Blues Lyric Formulas in Early Country Music, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock and Roll

Abstract

This article briefly recounts recent work identifying the most common lyric formulas in early blues and then demonstrates the prevalence of these formulas in early country music, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll. The study shows how the preference for certain formulas in prewar country music—like the preference for the same formulas in prewar blues—reflects the social instability of the time, and how the de-emphasis of these same formulas in rhythm and blues and rock and roll reflects the relative affluence of the early postwar period. This shift in textual content is the lyrical counterpart to the electrification, urbanization, and growing formal complexity that mark the transformation of prewar blues and country music into postwar rhythm and blues and rock and roll. DOI: 10.30535/mto.26.4.8 Volume 26, Number 4, November 2020 Copyright © 2020 Society for Music Theory [0.1] Singers and songwriters in many genres of American popular music rely on lyric formulas for the creation of songs. Lyric formulas are fragments of lyrical content—usually lines or half lines— that are shared among singers and recognized by both musicians and listeners. Blues is the genre for which scholars have most conclusively established the widespread use of lyric formulas, and this study briefly recounts recent work that identifies the most common lyric formulas in commercially recorded blues from the early 1920s to the early 1940s—research showing that the high frequency of certain formulas reflects the societal circumstances of much of the African American population during that period. What has received less a ention is the appearance of these same lyrical conventions in other genres, and how there, too, the emphasis on certain formulas reflects social and economic conditions. The same lyric formulas most common in early blues also appear frequently in contemporaneous country music, in rhythm and blues, and in rock and roll, three popular genres with close connections to blues.(1) [0.2] One object of this essay is to show how the preference for certain formulas in prewar country music—like the preference for the same formulas in prewar blues—reflects the large-scale migrations and social disruptions of the period, and the anxiety, loss, and broken relationships that these changes left in their wake. Although the compulsion for white Southerners to migrate was not connected to entrenched racism, as it was for Black Southerners, large segments of both the Black and white populations nonetheless experienced massive displacement and urbanization in the period before the Second World War, and early blues and country music reflect these conditions with lyric formulas emphasizing movement and anxiety. Often these formulas reflect the direct influence of blues on country music, but they also a est to the long saturation of the country music tradition itself with the same lyrical motifs. A second aim of this essay is to show how the de-emphasis of these same travel formulas in rhythm and blues and rock and roll reflects the relative stability of the postwar period: in these later genres, a greater proportion of blues lyric formulas relate more directly to anxiety caused by problems in love relationships, rather than to anxiety caused by movement and change. This shift in textual content is the lyrical counterpart to the electrification, urbanization, and growing formal complexity that mark the transformation of prewar blues and country music into postwar rhythm and blues and rock and roll. 1. Lyric Formulas in Early Blues [1.1] Despite their typical first-person delivery, lyrics in early blues are often non-autobiographical and unrepresentative of the literal first-person experiences, emotions, or intentions of the singer. Frequently, singers and songwriters instead draw from an extensive stock of lines, fragments of lines, and textual and topical constructions that are traditional and formulaic. As David Evans observes, “the Blues are not . . . totally individualistic, for while in their first person delivery they purport to express the sentiments and feelings of the singer, many of their verses are, in fact, traditional and known to thousands of blues singers and members of their audiences” (1982, 48). Similarly, Michael Taft writes that “there was a traditional storehouse of lyrical material on which singers drew in constructing their songs” (2006, 25), and Robert Springer notes that “a formula, in essence, as it is repeated and reused, becomes part of the genre’s storehouse or library, so to speak, and is absorbed into the tradition” (2006, 165).(2) [1.2] In The Blues Lyric Formula, Taft presents the blues formula as a semantic unit composed of at least one complete semantic predication (one complete thought) (2006, 33–35), with examples like human have the blues, human come to some place, human go away from some place, human leave/quit human, and so forth. One of the advantages of this approach is that it demonstrates that many lyrical fragments that differ in their details—and might once have been considered completely distinct formulas—fall within the scope of the same lyric formula. For instance, the formula human come to some place encompasses all of the textual fragments shown in italics in the following five couplets, and many more textual fragments besides: I went down to the ocean, just to get a permanent wave My woman got a new way of loving, man, and it won’t behave (Jake Jones, “Southern Sea Blues,” 1929; after Taft 2006, 114) Still ain’t going to worry; and I ain’t going to raise no sand I’m going back to Friar’s Point, down in sweet old Dixieland (Robert Lee McCoy, “Friar’s Point Blues,” 1940; after Taft 2006, 114) I got a le er, mama; you ought to heard it read Says you coming back, baby, and I’ll be almost dead. (Ashley Thompson, “Minglewood Blues,” 1928; after Taft 2006, 114) I went down to the station, up to the train I couldn’t buy no ticket for shaking that thing (Walter Vincson, “New Shake That Thing,” 1932; after Taft 2006, 115) Here come the biggest boy, coming right from school Hollering and crying like a doggone fool (Jesse James, “Southern Casey Jones,” 1936; after Taft 2006, 115) Blues singers and songwriters typically use lyric formulas—as they do in the excerpts above—in a rhyming couplet, which is the “essential stanzaic structure of the blues” (11), and, as we will see, of several other genres as well. [1.3] Taft makes a large-scale categorical distinction between two different types of formulas—xformulas and r-formulas—based on their position within a line and whether they carry the rhyme. An x-formula opens a line and has no obligation to rhyme. For instance, all three of the following italicized fragments are examples of the x-formula human go away from some place; all three open a line and none participate in a rhyme: I’m going away; now don’t you want to go I’m going to stop at a place, I haven’t never seen before (Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Struck Sorrow Blues,” 1927; after Taft 2006, 117) When he was leaving, I couldn’t hear nothing but that whistle blow And the man at the thro le, lord, he wasn’t coming back no more (Lucille Bogan, “I Hate That Train Called the M. and O.,” 1934; after Taft 2006, 117) I’ve got the key to the highway, billed out and bound to go I’m gonna leave here running, ‘cause walking is most too slow (Jazz Gillum, “Key to the Highway,” 1940; after Taft 2006, 118) An r-formula closes a line, has a strong obligation to rhyme—hence the name “r-formula,” for “rhyming formula”—and thus carries close restrictions on its concluding word or syllable. Indeed, unlike x-formulas, r-formulas conclude with a specific word. For instance, both of the following italicized fragments are examples of the formula time won’t be long, and both close with exactly the same word, “long,” creating a rhyme with the other line of the couplet: Well I’m going away, swear the time ain’t long If you don’t believe I’m leaving, daddy, count them days I’m gone (Louise Johnson, “All Night Long Blues,” 1930; after Taft 2006, 144) I’ll sing you these verses, and it didn’t take long If you want to hear any more, you’ll have to buy this song (Jim Jackson, “Hesitation Blues,” 1930; after Taft 2006, 144) [1.4] Not all blues lines contain lyric formulas throughout—many contain none at all—and so it is additionally useful to define the xand r-positions. Taft represents the positional construction of the typical couplet as follows (36):