FA 4312: Analyzing Blues Songs and Their Influence - Spring 2019

This essay explores the evolution of blues music and its profound impact on American culture, particularly its influence on the development of rock and roll and soul music. Drawing from Robert Palmer's analysis in "Deep Blues," the study highlights how blues music, originating from the Mississippi Delta, served as an authentic expression of the social discrimination faced by African Americans. The paper further examines how themes of love, sex, and racial disparity were treated in blues-influenced songs like Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman" and rock-n-roll tracks like "Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On." It concludes that these songs, while rooted in blues traditions, played a significant role in challenging societal norms and conservatism.

Running Head: ANALYSIS OF THE SONGS OF BLUES
ANALYSIS OF THE SONGS OF BLUES
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author Note

1ANALYSIS OF THE SONGS OF BLUES
America witnessed the birth of a new genre of music that sings the agony of the slavery of
African Americans in 19th century. The objective of this study is to throw light on the impact
and evolution of blues with reference to the Robert Palmer’s analysis of the influence of
blues in his book “Deep Blues”. This paper also focuses on the treatment of soul and rock-n-
roll music to the issues of racial discrimination as well as love and sex.
In the book “Deep Blues”, Robert Palmer depicted how blues generated its
influence to the world. The blues music originated from the Mississippi Delta. The honest
and poignant lyrics and the simple tone of music, authentic and raw expression of emotion
easily depicted the image of the social discrimination of African American. Thus blues justice
to its central theme helped it to gain popularity all over the world.
Palmer identified the key features of the blues, which can be attributed to the birth of
rock-n-roll music in the early 1960s. These are- instrumentation, emphasis on sound, rhythm,
manipulation of the notes, purpose, amplification of the instruments, simultaneous usage of
Drums, guitars and vocals. in the Blues music (Palmer, Robert). On the other hand the
urbanisation and commercialisation of the blue music in 1960s gave birth to the soul music of
blues.
Several soul songs reflect blues treatment to the theme of love relationship and sex.
One of them is -“I Got a Woman” by Ray Charles. This song tells the story of a man who
falls in love with a kind, tender woman. The song relates the theme of sacred love with
spirituality, this reflected in the lines-“She is there to love me/Both day and night/Never
grumble or fuses/Always treats me right/Never running in the street/Leaving me alone”. The
phrase “…love me/…both day and night” also refers to the sexual relationship between the
lovers (Palmer, Robert).

2ANALYSIS OF THE SONGS OF BLUES
During late 1960s and 70s, some of the rock-n-roll blues songs have chosen love and
sex as their central theme. The song “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On” is one of them. love
and sexual relationship between man and woman is evident in the lines-“Come on over baby,
I got the bull by the horns,/we ain’t fakin, a whole lot a shakin’ goin’ on. (Palmer, Robert).
This song has introduced the liberal attitude of the generation towards love, relationship and
sex without love.
The assimilation of rock-n-roll music with blues music happened during late 1960s
(Palmer, Robert). This new form of music contains some common features of rock-n-roll and
blues music- expression of raw emotion through lyrics, creation of protest music representing
the distress of the victims of the social justice.
According to Palmer, the“black” and “white” versions of the songs like “Hound
Dog,” contains lyrics that says-“Yeah they said you was high-classed/Well, that was just a
lie/Well, you ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine.” This line is
indicative of the class conflicts occurred due to the racial disparity and slavery of African
Americans. Both the songs “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On,” and “Tutti Fruiti” fall in the
rock-n roll category. Both of them emphasized on the features of rock-n-roll as well as Blues
music which are-distinctive bet, rhythm, power, gospel (Palmer, Robert).
Palmer states, the contrast is prominent in the fact that white singers like Elvis Presley
sang songs that showed how the tortured and enraged African American denied the slavery.
Those songs depicted that the oppressed African Americans did not demand respect or
friendship from the white Americans. They denied being friends with the higher class. They
used to consider them poor in terms of capability and mean in terms of mentality (Palmer,
Robert).

3ANALYSIS OF THE SONGS OF BLUES
Hence, in the conclusion, it can be stated that, all the rock-n-roll Blues songs and soul
songs aimed to break the shell of conservatism.

4ANALYSIS OF THE SONGS OF BLUES
References
Palmer, Robert. "Deep blues: A musical and cultural history, from the Mississippi Delta to
Chicago’s South Side to the world." (1981).