“up-to-date” rag. “What made it up-to-date was its opening strain in a twelve-bar blues form.” (David Evans, 2008, 52). It is the earliest published composition known to link the condition of having the blues to the musical genre that would become known later as “the blues” (id., 53). Although not always in an explicit form, other blues compositions would soon follow the same road. Muir defines Handy’s “Memphis Blues” as a powerful reflexive song which implicitly states that blues cures blues. A 1916 popular song, “Oh those blues!” says it in a more explicit way (Muir, 87):


“When you’re feeling blue and want a tune to fill you of joy


take a good old tune of blues () if that tune don’t set you right there is no excuse”


Ragtime and Jazz, close relatives of the blues, were perfectly in line with the good mood spirit and positive feelings that music was expected to bring as a reaction to the “weakening of the nerves” brought about by the American strive for success, and by the fraying effects of modern life in general. The “novelty song”, “Jazzin’ the Cotton Town Blues” (R. Lewis & H. Olsen) published in 1920 could not summarize the curative effects of Jazz and Blues better:


When they put on the jazz notes heavy Each night down on the levee They are in a class of their own


For the cornet, trombone and the clarinet Play the kind of blues you won’t forget When the folks from the old plantation Come for a celebration Full of pep


Just see them toddlelin’ on Wobblelin’ on


Having a big Jubilee


Old folks and young folks dancing Dark brown skin gals a prancing Full of glee. Oh, honey baby New notes that sigh Blue notes that cry


Make you wear out your dancing shoes And there is some joy on the levee, boy When Andy’s band in Dixieland


Is Jazzin’ the Cotton Town, Jazzin’ the Cotton Town Is Jazzin’ the Cotton Town Blues And we go Blues


Peter Muir distinguishes two ways in which blues can act as an agency to cure the blues. The ‘medication’ takes either the form of lowdown, sad music, or the depressed mood is alleviated with cheerful tunes and lyrics. He names the former ‘homeopathic‘, and the latter ‘allopathic‘, referring to the medical terms. Homeopathy is based on the “law of similars” that follows the


www.myblues.eu ~ erwin bosman


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