BLUES CATEGORIZATIONS:

BLUES CATEGORIZATIONS:

What exactly is blues? The common myths about blues music are as follows:

1. It is a sad music.
2. It is just sung by blacks before 1954 and only adopted by whites in the rock ‘n’ roll era.

Such myths are obviously very wrong - as many blues songs are dance related songs and are definitely not sad. Other blues songs are suggestive (double entendre). There are many sad songs in the blues genre - but a song does not have to be sad to be a blues.

Blues was originated in the 19th century by African-Americans and owed a lot to the folk tradition of Africa, combined with Dutch, German, French, English, Spanish, Russian, Irish and Scottish folk music elements.

The first people to record it were both black and white people. Among the earliest blues singers were Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Jimmie Rodgers and Blind Lemon Jefferson. The white blues of the time was referred to as Hillbilly or Country music, while the black blues was called simply blues. This was the only distinction among blues at this time - later, there would be a multitude of blues categories, which will be explained later.

Many people think that blues was first sung by whites in the rock ‘n’ roll era. This is totally false; Jimmie Rodgers was there at the start, and while he is often viewed as just a country artist, he was every bit as much a bluesman. There was back then virtually no difference between the blues and country genres. Rodgers’ many authentic blues include the 13 "Blue yodels", "Travelling blues", "Never no more blues" (later revised by Ray Charles as "Hit the road, Jack"), "My good girl’s gone", "Carolina sunshine girl", "T.B Blues" and "Whippin’ that old T.B". Jimmie died of T.B in 1933.

After Rodgers and before the rock ‘n’ roll era, many whites carved out a career in the blues. Jimmie Rodgers became a huge influence on the direction of both black and white singers from the 1930s on. The white bluesmen that followed in Rodgers’ footsteps include Bill Monroe (whose blues-country hybrid became bluegrass music), Moon Mullican (the first pianist in country music), The Delmore Brothers, The Shelton Brothers, Jimmie Davis, Gene Autry, Hank Williams, Chuck Miller, Bob Wills (who created his version of uptown bluegrass, which later was called Western Swing) and Hank Snow. Even purer country guys like Ernest Tubb and Eddie Arnold started out in the hillbilly blues field of music. Merrill E. Moore, although not really a bluesman, developed on Moon Mullican’s piano style to form his version of boogie woogie and Western Swing.

Jerry Lee Lewis is arguably the only true bluesman of the rock ‘n’ roll era. Unlike all the other rockers, Lewis’ foundations owed little to mainstream pop and owed very much to both black and white blues. His idols included Jimmie Rodgers and Moon Mullican, and like them, he was destined to bring the blues and country genres together (since Hank Williams’ death, country music had gone more towards the pop music scene than the blues).

On such tracks as "Hello hello baby", "Big legged woman", "Hit the road Jack", "Milk cow blues", "No headstone on my grave", "Blues like midnight" and "Got you on my mind", you will see Lewis’ unique version of Southern blues. Overall, Lewis is much more a bluesman than a rocker - but he was around at the time of the rock ‘n’ roll revolution and, unlike many of his contemporaries, he played the true blues: not a watered down version of the blues.

After the rock ‘n’ roll era, came the "British invasion". R&B had become popular in the UK and many British guitarists developed their versions of the blues. These are often thought to be the first white bluesmen - but they certainly were not.

The black blues scene meanwhile developed and progressed. Many black bluesmen like Big Joe Turner and Lowell Fulson benefitted from the rock ‘n’ roll era and found their songs were recorded by many rockers. After the rock ‘n’ roll era, most black R&B artists - notably Ray Charles and James Brown - concentrated on soul music, a blend of gospel and blues.






The following is a discussion on the various blues types and what they exactly are:

DELTA BLUES - the earliest form of the blues came from the Mississippi Delta. This was a very rural form of the blues and normally was guitar orientated. Its main era of operation was 1920 - 1940 and it is seldom revived in its pure form. Some later performers, like Jerry Lee Lewis or Muddy Waters, included the style in their repertoire.

