check out pop's modern blues guitar parker fly
pretty serious message right here
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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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1847
2031 posts
Aug 07, 2014
8:28 AM
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he says, you may call me guss lol
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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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GamblersHand
523 posts
Aug 07, 2014
2:47 PM
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Pretty much everything I've heard from JB Lenoir
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JustFuya
382 posts
Aug 07, 2014
4:14 PM
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Recent threads bring this one to mind.
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Frank
5071 posts
Aug 07, 2014
5:29 PM
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Willie really sells this song :)
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Goldbrick
595 posts
Aug 07, 2014
5:53 PM
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Im an SRV fan and make no apologies- Y'all can pretend u like Jimmie better but he couldnt sing or play like little bro' . No slur on big bro he is a great band player but SRV was awesome
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1847
2041 posts
Aug 07, 2014
6:14 PM
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life by the drop......
sounds like it is in standard tuning.
i thought he always tuned down.
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Goldbrick
596 posts
Aug 07, 2014
6:24 PM
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Yep -its the rare song he did in standard.
I am guessing it had something to do with string tension on the guitar he used. I know my 12 string really only feels "right " in standard tuning whereas I tune my 6 string acoustics down to E flat or D
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Aug 07, 2014 6:26 PM
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1847
2042 posts
Aug 07, 2014
6:34 PM
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I am guessing it had something to do with string tension on the guitar he used
or maybe it was the first time he played sober?
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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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nacoran
7910 posts
Aug 07, 2014
9:13 PM
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I don't have the link handy, and off the top of my head I don't remember who it was, but there was a good one about Katrina someone posted a while back. Anyone else have the link?
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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nacoran
7911 posts
Aug 07, 2014
9:15 PM
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edit: At one point, for the Blow Your Brains Out contests we had a YouTube channel. I don't remember who ran it- Isaac or Tooka? It would be kind of cool for threads like this to put together playlists and links.
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
Last Edited by nacoran on Aug 07, 2014 9:17 PM
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STME58
1023 posts
Aug 07, 2014
9:35 PM
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The Lucille Bogan song is a great one to trot out to someone who says modern music has gotten too vulgar, we never used to have this kind of vulgarity in music!
I read that in the time period this was recorded, many musicians had a "Speakeasy" version of their songs and a cleaned up version for recording. Lucille recorded the Speakeasy version of "Shave em Dry" and gave us a bit of a taste of what one might have heard in the speakeasy. What I like about that recording is it sounds like she is having fun being a bit mischievous. I like to think the plan was to record the clean version but she did not go along with the plan.
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Loz123
32 posts
Aug 08, 2014
2:10 AM
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Little Walter / Boom, Boom Out Goes the Lights .
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Ted Burke
102 posts
Aug 08, 2014
7:06 AM
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Great thread. John Mayall had some things to say about the death of Hendrix, with help from Harvy Mandel and Sugarcane Harris,
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Frank
5076 posts
Aug 08, 2014
8:17 AM
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