Defining the Blues

Defining the Blues

The definition of the blues is a very personal definition, but I agree most with how Leadbelly told Alan Lomax, that "blues is a state of being." I agree most with this statement largely because it encompasses the other two options given in the essay prompt. Blues "as a way of understanding life", as August Wilson defines through Ma Rainey, is just a single part of the blues as a state of being. When Angela Davis claims that Ma and Bessie "articulated a collective experience of freedom", I see this as Ma and Bessie's experience, not the blues as the whole. It still holds true that both are in a state of being that is the blues, however.

Men and women who were part of the blues explosion were living well before they were close to a recording studio, let alone on multiple successful records. That acknowledged, one can gather that those men and women started in a blues state of being. I believe that the blues state of being can only be found, in purist form, in the right environment. Robert Johnson was traveling from plantation to plantation, in circles to lay low from whites, though most whites didn't care too much. This traveling, mimics what a one might call a mini-tour today, got their names out and helped with their reputation, which in return brought around a crowd to hear a man or woman pour their soul out and into the air. All this traveling had to have helped with the right environment for the blues state of being to be developed. Especially since you have like minded people coming together for one broad topic in life called the blues. (Reader, pg.101)

When one reads Muddy Water's lyrics to "Country Blues", the lyrics are very telling as to what his state of being is. "I'm leavin' this mornin' if I have to, to ride the blinds. I'm feelin' mistreated, and I don't mind dyin'." This is most definitely a blues state of being. Also, Palmer goes on to mention that Muddy "could have gone on and on", which is proof that his state of being is primarily that of blues.

When a person's year is comprised of lots of work for very minimal pay, that person more than likely is living in a state of being that provides and produces a blues hue, and some express these feelings and thoughts in a song form, some in writing, some in dancing, but it is all still a "blues state of being". Looking at the rough and tumble conditions that the first blues player came up living in, should be taken into account. Life expectancy was much lower, especially in the delta as a black. When a loved one passes, there are feelings that simply can't be expressed by speaking, so a person might put their words into a bluesy son form. Palmer also mentions how Muddy Waters, when arriving in Chicago, described it as "the fastest place in the world". (Reader