EXAMPLES: Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Son House, Charlie Patton.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Big legged woman", "Rambling on my mind", "Milk cow blues"

CLASSIC BLUES - this was a more refined, commercial version of the blues. It was normally sung by women and it proved a very popular music in the 1920s and 1930s. Very few people sing it today. Bessie Smith was its main exponent. The style greatly influenced swing music and singers like Frank Sinatra were heavily influenced by this type of music.
EXAMPLES: Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "I get the blues when it rains", "St. Louis blues", "Alexander’s ragtime band", "Careless love", "C.C Rider".

JAZZ - jazz music was very similar to the classic blues in its early days. Like the classic blues, it was a brass-driven music. A lot of jazz was, unlike the blues, instrtumental. Jazz incorporated ragtime and boogie woogie - but these are really now genres of their own.
EXAMPLES: Louis Armstrong.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Beale street blues", "Basin Street blues".

RAGTIME - piano based black folk music. This later was translated as a guitar based music by many bluesmen.
EXAMPLES: Scott Joplin.

BOOGIE WOOGIE - a wild piano based blues. This genre spawned sub-genres like boogie, hillbilly boogie, country boogie and rock ‘n’ roll piano.
EXAMPLES: Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Axel Zwingenberger.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Roll em Pete", instrumental versions of blues standards.

BOOGIE BLUES - latterday boogie woogie has just been called boogie blues and it is more vocal in nature. Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino are its main hitmakers.
EXAMPLES: Jerry Lee Lewis, Moon Mullican, Merrill Moore, Fats Domino, Piano Red, Jack Dupree.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Rockin’ with Red", "Drinkin’ wine spodee odee", "The Fat man", "Lewis boogie", "Pipeliner blues".

RHYTHM & BLUES - closely related to boogie blues, Rhythm & Blues (R&B) became popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Big Joe Turner, Lowell Fulson, T-Bone Walker and various others popularised it in the 1940s. this form of music gave way to rock ‘n’ roll and soul, later. In style, this music was far more urban & upbeat than other forms of blues.
EXAMPLES: Lowell Fulson, B.B King, Big Joe Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Good rockin’ tonight", "Drinkin’ wine spodee odee", "Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on", "Shake rattle and roll".

JUMP BLUES - a very close relative to R&B, this music was popularised by Louis Jordan in the 1930s and 1940s. Other exponents included Wynonie Harris and Roy Brown. It was basically a hybrid between big band jazz and traditional blues. Overall, this is almost exactly the same as R&B.
EXAMPLES: Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Saturday night fish fry", "Caledonia", "Let the good times roll".

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL - to all intents and purposes, this is the modern name for the blues. However, the term also refers to pop based singers, but originally rock ‘n’ roll was a term used to describe either fast blues or blues based country music. Rock ‘n’ roll took the world by storm between 1954 and 1958. Bill Haley was basically a watered down version of the Jump blues genre - but other rockers were even bluesier than their role models (especially Jerry Lee Lewis).
EXAMPLES: Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Chuck Miller, Gene Vincent.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Great balls of fire", "Rock around the clock", "High school confidential", "Say Mama", "Johnny B. Goode", "Blue suede shoes", "Hound dog", "Breathless".

SOUL - from the 1950s on, more and more blacks saw potential in creating a hybrid out of gospel and blues music forms. Many church singers went secular by using gospel fervour in their blues. Ray Charles and James Brown were its main pioneers. Other singers from earlier blues genres crossed over into soul. These included Jerry Lee, B.B King and Lowell Fulson.
EXAMPLES: James Brown, Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lowell Fulson.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Please please please", "Hit the road Jack", "It’s a hang-up baby", "Tramp", "Think", "Just dropped in", "Higher and higher".

BLACK POP MUSIC - in the rock ‘n’ roll era, more and more bluesmen were creating careers for themselves in the pop scene. They compromised a lot but still they remained black in sound. Doowop was one major offshoot, as was black versions of white songs (Nat King Cole, Roy Hamilton). Some black stars actually held down 2 careers: blues and pop (Hamilton is a notable example). This style was particularly influential on uncategorisable pop artists like Elvis Presley.
EXAMPLES: Roy Hamilton, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, The Drifters, The Coasters, The Clovers, Clyde McPhatter, Jackie Wilson, The Dominoes, Brook Benton.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "60 minute man", "Without love", "Devil or angel", "Fool fool fool", "Don’t let go", "Like a baby", "Save the last dance for me", "You went back on your word".

