The combinations possible within the confines of the simple blues couplet are many. If one adds to this the possible combinations of stanzaic types within the same song, the varieties allowed in blues texture seem endless. Blues singers, however, were remarkably conservative. Most possible textural structures never appear in the corpus under analysis. This conservative tendency is especially clear when one considers that perhaps 80 percent of all the songs in the corpus follow a strict AAB pattern throughout. Thus, although there was considerable room for creativity within the texture of the blues, singers preferred to concentrate their creative efforts on the inner structures of the blues couplet, the formulas.
Texture alone, however, does not entirely define the commercial blues. Religious songs or ballads in the commercially recorded repertoire might share the same textural structures with the blues, but the nature of their texts separates them from the kind of song under analysis here... songs fall on a continuum between “action oriented” and “emotion oriented” texts and the blues, clearly a lyric rather than a narrative song, falls well to the emotion-oriented side of this continuum. Although some blues are narrative, or contain several stanzas that are chronologically sequential, and others follow a specific theme from stanza to stanza, most blues are fairly free of such constraints. As lyrics, they are commentaries on some situation, rather than narratives about some situation. If there is an implied narrative in blues songs, this narrative is usually developed in an indirect fashion through pithy and aphoristic statements on the effect of the narrative on the persona, the persona’s reaction to the narrative, or the emotional atmosphere that surrounds the narrative.
Perhaps the most important defining feature of the blues text, other than its basic lyric nature, is that it is a secular song; that is, the blues is a commentary on secular issues in African American society rather than on religious issues. This division between sacred and secular black culture was well understood by the record-buying public, who might have bought both blues records and gospel records but who always remained aware of the distinctions between these two major forms of African American music. As a secular, lyric form, the blues could comment on an incredibly wide range of social issues. And, in fact, it is possible to find songs about poverty, drunkenness, racism, gambling, partying, politics, the family, or almost any other aspect of everyday life. Yet there is one theme whose overriding presence in the corpus makes it a part of the definition of the blues: namely, the theme of love. Love is the major topic of the blues: faithfulness, jealousy, adultery, sexuality, lust, all aspects of love are grist for the blues mill.
Source: The Blues Lyric Formula by Michael Taft
Thee Sacred Souls - Sorrow For Tomorrow
Texture alone, however, does not entirely define the commercial blues. Religious songs or ballads in the commercially recorded repertoire might share the same textural structures with the blues, but the nature of their texts separates them from the kind of song under analysis here... songs fall on a continuum between “action oriented” and “emotion oriented” texts and the blues, clearly a lyric rather than a narrative song, falls well to the emotion-oriented side of this continuum. Although some blues are narrative, or contain several stanzas that are chronologically sequential, and others follow a specific theme from stanza to stanza, most blues are fairly free of such constraints. As lyrics, they are commentaries on some situation, rather than narratives about some situation. If there is an implied narrative in blues songs, this narrative is usually developed in an indirect fashion through pithy and aphoristic statements on the effect of the narrative on the persona, the persona’s reaction to the narrative, or the emotional atmosphere that surrounds the narrative.
Perhaps the most important defining feature of the blues text, other than its basic lyric nature, is that it is a secular song; that is, the blues is a commentary on secular issues in African American society rather than on religious issues. This division between sacred and secular black culture was well understood by the record-buying public, who might have bought both blues records and gospel records but who always remained aware of the distinctions between these two major forms of African American music. As a secular, lyric form, the blues could comment on an incredibly wide range of social issues. And, in fact, it is possible to find songs about poverty, drunkenness, racism, gambling, partying, politics, the family, or almost any other aspect of everyday life. Yet there is one theme whose overriding presence in the corpus makes it a part of the definition of the blues: namely, the theme of love. Love is the major topic of the blues: faithfulness, jealousy, adultery, sexuality, lust, all aspects of love are grist for the blues mill.
Source: The Blues Lyric Formula by Michael Taft
Thee Sacred Souls - Sorrow For Tomorrow
- Released: June 15, 2022
- Produced: Gabriel Roth
- Label: Daptone/ Penrose Records
"Thee Sacred Souls, as if Garcia and his bandmates, bassist Sal Samano and singer Josh Lane, have been playing together for a lifetime already. Produced by Bosco Mann, Thee Sacred Souls is a warm and textured record, mixing the easygoing grace of sweet ’60s soul with the grit and groove of early ’70s R&B."
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