And I asked my baby to, let me sit down ‘side her bed


“Turn on your heater, till they turn cherry red, cherry red, cherry red”


That’s the reason I’d rather be a little catfish, so I could swim way down in the sea


I would have many-some of these women, settin’ out a line for me


At this point, I believe, the dichotomy between homeopathic and allopathic blues becomes to lose its grip. The terminology ‘homeopathic’ is, as a start, not really right as a label for what Muir sees as ‘folk blues’. Next to its premise that homeopathy is supposed to cure a disease with ingredients that normally would provoke the very symptoms that it is expected to suppress, the notion of dilution is an equally, if not more, fundamental characteristic of its approach. Homeopathic remedies do not contain any pharmacologically active molecules, and for such remedies to have a pharmacological effect would even violate the premises of its approach. It is difficult to expand this dilution principle to “folk blues” for this genre is precisely typified by its highly emotional and earthy content and performance. Therefore, I would contend that “folk blues”, contrary to the homeopathic principles, offers a substantial and high doses of emotion, wrapped in a form that impacts the performer and audience in a most direct way, far removed from the homeopathic, long-term agency. Homeopathy is supposedly to show its healing effects in a long-term perspective, using doses which are diluted in a way that the active particles are barely present. There is no such blues. Blues is straightforward, intense and direct.


But even if, for a moment, we hold on to both labels, the distinction fails to cover effectively the musical genre and its historical evolution. Indeed, not all blues before 1920, defined by Muir as a turning moment marking a transition from allopathic to homeopathic blues, was of the former nature. A notable exception is some of the work of Marion Harris. She was a popular white singer of early twentieth century vaudeville and Broadway shows, who, in July 1917 recorded “When I Hear That Jazz Band Play”. This song is, by the way, considered to be the first rendition of a jazz song recorded by a woman or at least the first song recorded by a woman that included “Jazz” in the title. Both jazz and blues were on her repertory, and W.C. Handy commented her by saying that she sang blues so well that people sometimes thought that the singer was colored (Redhotjazz.com). In 1920 she recorded “Homesick blues”, of which the lyrics written by Cliff Hess already in 1916, are – in Muir’s definition – clearly homeopathic:


www.myblues.eu ~ erwin bosman


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9