BLACK INFLUENCED WHITE POP MUSIC - the rock ‘n’ roll era gave birth to a variety of black influenced stars. Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan are examples. The whole British invasion also falls in under this heading
EXAMPLES: Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "It ain’t me babe", "All shook up", "Don’t be cruel", "Love me do".

HILLBILLY BLUES - this form of music refers to all rural white blues. This encompasses everyone from Jimmie Rodgers onwards and includes such performers as Carl Perkins and Charlie Feathers (who are not really comfortably labelled as rockers or rockabillies).
EXAMPLES: Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Charlie Feathers.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Deep Elem blues", "Move it on over", "T.B Blues", "Muleskinner blues", "Rocky road blues", "Honey don’t".

ROCKABILLY - many artists are mislabelled rockabilly. True rockabilly does not refer to artists like Jerry Lee, Elvis, Carl Perkins, etc. - but to a group of less bluesy artists who transform blues songs into something more like country-pop. Eddie Cochran and Warren Smith are examples of real rockabillies.
EXAMPLES: Eddie Cochran, Warren Smith, Ray Smith, Billy Riley.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Completely sweet", "Ubangi stomp" (as done by Warren Smith and not as done by Jerry Lee Lewis), "Summertime blues", "20 flight rock".

BLUEGRASS - this form of hillbilly blues became very popular in the 1940s. it combined the blues yodels of Jimmie Rodgers and the black blues of the times with traditional mountain music and gospel. Bill Monroe virtually invented it (and even gave this form of music its name). It is normally characterised by harmony singing. Its offshoots include Hillbilly boogie, Western Swing and country music.
EXAMPLES: Bill Monroe, Delmore Brothers, Shelton Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Stanley Brothers, Monroe Brothers (Bill & Charlie).
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Cabin on the hill", "Blue moon of Kentucky", "Deep Elem blues", "Rocky road blues", "Blues stay away from me", "Muleskinner blues", "Kentucky waltze".

HILLBILLY BOOGIE - A close relative to boogie, bluegrass and Western Swing. It is basically a country version of black boogie blues. Moon Mullican & the Delmore Brothers were its chief exponents in the 1940s and Jerry Lee Lewis was its main exponent in modern times.
EXAMPLES: Jerry Lee Lewis, Moon Mullican, Merrill Moore, Chuck Miller, Delmore Brothers, Mickey Gilley.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Lewis boogie", "Pipeliner blues", "Cherokee boogie", "Freight train boogie", "House of blue lights".

WESTERN SWING - this was basically Texas’ answer to bluegrass. It combined jazz and country and owed a little less to harmony singing than a lot of Kentucky bluegrass. It was invented by Bob Wills in the 1930s and 1940s.
EXAMPLES: Bob Wills, Spade Cooley, Pee Wee King.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Milk cow blues", "San Antonio Rose", "Time changes everything", "Shame on you".


HONKY TONK - this started out as meaning black barrelhouse blues but now it refers to a very non-bluesy form of country music.
EXAMPLES: George Jones, Porter Wagoner, Lefty Frizzell, Faron Young.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Once a day", "If you’ve got the money".

CHICAGO BLUES - in the post-war years, many Delta bluesmen travelled north to Chicago and brought their blues with them. However, their style became more urban and northern as the years went by. This genre of blues spawned novelty blues, later.
EXAMPLES: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Big boss man", "What you want me to do", "Boogie chillun", "Boom boom".

NOVELTY BLUES - in reality, this is more a form of black pop music than it is a blues. Chuck Berry and Bob Diddley - who lightened and humourized the approach of the Chicago blues in the 1950s - were its main exponents. In the 1960s, the twist craze - although originally a very suggestive double entendre term for sex - was another form of novelty blues.
EXAMPLES: Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Bo Diddley", "Brown eyed handsome man" (as done by Chuck Berry), "Hey Bo Diddley", "The twist", "Let’s twist again".

COUNTRY MUSIC - this was a combination of blues and folk music that was initialised by Jimmie Rodgers and went on to include many diverse artists and styles. Although perceived as a whites-only music, many black stars have also been successful country artists.
EXAMPLE SONGS: "Waiting for a train", "Another place another time", "You win again", "Sing me back home".
EXAMPLE ARTISTS: Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe, Moon Mullican, Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard.

The following are miscellaneous links to Jerry Lee-related artists
and articles that are not closely related to Jerry Lee:

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