cih

What I learned today is very often what I already learned yesterday but forgot

Seriously? Then we're in bad shape. On an unrelated note - my wife played Monk in an assembly a couple of weeks ago at her infants school, as background music for a book she was reading (she can't be called self-indulgent as she claims to not like jazz).. the little twerps loved it, and were bobbing up and down to the drum & bass solo just what I was thinking.

It's a shame if that's the case - because if you think of who is singing those songs (and look at what they're singing), it forms a valuable historical record of people who were very often illiterate and had no access to telling their stories in another means. It'd be a mistake to believe that it's all autobiographical, or that the records weren't made for entertainment - but for example when you hear Son House, who had at least for a time experienced the life of a Mississippi farm worker, singing about a drought thusly.. I stood in my back yard I wrung my hands and screamed I couldn't see nothin' couldn't see nothin' green .. it provides some kind a window into his world.. similarly with a hundred other examples - hoboes travelling across the States - where else do we hear their stories?

Right - and it even has the Gates track about the black farmer & the president! And Joe Pullum's CWA which is worth the price alone (imo)

Re. Rev Gates - you could probably cover a lot of ground with just his sermons! - there's that one about a black farmer in Mississippi who telephoned Roosevelt about his mule being taken away from him, or his farm being closed (or something).. and Roosevelt answered the phone himself and arranged an extension on the mortgage for him (maybe this is a well know story over there?) - "he's a friend to EVERYBODY, both white and black... special privilege to NONE!" and another about the evil of chain stores, and that you should use your local merchants.

& there were Trinidadian calypsos about him (I suppose these were also sold in the US)

eh - another seemingly random recommend - something on Joe Louis, whose huge impact was reflected in song.. lyrics example below from Lil Johnson, though there are others: "Each time Joe Louis won a fight in those depression years, even before he became champion, thousands of black Americans on relief or W.P.A., and poor, would throng out into the streets all across the land to march and cheer and yell and cry because of Joe's one-man triumphs. No one else in the United States has ever had such an effect on Negro emotions – or on mine. I marched and cheered and yelled and cried, too." - Langston Hughes 'Winner Joe': Joe Louis was born in Alabama And raised up in Detroit But he always had that killing blow Every since he was a boy So, lay it, Joe! You got the best blow! When Joe Louis fought in Chicago Some bet that he would lose But when the papers brought the news He gave that kind the blues So, lay it, Joe! You got the best blow! Levinsky made a few passes And then he fell to the floor Then the referee hollered, "Hold it, Joe For he won't be back no more!" So, lay it, Joe! You got the best blow! (spoken: Yeah, man, I'm bettin' on Joe! Got any money? I'll bet you!) You all heard about Primo Carnera They thought he was so good But Joe started chopping on his head Like a farmer chopping wood! So, chop it, Joe! You got the best blow! Then Joe walked up to the man mountain And kindly shook his hand Then Joe backed up a step or two And knocked him in the promised land So, knock it, Joe! You got the best blow! Then Joe Louis went to New York Just to fight that champion Baer And before the first round ended up Joe left him layin' there! So, lay it, Joe! You got the best blow! But the Baer, he took it easy He didn't argue long He went on back to California And bought him a cattle farm He said, "Take it, Joe You got the best blow!"

the big migrations to the city might make a good overall theme, tied to the changing work patterns - and within that the songs can lead into other themes, eg Cow Cow Davenport's 'Jim Crow Blues' is obviously to do with 'race' but talks about moving up North ("I'm sweet Chicago bound").. and something like 'Cotton Seed Blues' by Roosevelt Sykes is about the poor harvest (and implies a need to make a change)... whilst Peetie Wheatstraw's 'Chicago Mill' is about having a good job in Chicago and attracting women through it. Then Lonnie Johnson's 'Chicago Blues' is about a sort of culture shock of being new in the city (also Josh White's 'Friendless City').. etc. I have to second Jeffcrom's suggestion of Hard Time Killing Floor (for the 'lack' of work) - also maybe Walter Davis' 'Red Cross Blues'.. and then Joe Pullum's 'CWA Blues' for the Works Projects ("CWA, look what you done for me, you brought by good girl back, and lifted depression from me..") - though I guess these are all of a certain type, and perhaps you are seeking more variety! edit - not to mention 'illegitimate' work - eg Jim Jackson's 'Bootlegging Blues' (so prohibition gets covered) and Alice Moore - 'Broadway Street Woman' (prostitution)..

Of course with blues songs and travel it's often about wanting to be somewhere else - even, occasionally, wanting to be back down south

'Roosevelt's blues' by guido van rijn is a book with lots of explicit references from blues recordings to the works projects and so on.. Kind of follows the depression through blues lyrics

Louis B Meyer Greta Garbo Pete & Dud

Theo Dr Huxtable Bill Cosby

Surely there are some experts on jazz around here?

Rock Hudson River Phoenix Dickie Bird

'scuse my ignorance.. on your link is a wonderful slide show - including an old press cutting indicating a book in progress with Alberta Hunter? Did it get done?

Roger Fry Walter Sickert Jack the Ripper (as if)

A Friday - quite an achievement. ( No.1 - Gary Glitter )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZajaMXpncp4

The Moderator The Lurker The Administrator

Dawn French Jimmy Noone Lonesome Sundown

Floyd Council Pink Anderson Syd Barrett

Nick Leeson Gordon Gekko Derek Trotter

Tom Baker Dr Who Roger Daltrey

Patsy Hendren Frank Woolley Shaun the Sheep

Theophilus P Wildebeeste Aleister 'The Great Beast' Crowley Lucifer