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From: Public Defender
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 12:13:40 -0700
Subject: Them Blues

It has always seemed to me that a blues song is a work of art
written to be performed in the venacular. Just as many plays or other
works of performance art. Just as there are no sixteenth century
english actors currently performing in theatres near you there are few
black blues artists born in the Mississippi delta before 1930 performing
in your local club. Yet both the plays and the music are performed.
They are interpreted by the artists bringing their own talent and style
to the task. If it is otherwise then the music will not and should not
endure. It becomes important only as a culturally interesting artifact.

An example from a perhaps overplayed but none-the-less fine
old fave of this listener:

One and one is two - two and two is four
Listen here baby - don't you want to go ...

The word four does not rhyme with the word go except in the
venacular. How will the white female urban player who chooses to
perform this song sing that verse? It's up to the performer -but it
seems to me legitimate to choose to say "foe" instead of "four" and
leave it to the listener to criticize. One could choose to "adapt"
the work - such as:
Three and four is seven - seven is a prime
If you choose not to come along dear
That will be fine.
A modern adaptation attuned to modern thinking.
Me, I'll take mine somewhere closer to the original.
I mean when Roy Rodgers (chops not chaps),one of the skinniest
performers I've seen, sings "Built for Comfort" on his new
album (featuring Charlie Musselwhite on harp) its tasty even
if he's not built for comfort.

Bill Tufts