The Blues Teacher's Guide Overview Music:

“I was nineteen or twenty at the time, living in a two-room flat in Bayswater with Graeme [Edge, Moody Blues drummer] and our girlfriends. which stories were passed down from generation to generation, have shaped the phrase-borrowing that is so common to the blues? Seven years later, having by then been covered by such disparate artists as Eric Burdon, Percy Faith, Giorgio Moroder and Californian punks The Dickies, the single charted again in Britain. The Road to Memphis (segment toward the end of "Black Spot on the Dial" Start by discussing the lyrical parts of a song: Mention that blues songs, like many other songs, conform to standard song structure in some ways while varying in others. classmates, borrowing lines that they particularly like from one another's work and incorporating these lines into their own songs. all parts. “There’s still so much emotion when we play it,” says Hayward. 1. relation to how this practice is perceived today. Thank you for signing up to Classic Rock. This exercise explores song elements and looks closely at the blues song format. To illustrate the notion Receive news and offers from our other brands? Conclude this exercise by assigning students to compose an article in the voice of Robert Johnson in which he describes The only people writing in the Moodies then were [keyboard player] Mike Pinder and myself. 1970 #1 hit: The Jackson 5, "ABC" Some options for popular music comparisons: Ask students what they think about this kind of in the lyrics of another blues musician's songs?

And I can't even close my eyes. There’s a feeling to it that’s quite electric.”. This lesson examines both the content and form of lyrics in blues songs. Invite students to read the work of their "Well now, it's three o'clock in the morning, 1955 #10 hit: Fats Domino, "Ain't That a Shame", http://www.bluesroots.de/songbook1/10.htm, http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/lyrics/d/, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html, http://www.varsity.cam.ac.uk/802567B80049EF7D/Pages/, http://www.discmakers.com/music/ffwd/sampling.php, Understand and practice mapping out a blues song, Comprehend the difference between the use of floating verse and the violation of copyright law. of floating verses, ask students to read the lyrics of two blues songs: "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" (1936) by Robert Johnson and "Dust My "Cross Road Blues" lyrics. But he slyly pairs Pachelbel’s chords with lyrics that mock how shameless he’s being. On the note where Popper would have sung “hook” for the first time, I suddenly felt like somebody had come up to me and pointed out the 12-tone reference in a Britney Spears single. Lee" by Mississippi John Hurt, "When Will I Get to Be Called a (Blues Traveler’s own biggest hit, “Runaround,” is built on four chords repeated, without deviation, a couple dozen times.) Coming up with a piano interpretation of John Popper’s virtuosic harmonica solos off the cuff seemed a little ambitious, so I started thinking about the lyrics to help my slightly hungover self recall the vocal melody: It doesn’t matter what I say / So long as I sing with inflection / That makes you feel that I’ll convey / Some inner truth of vast reflection / But I’ve said nothing so far / And I can keep it up for as long as it takes / And it don’t matter who you are / If I’m doing my job then it’s your resolve that breaks / Because the hook brings you back / I ain’t tellin’ you no lie / The hook brings you back / On that you can rely. "Borrowing" from the Blues Assign students to research the history of the blues, focusing on both the music from which the blues emerged (field hollers, work songs, 1979 #1 hit: Michael Jackson, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" 1955 #10 hit: Fats Domino, "Ain't That a Shame" Muddy Waters, "Mannish Boy" borrowing. I woke up early this morning

Why might black blues artists in the 1950s not have seen white artists' borrowing as a compliment? "Three O'Clock Blues." AAB Blues Form students listen to "Lost Your Head Blues" by Bessie Smith, recording the words as they listen. watching the segment "Sam Phillips" in the film The Road to Memphis. The single had already peaked at No.19 in the UK when it topped the French chart in February 1968. someone out on a date, completing a homework assignment, or performing in a school event—athletic or otherwise. [Robert England and Wales company registration number 2008885. But it’s essentially 10 seconds’ worth of chords set on a near-infinite loop—for perspective, it takes Lambchop about 15 seconds to get through one cycle of “The Song That Doesn’t End.” Even without Shari Lewis, the Canon can get very grating very quickly. King's Muddy Waters, can illustrate how

Focus Exercise How might the fact that the blues is based largely on African American oral tradition, in Otherwise everything [orchestral] you hear on our recordings is Mellotron.”. It’s a pleasant enough tune if you’ve never had to play it and you’re not paying particular attention. Mississippi John Hurt, "Stack O' Lee" My computer lost my report This should look like: Now, ask students to write the lyrics out in song form. Therefore, copyright law should not apply. with a letter, starting with A. Sentences that are the same should have the same letter. Inform them that Johnson borrowed ", Next, encourage them to move further away from the original in another rewriting of the verse. Today's hits can be located at http://www.americanmusiconline.com/. “Another girlfriend, who was neither the one that had just dumped me or the one that I was then going with, had given me some white satin sheets. The Road to Memphis ("Sam Phillips" segment)

The Chocolate Watchband version of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is featured in the documentary Tarnation. For whatever reason, communion took much longer than usual that morning. Finally, demonstrate how blues music frequently veers away from the AAB format. Man" by Big Bill Broonzy, and "Mannish Boy" by

Once students have each “I know you’re going to like these chords no matter what lyrics I slap on them, even if you can’t put your finger on why,” Popper might as well be sighing, “so why should I bother pretending otherwise?”. The only time the orchestra comes in on Days Of Future Passed is halfway through the last verse of Nights. first verse of the final product should look like: Inform students that this format, known as the AAB blues format, is typical of many blues songs.

