I have been trying to get my mind around exactly what the Gospel Blues are. I have posted links to various artist, and to various videos that I think of as Gospel Blues, but the difficulty is in the fact that I grew up in a time and place when music was not put into as many categories as it is today.
Some of the music that I heard in church (like the video above) was no different then some of the music I heard coming out of the local Juke Joint. And on some occasions it might have even been the same person singing in church that was singing in the Juke Joint. I doubt that Rosetta Tharpe ever performed in a Juke Joint, but I have no doubt that she would have been right at home.
For me there is not much difference between some blues music and some gospel music. The only way that I separate Gospel blues and the blues is by who is singing it and where they are singing it.
Wikipedia has a great list of Gospel blues musicians.
Gospel blues @ SqueezeMyLemon
3 comments:
Another difference is the subject of the lyrical content. The Blues of course is secular, the Blues gospel normally praise and worship.
When Ray Charles adopted an established gospel tune as music for his "I Gotta Woman", as story has it, many people became incensed. They accused him of being sacrilegious.
According to Rock Hall:
While recording for Atlantic Records during the Fifties, the innovative singer, pianist and bandleader broke down the barriers between sacred and secular music. The gospel sound he’d heard growing up in the church found its way into the music he made as an adult. In his own words, he fostered “a crossover between gospel music and the rhythm patterns of the blues.”
If he had applied the same lyrics to an established drinking song, for example, he wouldn't have created this reaction.
http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/ray-charles
BluesBitz, thanks so much for your comment, and while I think you shed some light on the subject.
Please realize that my point, actually is not so much about recorded music (and how the story goes), but about the more insular world of African Americans blues and Gospel music. And how they are more closely related then most people understand.
Where trust me, it was very common to find blues musicians who sang in church choirs and you would not really have been able to tell the difference in their music. Lyrically or otherwise.
Now in the wider world of American culture your point fits with what is conventional wisdom.
Consider for example the song "No Body's fault but mine" is it a gospel song, or a blues song?
http://squeezemylemon.blogspot.com/search?q=nobodys+fault+but+mine
You can see that I have posted many different versions of the song, most using the same words, and for the most part the same music. I just call it Gospel Blues, and realize that it would be normal to hear this song in either a Juke Joint or a church.
I think this song pre-dates Ray Charles and his transformation of popular music.
Also consider the old Negro Spiritual "Wade In the Water" another gospel song that has been performed by blues musicians. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2MbQnGe0KE
The above version performed by Big Mama Thornton could have been done in some Black churchs, and no one would have even taken notice.
Likewise, "Motherless Child," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" "When the Saints Go Marching In," "(Walls of) Jericho" "Rock of Ages," were all once church songs that achieved a mainstream recognition and acceptance Depending on where you are in the country, many of these have become staples whether performed by vocalists or brass bands.
Many of these songs, to the best of my knowledge, predate recorded music, their precise dates aren't certain to me. But many of these were included in John W. Work's book, "American Negro Songs--230 FolkSongs and Spirituals, Religious and Secular." which as originally published by Fisk University Press, 1915.
Even songs such as "I'm So Glad," Elmore James and "Ain't Study War No More," Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, among innumerable others are rooted in religious song.
Depending on your take on things, many of the early slaves brought over were practicing Muslims who brought many of these songs over with them, or these songs were first taught to the slaves when they were in the fields. Either way, many believe, the call and response of these songs were the basis for the Blues and the AAB rhyme scheme that early Blues would take.
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