From the American South, To the UK: The Geography of Blues and Rock n’ Roll
SBA Activities
My ambassador duties for this week included:
Posting the original CAU Flyer on Campus
Redesigning four more Flyers to disperse in color across the AUC. (CAU, Spelman, Morehouse, AUC)
Contacting the CAU Print Shop for higher quality flyers.
Completing revisions on my Digital Archive Contest Plan
The Great Migration’s Impact on the Blues and Rock n’ Roll
Music is one of the most universal ways people communicate their feelings of sorrow, happiness, and triumph. Blues tells the story of the difficult conditions faced by African Americans during the start of the 1900s. The Great Migration was a time period between 1916 and 1970, where thousands of African Americans relocated east, west, and north from the American South. Southern refugees had arrived in cities like Harlem, New York, bringing with them their abilities and belief systems. Most individuals left the South to seek better social and economic opportunities away from the Jim Crow South. Jim Crow legislation and socialization made it nearly impossible for a black person to find physical safety and social mobility. With their migration from the South, Black American brought their vibrant culture, customs, and music. Blues was some of the most influential fruits of their struggle in the South. The genre of Blues was used as a vessel to reflect the realities of millions of Black Americans.
With these Americans, the blues traveled North to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis. Many black musicians continued to play blues in ways that better reflected their new metropolitan surroundings. For example, HistoryMaker John “Deacon” Moore spoke to the archive about the unique characteristics of the Mississippi Delta Blues. “It's a different tuning, and this kind of music come from out the Delta country in Mississippi where the people pick cotton, and work on the railroad...And the blues is sometimes to have the man/woman thing, you know? ...but the Delta blues is a little different from the little country blues... because it has a little different rhythm.” (You can find a demonstration of MusicMaker John Moore playing both country and delta blues here!)
John “Deacon” Moore
Northern artists, inspired by the traditional structure and exposure to new beats and rhythms of the city and contemporary jazz, created a new blues style known as “city blues”. From this style, Chicago would become a hub for blues artists and Migrators like B.B. King, Koko Taylor and Muddy Waters. HistoryMaker and Chicago Blues veteran Eddy Clearwater talks about the unique setting of blues era Chicago: “My uncle took me to see [Little Mack Simmons], and I really became interested. And after that I started to see people like Magic Sam [Maghett], Otis Rush and Howlin' Wolf [Chester Arthur Burnett] at Silvios, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and Elmore James, and I just became--there was always some place every night on the West Side or the South Side to go to hear blues, there was places all over that you could go and listen to blues.”
MusicMaker Eddy Clearwater
By the 1950’s, a new genre would appear that would take the world by storm— rock and roll. This genre would be led by figures who comprise what is now called the “British Invasion.” These musical newcomers had listened to the sounds of Southern and City Blues and used its structures, melodic patterns, raw emotion, and flamboyant performances to shape rock n roll. Blues piano legend Piano C. Red told the HistoryMakers Archive, “The Rolling Stones recorded with Chess. And they, but they went and got on their own, you know, after they learnt, learnt certain, that style of the music. And they changed around a little bit, you know, but the Rolling Stones, they, they making big time money.’ He also spoke of the popularity of Black American blues singers in the UK. On his relationship with English journalists, Red says “...They had a write-up about me all over there in England...I was with Van Otren for my first LP released in Amsterdam…”
Piano C. Red album cover n.d.
This adaptation of the blues into the rock genre is perhaps best exemplified by the namesake of The Rolling Stones, who take after the Muddy Waters UK release entitled “Rollin Stone Blues.” Years later, the band and blues icon would perform together at the famous Chicago blues club, the Checkerboard Lounge. Buddy Guy, founder of the venue, blues legend, and the child of Louisiana sharecroppers, moved to Chicago in hopes to achieve musical stardom. “Buddy Guy, when he first came to Chicago [Illinois], he told everybody ‘I'm going to be one of the greatest doggone guitar players in the City of Chicago and... he struggled around the city for a while. And then, all of a sudden, he had a chance to get the Checkerboard [Lounge] going, and he has been going ever since.”
These figures also inspired the father of Rock n’ Roll, Chuck Berry. Berry earned this title for his initial experimentation with the different blues rhythms and musical genres to create one of the most popular genres in music history. Rock n’ roll pillars such as the Beatles continue to give Chuck Berry credit for the creation and success of the rock genre. It is clear that trials experienced by Black Americans during the Great Migration has inspired far more than the millions of Black Americans who took that pilgrimage. The raw intensity and vulnerability of its lyrics, in conjunction with its reliable structure and pulsing rhythms, have laid the foundation of equally vibrant and visceral genres. It is in this way that the Blues serves as a testament to the many facets and faces of the Black American impact.
