Clivey
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,438
- Locality
- Edinburgh/Hot Rock off African Coast
This thread was always going to pop back to the top.It just dawned on me that in six pages of discussion about blues music unless I missed it, there has not been one mention of the traditional form of blues lyrics. The most common form of blues is made up of 12 bar phrases. These 12 bars can be further divided into three groups that are 4 bars each a bit reminiscent of "call and response" in earlier song forms.
1st 4 bars. . . . . . . . Opening statement
2nd 4 bars. . . . . . . Opening statement repeated exactly or with slight variation
3rd 4 bars. . . . . . . .Response or answer to statement
Buddy Boy Hawkins - Snatch It Back Blues lyrics
Spoken:
Listen here people, these are my blues, I brought them all the way from Birmingham.
You know when it feels good to me it's bound to feel good to you
I'm goin to see how'd you like that?
I'm gonna lay my head out on some lonesome railroad track
I say, I'm gonna lay my head, mama, ah out on some railroad track
Well when that train come along, I'm gonna snatch it back
Tell me brownskin mama where did you stay last night?
I said, tell me mama where did you stay last night?
With your hair all down, your face ain't ever wiped
I say I love you pretty mama, ah'ou'ah don't care what you do
I say I love you pretty , ah'ou'ah don't care what you do
You go to your black man mama, I stick to my gal
I say if you don't need your black woman you gonna have to carry some heavy stall
If you don't want me mama you got to carry some heavy stall
How come I say that? Because I can get more jet black women than a freight train can haul
Well done to @jbtsax for mentioning the overlooked connection to verse.
See here for a little bit more background.
Poetry08
www2.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de
This stuff is far far older and more complex than even the link hints at.