0:00:00 > 0:00:00
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Many people believe the blues began in Mississippi,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20though it's the kind of thing no-one can prove one way or the other.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24The blues were created by poor blacks in the South, that's certain.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29It happened sometime after about 1900, that too is certain.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32Snatches of song were written down by folklore collectors,
0:00:32 > 0:00:34that's about all the evidence we have.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36So what did those old blues -
0:00:36 > 0:00:39and they weren't always even called that - what did they sound like?
0:00:39 > 0:00:41Possibly something like this...
0:00:57 > 0:01:01# Hey, poor boy
0:01:01 > 0:01:06# All the way back home
0:01:06 > 0:01:10# Hey, poor boy We got pulled over
0:01:10 > 0:01:15# And they put us off and prison-bound
0:01:31 > 0:01:35# Their mother, she got worried
0:01:35 > 0:01:40# The evenin' sun was goin' down
0:01:40 > 0:01:45# Their mother, she said, she said
0:01:45 > 0:01:49# My son somewhere in prison is bound
0:02:06 > 0:02:10# My, their mother, she got worried
0:02:10 > 0:02:14# My mother went on scrapin' and cryin'
0:02:14 > 0:02:19# My mother called
0:02:19 > 0:02:24# He told her They had us sent prisoner-bound
0:02:40 > 0:02:44# Well, my mother talked to the sergeant
0:02:44 > 0:02:48# Asked him how much was our bail
0:02:50 > 0:02:54# Well, the sergeant told my mother
0:02:54 > 0:02:59# They would take 200 dollar bills
0:03:15 > 0:03:20# My mother she came to the sergeant
0:03:20 > 0:03:25# She didn't even have a dime
0:03:25 > 0:03:29# My mother saw me looking inside now
0:03:29 > 0:03:35# She said "I don't even have a dime"
0:03:50 > 0:03:55# Well, the sergeant He talked to my mama
0:03:55 > 0:03:59# Pulled me down this awful freight train
0:03:59 > 0:04:03# They said "You'll get your 200 dollar bills
0:04:03 > 0:04:07# "And I will return him back to your home." #
0:04:28 > 0:04:31That was Bukka White singing Poor Boy,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34an archetypal traditional folk song.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39Folk collectors found that song all over the Deep South in the 1900s.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43Every singer sings it his or her own way, making up their own words,
0:04:43 > 0:04:48passing it on in a new form, but always, it's Poor Boy.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Booker White died only a few months after that film of him
0:04:51 > 0:04:54at his home in Memphis, Tennessee.
0:04:54 > 0:04:55And many regarded him
0:04:55 > 0:05:00as the last of the great Mississippi country blues singers.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02Now, the sliding of the knife on the guitar
0:05:02 > 0:05:06is a style going back to the earliest days of country blues.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11In this next song, he uses a metal tube over his finger as a slide.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14He used to use a bottle neck but it cut up his finger.
0:05:14 > 0:05:15This is his own song,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19not some folk song passed on from other singers,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21but his own composition.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25# Aberdeen is my home
0:05:25 > 0:05:29# But the men don't want me around
0:05:32 > 0:05:35# Aberdeen is my home
0:05:35 > 0:05:39# But the men don't want me around
0:05:39 > 0:05:42# Cos they know I will take these women
0:05:42 > 0:05:46# I will take them outta town
0:06:03 > 0:06:07# Ooh, sittin' down in Aberdeen
0:06:07 > 0:06:12# With New Orleans on my mind
0:06:14 > 0:06:17# I was sittin' down in Aberdeen
0:06:17 > 0:06:21# With New Orleans on my mind
0:06:21 > 0:06:23# Well, them Aberdeen women
0:06:23 > 0:06:27# Told me they would buy my own gasoline
0:06:30 > 0:06:35# Hey, two little women
0:06:35 > 0:06:40# I ain't ever seen
0:06:43 > 0:06:46# They has two little women
0:06:46 > 0:06:49# That I ain't ever seen
0:06:49 > 0:06:52# Well, these two little pretty women
0:06:52 > 0:06:56# Just from New Orleans
0:06:58 > 0:06:59# Play it good now
0:07:14 > 0:07:17# Oh, listen, you women
0:07:17 > 0:07:22# You know that I'm a poor boy
0:07:24 > 0:07:26# Listen, Aberdeen women
0:07:26 > 0:07:29# I don't have a dime
0:07:29 > 0:07:32# Even though I'm a poor boy
0:07:32 > 0:07:37# Don't even have a dime
0:07:40 > 0:07:42# Cool it now
0:07:53 > 0:07:57# Oooooh Oooh, ooh, yeah
0:07:57 > 0:08:03# Where we used to live
0:08:04 > 0:08:08# Oh, look over yonder
0:08:08 > 0:08:11# Where we used to live
0:08:11 > 0:08:15# Well, don't you know what they do to me
0:08:15 > 0:08:17# Can you
0:08:20 > 0:08:22# Yeah!
