Thanksgiving Blues
It's time for Rev. Matthew's annual Thanksgiving Blues. If you don't recall it, each year around Thanksgiving, he crafts a worship service around the Blues because, as he believes:
Our giving thanks is deepened |
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(Know what he means? If not, that's ok, he's been trying to figure it out for years too. Check out the song he's chosen "White Boy Lost in the Blues" below.)
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It is the truth that the Blues is an original American genre. Yet, as we are learning about our country that means it has an uncomfortable history. The Blues has roots in African musical traditions and Southern work songs, which means it exists due to American slavery. It is disquieting to hold this truth, yet when we do, we deepen our understanding of the Blues. It's not just a musical genre, it is a truth about our history too. Holding discomfort, moving through it, and being changed by is embedded in the style, notes, lyrics, and emotion of the Blues.
White Boy Lost in the Blues
"White Boy Lost in the Blues" was written by singer/songwriter Michael Franks. It was first recorded in 1973 by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee on their album Sonny & Brownie. Lyle Lovett first recorded the song for his 2012 album Release Me.
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You bought you a six string Gibson
You bought you a great big house You try to sing like Muddy Waters And play like lightnin' sounds But since we blowed our harp You feelin' mean and confused We got you chained to your earphones You just a white boy, lost in the blues You got your '44 Desoto Great big horns that toots 44 bad buttons on your every-day suit But now that we bent your strings You been feelin' mean and confused We got you chained to your earphones You just a white boy, lost in the blues Got you great big house on the hillside Got you great big field of corn Got you a loving woman And the bluuuues in your soul And now that we started cooking I been really mean and confused We got you chained to my headphones You're just a white boy, lost in the blues We got you chained to my headphones You're just a white boy, lost in the blues We got you chained to my headphones You're just a white boy, lost in the blues |
Visual Key to Lyrics:Six String Gibson:
Muddy Waters:
Desoto Auto:
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Three of our many musically talented Members, Jerry Leggett, Randy Mitchell, and Karen Kluge have Blues selections to offer us too!
Jerry shares, "In 1994, in San Diego, I sat spellbound at B.B.King’s performance of "The Thrill Is Gone.” live with his signature guitar, Lucille. I watched several versions of this song on youtube and especially liked a performance at the White House in 2011 with King and Eric Clapton."
The Thrill Is Gone
"The Thrill Is Gone" was written and originally recorded by the blues musician Roy Hawkins in 1951. In the 1950s, B.B. King was a Memphis radio DJ who played the Roy Hawkins original on the air.
How does one move on from a relationship or experience that has gone bad? How do we regulate our emotions when the thrill for living seems like a distant memory and hope seems hard to kindle?
How does one move on from a relationship or experience that has gone bad? How do we regulate our emotions when the thrill for living seems like a distant memory and hope seems hard to kindle?
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The thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away The thrill is gone baby The thrill is gone away You know you done me wrong baby And you'll be sorry someday The thrill is gone It's gone away from me The thrill is gone baby The thrill is gone away from me Although, I'll still live on But so lonely I'll be The thrill is gone It's gone away for good The thrill is gone baby It's gone away for good Someday I know I'll be over it all baby Just like I know a good man should You know I'm free, free now baby I'm free from your spell Oh I'm free, free, free now I'm free from your spell And now that it's all over All I can do is wish you well |
Roy Hawkins:
B.B. King:
Eric Clapton:
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Randy offers us two Blues songs to listen to: one by Townes Van Zandt performed by Guy Clark and the other an original Randy wrote and recorded.
Rex's BluesRide the blue wind, high and free
She'll lead you down through misery Leave you low, come time to go Alone and low, as low can be Well, if I had a nickel, I'd find a game If I won a dollar, I'd make it rain If it rained an ocean, I'd drink it dry And lay me down dissatisfied It's legs to walk and thoughts to fly Eyes to laugh and lips to cry A restless tongue to classify All born to grow and grown to die So tell my baby, I said so long Tell my mother, I did no wrong Tell my brother to watch his own And tell my friends to mourn me none I'm chained upon the face of time Feeling full of foolish rhyme There ain't no dark till something shines I'm bound to leave the dark behind Well, ride the blue wind, high and free She'll lead you down through misery Leave you low, come time to go Alone and low, as low can be Well, ride the blue wind, high and free She'll lead you down through misery Leave you low, come time to go Alone and low, as low can be |
Quarentime BluesI've got the Quarentime Blues
I can't take no more news Got nothing, nothing to lose 'Cept these Quarentime Blues My house is closed up tight Can't leave it day or night I'm told this virus Doesn't require us Got these Quarentime Blues Eatin' leftover stews Wish i could refuse Havin' Quarentime Blues My family stays away Grandkids can't come to play I sure do miss 'em but I can't kiss 'em I got the Quarentime Blues wearing out my house shoes I-so-lation cross the na-tion [guitar solo lament] Turn the news off Oh my, don't cough Got the Quarentime Blues Trapped like monkeys in zoos I have limited views 'Cause of Quarentime Blues I know this too shall pass how long can Quarentime last? Is this a shelter Or helter skelter Got the Quarentime Blues Paying somebody's dues It's crime without clues I've got nothing, nothing to lose |
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For our final selection this year, Karen lifts up none other than the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, singing "Today I Sing the Blues."
Today I'm Singing the Blues
"I'm Singing the Blues" was written by Curtis Lewis and recorded in1960 for the album "aretha with the Ray Bryant Combo." Aretha was 17 when she recorded it.
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Without a word of warning
The blues walked in this morning And circled around my lonely room I didn't know why I had That sad and lonely feeling Until my baby called said we're through Oh, yesterday this time, I sang a love song But today I'm singin' the blues Hmmm, now it strikes me kinda funny How love can be this way We were lovers last night, honey But I'm alone again today And it strikes me kind of funny How fate can be unfair I come out on the losin' end In every, every love affair Yes, it must be, must be written for me that I should be the one, be the one to always lose But yesterday, yesterday this time, I sang a love song Oh, oh, right now I'm singin' the blues, Oh, yeah |
Aretha Franklin (1960):
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This Thanksgiving and through the rest of the 2020 holiday season we will indeed have the Blues. Yet, as each of these artists demonstrate in their music, singing the Blues - not avoiding them - is one way to find that none of us are alone. Thus we start to cure the Blues, finding one another and our gratitude once again.