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'Twixt midnight and day: binarism, blues and black culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Paul Oliver
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Extract

Well the blues come to Texas lopin' like a mule

Well the blues come to Texas lopin' like a mule

You take a high brown woman man she's hard to fool

You can't ever tell what a woman's got on her mind

Man you can't tell what a woman's got on her mind

You might think she's crazy ‘bout you she's leavin’ you all the time

She ain't so good looking and her teeth don't shine like pearls

She ain't so good looking and her teeth don't shine like pearls

But that nice disposition carries a woman all through the world

I'm goin' to the river gonna carry my rocker chair

Well I'm goin' to the river carry my rocker chair

——— have the worried blues right here

I think I heard my good gal callin' my name

Hey hey good gal called my name

She couldn't call so loud but she called so nice and plain

Type
Research Article
Information
Popular Music , Volume 2 , January 1982 , pp. 179 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

References

Books and articles

Bruynoghe, Y. and Broonzy, W. 1955. Big Bill's Blues (London)Google Scholar
Campbell, E. S. 1939. ‘Blues are the negroes' lament’, in Esquire's Jazz Book, ed. Miller, P. E. and Venables, R. (London, 1947), pp. 54–63Google Scholar
Charters, S. 1963. The Poetry of the Blues (New York)Google Scholar
Dorson, R. M. 1967. American Negro Folk Tales (Greenwich, Conn.)Google Scholar
Faron, L. C. 1962. ‘Symbolic values and the integration of society among the Mapuche of Chile’, The American Anthropologist, 64, pp. 1151–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, J. J. 1975. ‘On binary categories and primary symbols’, in The Interpretation of Symbols, ed. Willis, R. (Chichester), pp. 91–132Google Scholar
Griaule, M. and Dieterlen, G. 1954. ‘The Dogon’, in African Worlds, ed. Forde, D. (London)Google Scholar
Jones, A. M. 1954. ‘African rhythm’, Africa, 24:1, pp. 26–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Leach, E. 1962. ‘Genesis as myth’, in Myth and Cosmos, ed. Middleton, J. (New York, 1967), pp. 1–13Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1963. ‘Do dual organisations exist?’, in Structural Anthropology (New York), pp. 132–63Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1969. The Raw and the Cooked (translation of Le Cru et le Cuit) (New York)Google Scholar
Lewis, B. A. 1972. The Murle: Red Chiefs and Black Commoners (Oxford)Google Scholar
Newman, L. I. and Popper, W. 1918. Studies in Biblical Parallelism (California)Google Scholar
Oliver, P. 1965. Conversation with the Blues (London)Google Scholar
Oliver, P. 1970. Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions in the Blues (London)Google Scholar
Oliver, P. 1982. ‘Blues and the binary principle’, in Popular Music Perspectives, ed. Tagg, P. and Horn, D. (Gothenburg and Exeter)Google Scholar
Radin, P. 1923. The Winnebago Tribe, 37th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, DC), pp. 139–54Google Scholar
Rivers, W. H. R. 1924. Social Organization (London)Google Scholar
Titon, J. T. 1977. Early Downhome Blues (Urbana, III.)Google Scholar

Recordings

Akers, Garfield (vocal and guitar) and Calicott, Joe (guitar) 23 September 1929. ‘Cottonfield Blues Part 2’, Vocalion 1442 (Memphis). Quoted Titon 1977, no. 20Google Scholar
Anon, . 1947. ‘Murderer's Home’, Recorded Alan Lomax (Parchman, Miss.), Nixa NJL 11Google Scholar
Bob, Barbecue (Robert Hicks) (vocal and guitar) 25 March 1927. ‘Barbecue Blues’, Columbia 14205–D (Atlanta). Quoted Titon 1977, no. 26Google Scholar
Brown, Richard ‘Rabbit’, (vocal and guitar) 11 03 1927. ‘James Alley Blues’, Victor 20578 (New Orleans). Quoted Titon 1977, no. 47Google Scholar
Collins, Sam (vocal and guitar) 04 1927. ‘The Jail House Blues’, Gennett 6167 (Richmond, Indiana). Quoted Titon 1977, no. 19Google Scholar
Florence, Nellie (vocal) and Lincoln, Charley (guitar) 21 04 1928. ‘Jacksonville Blues’, Columbia 14342-D (Atlanta). Quoted Titon 1977, no. 5Google Scholar
Jefferson, Blind Lemon (vocal and guitar) c. 03 1928. ‘Got the Blues’, Paramount 12354 (Chicago). Quoted Titon 1977, no. 31Google Scholar
Johnson, Tommy (vocal and guitar) 31 August 1928. ‘Lonesome Blues’ -2, unissued Victor, master 45463-2; issued on Historical HLP-31 (Memphis). Quoted Titon 1977, no. 13Google Scholar
Stearns, Marshall W. (ed.) 1941–2. Negro Blues and Hollers, Library of Congress afs L59 (Washington, DC)Google Scholar