0:08:22 > 0:08:24# Bah, bah
0:08:24 > 0:08:30# Bah-bah-beep I'll find him and say no more
0:08:34 > 0:08:36# Bah-bah, bah-bah
0:08:36 > 0:08:39# I don't sing no more
0:08:39 > 0:08:42# You can tell everybody
0:08:42 > 0:08:46# Standin' knockin' on the door
0:08:48 > 0:08:51# Tyin' it up now
0:08:51 > 0:08:54# Put rhythm to it. #
0:09:00 > 0:09:03The record is going out in Aberdeen, Mississippi,
0:09:03 > 0:09:07across the Tombigbee river, goodbye, good.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Back in the '20s and '30s,
0:09:12 > 0:09:16songs like that were the pop songs of the day.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18On brittle 78s, cheaply recorded,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20often by non-professional singers,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22just the good old boy from the plantation nearby
0:09:22 > 0:09:25who played for dancers.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29Once songs came out on record other people would hear them
0:09:29 > 0:09:32and so the folk tradition carried on.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36But, unlike now, when a song is covered by pop artists,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39the words would get changed and the song,
0:09:39 > 0:09:44though basically an old one, would still be personal to the singer.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47This next song first came out in 1928
0:09:47 > 0:09:50by a magnificent Mississippi singer called Tommy Johnson.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53The version we have here
0:09:53 > 0:09:56is by an old friend of Tommy's, Houston Stackhouse,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00backed by Joe Willie Wilkins - Cool Drink Of Water.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03# I asked her for cool water
0:10:03 > 0:10:09# And she gave me gasoline
0:10:14 > 0:10:17# Lord, I'd ask her for water
0:10:17 > 0:10:22# She'd give me gasoline
0:10:27 > 0:10:30# Lord, I asked for cool water
0:10:30 > 0:10:34# And she gave me gasoline
0:10:34 > 0:10:38# Lord, Good Lordy, Lord
0:10:42 > 0:10:46# Cry, "Lord, I wonder
0:10:46 > 0:10:50# "Will I ever get back home?"
0:10:53 > 0:10:57# Cried, "Lord, I wonder
0:10:57 > 0:11:02# "Will I ever get back home?"
0:11:02 > 0:11:06# Good Lord, Lordy, Lord
0:11:09 > 0:11:12# Lord, I went to the depot
0:11:12 > 0:11:17# Looked up on a board
0:11:21 > 0:11:24# Lord, I asked
0:11:24 > 0:11:27# How long
0:11:27 > 0:11:32# Had this south-bound train been gone
0:11:35 > 0:11:40# She said, "He done taken your faror
0:11:40 > 0:11:43# "Blown back smoke on you"
0:11:49 > 0:11:52# Said, "He's taken your faror
0:11:52 > 0:11:55# "Blown the smoke on you"
0:11:55 > 0:11:59# Lord, Lordy, Lord
0:12:03 > 0:12:06# Lord, I asked the conductor
0:12:06 > 0:12:10# "Could I ride the blind?"
0:12:10 > 0:12:14# Wanna know can a broke man ride the blind, I ain't got a dime
0:12:14 > 0:12:18# He said "Son, buy your ticket
0:12:18 > 0:12:22# "Buy your ticket
0:12:22 > 0:12:26# "Cos this train ain't none of mine"
0:12:29 > 0:12:33# He said "Son, buy your ticket
0:12:33 > 0:12:37# "The train ain't none of mine"
0:12:41 > 0:12:45# He said "Son, buy your ticket
0:12:45 > 0:12:48# "Buy your ticket
0:12:48 > 0:12:51# "Cos the train ain't none of mine"
0:12:51 > 0:12:54# Good Lord, Lordy Lord. #
0:13:02 > 0:13:04How about that?