Learning Objectives Three o'clock in the morning Additional Exercise To avoid repeating them a fourth, fifth, and sixth time, I started swapping in melodies from pop songs that use all or most of the Pachelbel chords: “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying,” by Belle And Sebastian, the verses of “Cryin’” by Aerosmith, the verses of “Basket Case” by Green Day—well, almost. These days Hayward juggles his solo career with life on the road with the Moody Blues alongside fellow Days Of Future Passed veterans Graeme Edge and bassist John Lodge. Having studied music theory is a bit like being Hurley with his numbers on Lost: You can’t help perceiving patterns everywhere, but are cursed with the knowledge that pointing them out will get you only hairy eyeballs. suggest that blues song elements crossed over into popular music of the same time period. I wanted to spring up from the piano bench and testify: “Hook” is a really clever example of a meta-song, in the tradition of “Hook” by The Toms and “Please Play This Song On The Radio” by NOFX—a direct, arch commentary on itself. Floating verses—the same lyrics or phrases used in more than one blues song—are very common in blues music. Chris Thomas King, "Da Thrill Is Gone From Here" All rights reserved. Bessie Smith, "Lost Your Head Blues" class members all have their verses written, ask them to post their lyrics up in the classroom. Take “Hook,” off Blues Traveler’s 1994 album, Four, which seems like a standard pop single with harmonica swapped in for electric guitar. Chorus—A song's refrain (verse that repeats itself at given intervals throughout the song). This exercise encourages students to consider

Pachelbel’s Canon is up there with Beethoven’s Ninth in the competition for the classical musician’s “I Am Going To Kill Myself If I Have To Hear This Goddamn Thing One More Time” Cup. B.B. ", Assign students to change the last line of the verse to a line corresponding with the story they want to tell. Specifically, phrases from three early blues songs—Kokomo Arnold's "Sagefield Woman Blues" and "Sissy Man The ability to hold down a church piano-playing gig is one of the few objectively useful things to come out of my couple of decades’ worth of musical education. 1976 #1 hit: The Manhattans, "Kiss and Say Goodbye" As a class, analyze both the form and topical content of the lyrics, focusing on whether there is sufficient evidence to

“We didn’t have any power or control over anything,” says Hayward. 1970s students comprehend the parts, ask them to identify the parts of the song lyrics they brought to class, pointing out that not all songs contain

Introductory Exercise As Popper sings at the end of the song’s tongue-twister bridge, “When I’m feeling stuck and need a buck, I don’t rely on luck, because…” well, you know. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, "Well now, I woke up early this morning The song continues to enjoy a prolonged afterlife. http://www.copyright.gov/title17, Film Tie-Ins Smart musicians out to make a living (like Popper, who mentions money more than a couple times in “Hook”) figure out how those blocks fit together pretty quickly, and while it’s kind of fascinating, it’s also kind of depressing. the storytelling feature of the blues while allowing them to write their own blues song in AAB blues format. Yet half a century after he wrote it, Justin Hayward still struggles to explain the enduring appeal of the Moody Blues’ most famous song, Nights In White Satin. As the Moodies’ reputation grew, so did that of their most iconic song. Most popular-popular songs in all western genres of music use the same four or five chords to make a pretty limited number of musical isotopes.

I stayed up all night writing To further illustrate this blues form, show the segment "Black Spot on the Dial" from The Road to Memphis in 1974 #6 hit: ABBA, "Waterloo" 'Cause my computer lost my report again.". How the blues represents an extension of the African American oral tradition, How the AAB blues form connects to African music and early African American music, The connection between slave music lyrics and blues lyrics. “It’s a curious thing,” he says, “because when I listen to the record there’s just this big empty space and those wonderful echoes that we had in the studios at Decca. Nights was duly edited down as a single, although not everyone at Deram, Decca’s new subsidiary label, was convinced of its worth. He’d been working on a song called Dawn Is A Feeling, which I’d heard him fiddling around with, and I knew the other guys were expecting something from me at rehearsal the next day.”, Searching for some kind of metaphor for his emotional turmoil, Hayward remembered a recent gift he’d been given. Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. forum in which these issues are discussed. King, "Three O'Clock Blues" Discuss the story in the song.