The Blues

The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture

De: Chris Thomas King

Narrado por: Adam Lazarre-White

All prior histories on the blues have alleged it originated on plantations in the Mississippi Delta. Not true, says author Chris Thomas King. In The Blues, King presents facts to disprove such myths. For example, as early as 1900, the sound of the blues was ubiquitous in New Orleans. The Mississippi Delta, meanwhile, was an unpopulated sportsman’s paradise - the frontier was still in the process of being cleared and drained for cultivation. Moreover, this book is the first to argue that the blues began as a cosmopolitan art form, not a rural one.

Protestant states such as Mississippi and Alabama could not have incubated the blues. New Orleans was the only place in the Deep South where the sacred and profane could party together without fear of persecution. Expecting these findings to be controversial in some circles, King has buttressed his conclusions with primary sources and years of extensive research, including a sojourn to West Africa and interviews with surviving folklorists and blues researchers from the 1960s folk-rediscovery epoch. They say the blues is blasphemous - the devil’s music. King says they’re unenlightened, that blues music is about personal freedom.

©2021 Chris Thomas King (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Required Reading for Blues Lovers!

This book skewers the popular held myth that Blues is descended from primitive musicians in the Mississippi Delta. Mr. King sets the record straight with compelling evidence that the Blues originated from Creole roots of New Orleans. I highly encourage anyone who loves the Blues to listen to this book. It’s time to stop repeating the big Blues lie!

More about Chris Thomas King than the blues

The first few chapters were what I was hoping the book to be. A view that the blues didn’t originate in the delta. I had recently read “Escaping the Delta” by Wald and hoped “The Blues”, would be similar. Chris gave his views and provided some evidence to confirm his opinion.

All people have confirmation bias and it was very evident in the book. Evidence confirming Chris’s views was acknowledged as fact and evidence for other theories was dismissed as either ignorance or lies, often with racial overtones.

When discussing his life, much of it was interesting and well written. My complaint is the victim mentality Chris repeatedly expresses throughout his life. He believes the “Blues Mafia” is behind many of the theories that differ from his and when things do go the way he wanted them to, he blames the Blues Mafia.

There are quite a few pointedly racist opinions about white people playing blues and repressing early singers. He didn’t give any credit to the English musical groups that revived blues in the US and only accuses them of white appropriation.

Also, he brags about his unique blend of hip-hop and blues, and how many others have stolen his unique idea. Run DMC’s cover of Walk this Way, was before his release of his 21st Century Blues. The title track, is reminiscent of Walk this Way. Many other cuts remind me of the Beastie Boys.

Finally, he seems to credit his portrayal of Tommy Johnson and his cover of Skip James’s “killing floor blues” as the reason the movie and soundtrack was so successful. He played Tommy Johnson well, and his cover was good, but it’s a huge ego to think his role was the reason for the success of the movie

That said, he does give some convincing data that Louisiana was the birth place of the blues, and his theory is as believable as any other theory of the blues origin. I wished he spoke less of his own victimized life and more about the blues.

OK but I have some issues with some of the content

Good book...I'm a musicologist myself with 37 years on the guitar I know the blues came out of New Orleans. My only beef is to call white people appropriators? As a real musician with a brain, once music is out there anyone can take from. Everybody steals. My other beef is that Dylan wouldn't be Dylan without his producer...anyone who understands Dylan knows Bob calls the shots and a producer's job is to get out of his way. That part was retarded...the part about PJ Harvey and the blues was equally dumb...PJ is an original artist who can't be defined. The last part they mentioned England and Scotland...but no mention of Ireland? Celtic folk song were the blueprint of all American music. Anyway it was a good rrad.

Subverts The Accepted Narrative

Chris Thomas King builds a strong case that the accepted narrative surrounding the origins and history of the blues is incorrect, while filling many gaps that have never made logical sense to me when scrutinized.

Must read for anyone instered in the history of the blues, jazz, or american music in general.