0:13:04 > 0:13:06While old traditional songs
0:13:06 > 0:13:08were being passed on by being recorded,
0:13:08 > 0:13:13there were also plenty of new blues being composed.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17By the 1940s and '50s, you could hear blues on the radio.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19Usually little local stations who would play records,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22or sometimes use a local band to advertise products.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26Our next singer, Sonny Blake,
0:13:26 > 0:13:28was inspired to take up music
0:13:28 > 0:13:31partly by hearing harmonica blues on the radio.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34The song he sings comes not from Mississippi,
0:13:34 > 0:13:40but from a record made by a man from Waco, Texas, Mercy Dee Walton.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43When it first came out in 1952,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46it was up-to-the-minute black pop music.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Now it's become a blues standard,
0:13:49 > 0:13:51One Room Country Shack.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04# Sittin' here 1,000 miles from nowhere
0:14:04 > 0:14:08# In this one-room country shack
0:14:12 > 0:14:17# Sittin' here 1,000 miles from nowhere
0:14:17 > 0:14:21# In this one-room country shack
0:14:25 > 0:14:29# Oh, I ain't got no kind of companion
0:14:29 > 0:14:33# Nothin' but this old nine-foot cotton sack
0:14:38 > 0:14:43# Every night around midnight
0:14:43 > 0:14:46# People, I just can't sleep no more
0:14:51 > 0:14:55# Every night around midnight
0:14:55 > 0:14:58# People, I just can't sleep no more
0:15:03 > 0:15:06# Only a cricket and frog to keep me company
0:15:06 > 0:15:07# What, boy?
0:15:07 > 0:15:11# And the wind's howlin' round my door
0:15:15 > 0:15:18HE PLAYS HARMONICA
0:15:51 > 0:15:56# I'm gon' get up early in the mornin'
0:15:56 > 0:15:59# Look out this old raggedy beat-out T
0:16:03 > 0:16:07# I'm gon' get up early in the mornin'
0:16:07 > 0:16:10# Look out this old raggedy beat-out T
0:16:15 > 0:16:19# Yeah, babe You know there's an actual fact
0:16:19 > 0:16:22# I don't know where in the world that I'll stop at
0:16:23 > 0:16:25# Oh, mercy!
0:17:00 > 0:17:05# Sittin' here 1,000 miles from nowhere
0:17:05 > 0:17:07# In this one-room country shack
0:17:12 > 0:17:16# Sittin' here 1,000 miles from nowhere
0:17:16 > 0:17:19# In this one-room country shack
0:17:24 > 0:17:28# Oh, d'you know I ain't got no kind of companion
0:17:28 > 0:17:31# Nothin' but this old nine-foot cotton sack. #
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Records, radio - all these are perfectly legitimate ways
0:18:16 > 0:18:18for folk music to be passed on.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20But more traditionally-minded folklorists
0:18:20 > 0:18:24might rule them out, "Two commercial", they'd say.
0:18:24 > 0:18:25"Folk songs should be passed on
0:18:25 > 0:18:27"purely by word of mouth," they'd argue.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31They're only really happy when the composer is "Anon"
0:18:31 > 0:18:34and the song's origins lost in the mists of time.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36Well, our next singer
0:18:36 > 0:18:41is the kind of man the folklorists would probably like.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43When he was filmed in 1976,
0:18:43 > 0:18:45he was age 77, long white beard,
0:18:45 > 0:18:50and hands horny from years of working in the cotton fields.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52Sam Chatmon learned his music
0:18:52 > 0:18:55long before blues records were being made.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58He learned from his father and his huge family,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00nearly all of whom were musicianers,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03so they all swapped songs, swapped instruments,
0:19:03 > 0:19:05learned from other singers
0:19:05 > 0:19:09and lived their lives right at the heart of the living folk process.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12# I got a brown-skinned woman
0:19:12 > 0:19:16# Live up on the hill
0:19:16 > 0:19:18# Now don't you hear me telling you where you stay?
0:19:18 > 0:19:22# I got a brown-skinned woman
0:19:22 > 0:19:25# Live on a hill
0:19:28 > 0:19:32# And that fool quit me
0:19:32 > 0:19:34# I swear I love her still
0:19:38 > 0:19:41# How come you wanna do, woman
0:19:41 > 0:19:44# Like you do, do, do?
0:19:44 > 0:19:46# Now don't you
0:19:46 > 0:19:49# Hear me tell you, pretty mama
0:19:49 > 0:19:51# How come you wanna do, woman
0:19:51 > 0:19:55# Like you do, do, do?
0:19:57 > 0:20:00# How come you wanna treat me, woman
0:20:00 > 0:20:04# Like you do, do, do?
