Why the Blues?

Why did I incorporate the greatest American musical genre in my novel, The Devil Take the Blues?

At its core, the blues are about pain, one of the defining features of the human condition. This genre, perhaps moreso than others, asks questions about pain, why it exits, and what to do about it. Part of this book deals with the problem of pain—if there is a benevolent, omniscient, omnipotent God, why does It allow pain and suffering? I did not try to answer this question fully, as it would take a library of books to answer, and I’ve already worked six years on this one book, and I’d like to write others. I like asking philosophical questions, but leave the debate up to you, the Reader.

As for pain, sometimes, you can’t really do much about it, nothing to alleviate it, other than sing. Singing, creating music, eases something within our hearts that makes the pain able to be born, at least a little while longer.

I also wrote about the blues to bring attention to it. Its origins lie in slavery, a shameful part of American history, but it took that pain and made—arguably—one of the greatest genres in American music, and serves as the basis for other genres—jazz and rock. Without the blues, we would not have rock. Simple as. Once you start listening to the early blues, really listen, you hear them everywhere in music. Knowing the foundations of where something came from gives new depth to enjoyment.

When I first learned about the blues (thank you, PBS and Arthur), I loved that you could sing about anything—your shoes, your house, or your dog. Just sing. Just play. The blues did not require a formal musical education, so they were accessible to the public to learn. You picked up whatever instrument you had and sang.

Of course, incorporating the blues was rife with potential to have callbacks to the Devil. I’ve always loved Faustian bargains, and Southern stories are rife with the character of the Devil in them, sometimes being bested; sometimes not. In musical legend, there is Robert Johnson, who is said to have sold his soul at the crossroads to the Devil to be able to play the guitar.[1] It’s probably a testament to racism that we’re more likely to believe a Black man sold his soul to a supernatural being rather than was a musical genius.

The Devil, music, and the South are entwined in musical history in other songs. “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” holds the classic competition, where a mere mortal beats the Devil at his own game. In my version, this occurred in a sleepy town on the border of Texas and Louisiana rather than Georgia.

In my version of Satan, the Devil would love the blues because it is about pain, but it’s also a way for him to understand and connect to humanity. Emotion drives music. The blues aren’t so much about the lyrics as they are the emotion that’s being sung with. You can have lyrics that are the saddest thing imaginable—and the singer seems downright happy about it. The blues are a way for Frank to understand, and ultimately empathize with, humanity. This couldn’t have been accomplished with other genres because they lack that crucial component of singing about pain that the blues does.

I also loved how the blues were a way to set up showcasing other parts of history. What I tried to do with this book was showcase that horrible, incomprehensible forms of racism, such as the Klan and lynching, existed within living memory. The height of lynchings in the U.S. occurred barely one hundred years ago. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the rise of the blues in popularity also occurred with the rise of Klan membership.

However, racism existed—exists—in more insidious and invisible forms as well. Plenty of White music producers took songs Black men and women wrote, paid a pittance (if anything), then changed it to become more “respectable.” Ie, White.

Ultimately, the blues were linked with “undesirable” qualities—lower classes, people of color, drinking, smoking, and pleasure (notably sexual pleasure). I personally love this outlaw music, and I think the Devil would, too. He’s not interested in making people sin, per se, but in allowing them to live.

Soak your soul in the blues.

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[1] An early title of this book was Crossroad Blues, and that will always be the title in my heart.