How To Sing The Blues

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Mr Pig

New Member
HOW TO SING THE BLUES

1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning."

2. " I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, 'less you stick
something nasty in the next line, like " I got a good woman, with the
meanest face in town."

3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then
find something that rhymes ... sort of: "Got a good woman - with the meanest
face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher - and she weigh 500 pound."

4. The Blues are not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a
ditch; ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars: Chevys and Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't
travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation
is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft an' state-sponsored
motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the
blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing
the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric
chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in
Canada. Hard times in St. Paul or Tucson is just depression. Chicago, St.
Louis, and Kansas City still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot
have the blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male
pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cuz you skiing is not the blues.
Breaking your leg cuz an alligator be chomping on it is.

9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is
wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places for the Blues:
a. highway
b. jailhouse
c. empty house
Bad places:
a. first-class restaurants
b. gallery openings
c. Ivy League institutions
d. golf courses

11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen
to be an old ethnic person, and you slept in it.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?
Yes, if:
a. you're older than dirt
b. you're broke
c. you shot a man in Memphis
d. you're blind
No, if:
a. you have all your teeth
b. the man in Memphis survived.
c. you have a retirement plan or trust fund.
d. you were once blind but now can see

13. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods
cannot sing the blues. Gary Coleman could. Ugly white people also got a leg
up on the blues.

14. If you ask for water and Baby give you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other
acceptable Blues beverages are muddy water and black coffee.

15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death.
Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is
the electric chair, substance abuse, and dying lonely on a broken down cot.
You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or getting
liposuction.

16. Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling

17. Some Blues names for men:
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie

18. Persons with names like Sierra, Sequoia, Auburn, and Rainbow can't sing
the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

19. Make your own Blues name (starter kit):
name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
middle name: choose a fruit (lemon, etc)
last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
For example, Blind Lime Jefferson, or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc.
(Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")

20. I don't care how tragic your life: you own a computer, you cannot sing
the blues. You best destroy it. Fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or get
out a shotgun. Maybe your big woman just done sat on it. I don't care.


 

threefingerjoe

Über Member
I didn't know you Brits listened to da Blues! ;-)
 

Wolf04

New Member
Location
Wallsend on Tyne
threefingerjoe said:
I didn't know you Brits listened to da Blues! ;-)

Oh yes, when we aren't squeezing our lemons.
Of course the theory that Canadians can't play the blues is plainly wrong!
The late great
(Blind) Jeff Healey!!!
 

betty swollocks

large member
Well, I woke up this morning
an' read this post
Drank a cuppa cawffee
an' ate ma burnt toast.

Love Syphilis Banana Clinton.
XX
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
Did you hear the one about the 90 year old blues singer who was blind, deaf and afflicted with a stomach ulcer? His most significant song began:

I woke up this morning,
And I was surprised.
 

Wolf04

New Member
Location
Wallsend on Tyne
Woke up this morning
This thread is useless without


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5721G5GbDVY
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
BigonaBianchi said:
I should play more blooze I reckon.only I keep drifting off into warp speed mode.

Yeees, Jimmy Page has been a terrible influence on a lot of impressionable youths. You should be kept back after school and made to listen to more Rory.
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
Rhythm Thief said:
Not really blues, is it? More sort of awful MoR hackneyed cliched every - old - trick - in - the - book nonsense. Yes, he's blind and he plays the thing on his lap, but he doesn't exactly do anything innovative in the noise he makes.
Sorry, I can't stand that stuff.:biggrin:

Agreed. I remember getting his first album having heard one blues track on the radio and giving it away in disgust. I would put him in the same bag as that other Canadian MoR bloke, the one who did Summer Of 69 (name escapes at the moment). Brian somebody or other.
 
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