0:20:07 > 0:20:10# When I was uptown this mornin'
0:20:10 > 0:20:12# On my way back home
0:20:12 > 0:20:16# Now, don't you hear me tellin' you, pretty mama
0:20:16 > 0:20:19# When I was uptown this mornin'
0:20:19 > 0:20:21# On my way back home
0:20:24 > 0:20:28# Well, the devil met me and told me
0:20:28 > 0:20:31# "Your woman's dead and gone"
0:20:34 > 0:20:37# Don't the hearse look lonesome
0:20:37 > 0:20:40# Rolling 'fore your door?
0:20:40 > 0:20:42# Now, don't you hear me
0:20:42 > 0:20:44# Telling you, pretty mama?
0:20:44 > 0:20:46# Don't the hearse look lonesome
0:20:46 > 0:20:49# Rolling 'fore your door?
0:20:51 > 0:20:54# It's taken that woman you loving
0:20:54 > 0:20:57# And she can't get back no more
0:21:00 > 0:21:03# Well, I ain't going down
0:21:03 > 0:21:05# Big road by myself
0:21:05 > 0:21:07# Now, don't you hear me
0:21:07 > 0:21:10# Telling you, pretty mama?
0:21:10 > 0:21:12# Well, I ain't going down
0:21:12 > 0:21:15# Big road by myself
0:21:18 > 0:21:21# And if I can't take you, woman
0:21:21 > 0:21:24# I carry somebody else
0:21:24 > 0:21:26# Oh, yes, I is, baby
0:21:52 > 0:21:55# Well, went to the grave
0:21:55 > 0:21:57# Looked down on her face
0:21:57 > 0:21:59# Now, don't you hear me
0:21:59 > 0:22:02# Telling you, pretty mama
0:22:02 > 0:22:04# I went to the grave
0:22:04 > 0:22:07# Looked down on her face
0:22:09 > 0:22:12# Said, "I feel your condition, woman"
0:22:12 > 0:22:16# But I sure can't take your place. #
0:22:20 > 0:22:25A fine, assured performance from Sam Chatmon.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29People think of blues as sad -
0:22:29 > 0:22:32the word means depressed, or in low spirits.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35And of course, the blues can be sad, can be poignant.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39But they're also about helping you not to feel sad,
0:22:39 > 0:22:41blues can be about feeling good.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46Then, as often as not it's good-time music, music to dance to,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49and that's what Sam's Rag is all about.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04# That's my girl
0:23:04 > 0:23:06# Oh, shake it now
0:23:06 > 0:23:08# Oh, that's my girl
0:23:08 > 0:23:10# Who's doing it now
0:23:10 > 0:23:13# I ain't going to take nobody's word
0:23:13 > 0:23:15# I'll stir it with myself
0:23:15 > 0:23:17# Oh, see that girl with the red dress on
0:23:17 > 0:23:19# Oh, she got good Show us your boy
0:23:19 > 0:23:21# Oh, see that girl with the red dress on
0:23:21 > 0:23:23# Oh, she got good Show us your boy
0:23:23 > 0:23:25# I ain't gonna take nobody's word
0:23:25 > 0:23:27# I'll try it for myself
0:23:27 > 0:23:29# Oh, that's my girl
0:23:29 > 0:23:31# Oh, that's my fella
0:23:31 > 0:23:33# Oh, shake it now
0:23:33 > 0:23:35# Who's doing it now?
0:23:35 > 0:23:37# I ain't gonna take nobody's word
0:23:37 > 0:23:39# I'll stir it with myself
0:23:39 > 0:23:40# Yeah, boy!
0:23:42 > 0:23:45# Oh, get on
0:23:47 > 0:23:49# That's what I'm talkin' about
0:23:51 > 0:23:54# Oh, that's my girl
0:23:54 > 0:23:56# Oh, shake it now
0:23:56 > 0:23:58# Oh, that's my girl
0:23:58 > 0:24:00# Oh, stirrin' it now
0:24:00 > 0:24:02# I ain't gonna take nobody's word
0:24:02 > 0:24:04# I'll stir it with myself
0:24:04 > 0:24:06# Oh, mama, mama, look at sis
0:24:06 > 0:24:08# In that back yard, doing that twist
0:24:08 > 0:24:10# Mama, just look at sis
0:24:10 > 0:24:12# In the back yard doing the twist
0:24:12 > 0:24:14# Now, I ain't gonna take nobody's word
0:24:14 > 0:24:16# I'll stir it with myself. #