They Got The Blues
A Plagiaristic Poem Of Blues Singers Names, Songs And A Playlist
Introduction
I was listening to an album on the roots of Jimi Hendrix and the first song on was "Killing Floor" by Howlin' Wolf. Then I thought that Blues singers often had such excellent alternate names. Mckinley Morganfield became Muddy Waters although is real name was something special too.
Then I thought this could be a brilliant plagiaristic poem, using the artist's name and a song they sang.
Then I could follow it with a playlist.
They Got The Blues
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Howlin' Wolf Was Down On The Killing Floor
Muddy Waters Was Just A Mannish Boy
Lightnin' Hopkins Said Baby Please Don't Go
Black Ace said I Am The Black Ace, Enjoy
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Captain Beefheart Was a Hard Workin' Man
Lead Belly Asked Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Blind Lemon Jefferson Sang Black Snake Moan
Howlin' Wolf Saw Trains Gush Smokestack Lightning
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Bumble Bee Slim Fattenin' Frogs For Snakes
Pink Anderson Sang I Got A Woman
Floyd Council Runaway Man Blues, It Shakes
Washboard Sam Says Yes I Got Your Woman
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Shakey Jake Harris, An Angry Lover
Tail Dragger Jones You Can Go, It's Over
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The Blues They Got
Howlin' Wolf - "Killing Floor"
Chester Arthur Burnett
Muddy Waters - "Mannish Boy"
McKinley Morganfield
Lightnin' Hopkins - "Baby Please Don't Go"
Samuel John Hopkins
Black Ace - "I Am The Black Ace"
Babe Kyro Lemon Turner
Captain Beefheart - "Hard Workin' Man"
The rhythm on this was provided by a car body printing press.
Don Van Vliet
Leadbelly - "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"
Huddie William Ledbetter
Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Black Snake Moan"
Lemon Henry Jefferson
Howlin' Wolf - "Smokestack Lightning"
This is a favourite riff of mine and I love the story of how he came up with the title.
Wolf said the song was inspired by watching trains in the night: "We used to sit out in the country and see the trains go by, watch the sparks come out of the smokestack. That was smokestack lightning."
Bumble Bee Slim - "Fattenin' Frogs For Snakes"
Admirl Amos Easton
Pink Anderson - "I Got A Woman"
Pinkney Anderson
Floyd Council - "Runaway Man Blues"
The reason I included Pink Anderson and Floyd Council is that Syd Barret used their forenames to come up with the name "Pink Floyd"
Syd Barrett, of the English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, created the band's name by juxtaposing the first names of Council and South Carolina bluesman Pink Anderson, having noticed the names in the liner notes of a 1962 album by Blind Boy Fuller (Philips BBL-7512), written by the blues historian Paul Oliver: "Curley Weaver and Fred McMullen, ... Pink Anderson or Floyd Councilβthese were a few amongst the many blues singers that were to be heard in the rolling hills of the Piedmont, or meandering with the streams through the wooded valleys."
Washboard Sam - "Yes I Got Your Woman"
Robert Clifford Brown
Shakey Jake Harris - "Angry Lover"
James D. Harris
Tail Dragger Jones - "You Gotta Go"
James Yancey Jones
The Plagiaristic Poetry Concept
Essentially this is where you take a lot of existing related worlds and put them together in a poem. The "Plagiaristic" part is a jokey play on the concept of plagiarism which is unacceptable. But here I am taking something that already exists and making something new.
Every word that you use in everything that you write has already been used somewhere else, so does that make us all plagiarists? It doesn't, unless those words stretch into sentences, paragraphs and complete stories.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading and listening, this was meant to be a short piece but it turned out to be a fourteen song playlist as well.
I hope you enjoyed it
About the Creator
Mike Singleton π Mikeydred
A Weaver of Tales and Poetry
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Comments (6)
Great idea mike and your knowledge of music never cease to amaze me.
What a fun idea! I love this dive into the blues. Thanks for sharing your playlist with us.
Great idea! Blending blues history with creative expression and music.
Love the Blues for the really make you feel better. Loved the list, the poem and the songs and I knew most of them. Good job and again Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Very interesting Blues playlist here! I must admit I not a Blues fan, but some of these have a good beat to them. Thanks for sharing!
My favourite genre! Muddy Waters is my pick.