Posted on 08/22/2009 4:09:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
I wasn't alive in the 30's, but I'd be surprised if blues music was marketed directly to children, as is the case today.
should say, “as rap music is today.”
I wasn't alive in the 30's, but I'd be surprised if blues music was marketed directly to children, as is the case today.The blues (most of which was marketed as "race records" in the 1930s and up through about the early 1950s, by the way) was also a lot more subtle than what's going down today. The raunchiest bluesmen---and blueswomen, for that matter---were downright seminarians compared to today's rappers and metalheads.
I play blues on my weekly radio show, here in Las Vegas (either the hardcore blues, such as Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Big Bill Broonzy, Johnny Winter, Lowell Fulson, Mose Allison, Ray Charles, or Sonny Boy Williamson; or the jazzmen who didn't forget the blues, such as Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Milt Jackson and John Coltrane---whose "Bags & Trane" is my opening theme music, and whose "Blues Legacy" is my closing theme music, by the way---or Miles Davis), and the raunchiest blues lyric on any of my chosen selections would be tame today. (About the raunchiest blues lyric that's been played on my show thus far is "Spoonful"; I used the studio version by Cream two weeks ago; I also used Muddy Waters's merely suggestive "The Same Thing" last week. On my first show, in early July, I used Sonny Boy Williamson's original "Bring It On Home," the number Led Zeppelin nicked for the album-closing track of the same name on Led Zeppelin II.)
I should advise that I don't pick by lyrics, raunchy or otherwise, though I'm pretty careful not to get that far out into the bullpen; I pick because it's just a good piece of music, and I'd wanted to play "The Same Thing" on radio for a long time, anyway, I'm that big a fan of Muddy Waters.
If I wanted to, I could probably get away with playing the aforesaid Bessie Smith side (though I'd first play her impeccable "Sing Sing Prison Blues," once I can land the recording again, especially since she was backed by Fletcher Henderson at the piano with Louis Armstrong playing crisp cornet); or, Lil Johnson's "My Stove's In Good Condition"; or, Bo Carter's "My Pencil Won't Write No More (The Lead's All Gone)"; or, even, Hunter and Jenkins's "Meat Cuttin' Blues," and get away with it---because almost nobody now would catch on when actually hearing the music. (I have those and other such selections on a CD in Columbia/Legacy's Roots 'n' Blues series, Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts and Lollypops.) Any teenagers listening to my show would probably miss the double- and triple-entendres entirely. Rap and heavy mental music have probably stripped them of any sense of appreciating a good, subtle double- or triple-entendre.
Guns N Roses....
One of them is home schooled.Her Dad[My brother]raised her in a church.Rebellious teenagers run in the family.It’s a phase like what I went through.[I hope].
I still remember “Whisperin’ Bill” Anderson who was supposed to be a devoted Christian but used to stand up tall, slim and handsome and sing a song of which I only remember one little bit;
Who do I have to lie to
So I can lie with you
Then there was Tanya Tucker who hit the scene singing;
Will you lay with me
in a field of stone
I think she was fifteen or less at the time.
“People have forgotten in the seventies and eighties, the music industry substituted the word “love” for the F word...”
Right you are sir. I wish I could say I didn’t know what the lyrics were, but I did. If I couldn’t understand them I would go to the store to get the lyrics sheet. And it had a direct affect on my behavior. Whether it be rebellion or otherwise....this stuff ‘pollutes and infects’.
Metal does not usually deal with the topics of love or sex, that removes a large portion of the double entendres.
Metal does not usually deal with the topics of love or sex, that removes a large portion of the double entendres.A lot of it doesn't, but a lot of it does.
Ahh, yes.....it's coming back to me now...."The Lemon Song". And remember Aerosmith's "Big 10 Inch"? And Foghat's "Slow Ride"?
Yep.......and to think we look at that as good times. See the blindsiding and brainwashing started during our (I’m assuming you are around my age) childhoods. My Family was one of the first to be divorced (lived in a tiny town) which caused my mom and I to be ‘ripped’ from home and then onward to the big public school system in a big city. It was like night and day (we still had God in our school in the tiny town). What I was exposed to at age 13 was something reserved for 30 somethings.
Anyway.......not to get off on a jag..I had many, many, what we would consider good times. Now.......I see it for what it was..a huge planted distraction for the youth. Keeping us distracted with music, sex, drugs and rock & roll. But I had just enough of the ‘old’ system in me that it took root after I reached my late teens. Now, the teens, they’ve never been exposed to goodness, mercy or God and are full of hatred and completely souless (for the most part). People you are dooming your children if you send them to Public school. Look for the alternatives available.
You forgot the Manson killings....a clear reminder of what was manifesting right before the nations eyes
I guess we just controlled the input more closely. They were not exposed to MTV, etc. It worked.
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