rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

I Would Rather Be the Devil: Punk Rock Blues in the Night

     Hello, America do ya think I've lost my mind? I wonder myself sometimes, especially when I go through these periods of "blues so bad they black." At the risk of finally (?) slipping into high school diaryville here I'm gonna delve into what the Blues promises, threatens, feeds and neglects etc.. Feeling bad is of course a choice. Even in the most horrific situations, certain human spirits can indeed 'rise above' and weather whatever storms might come. God bless 'em. Some of us bend in the weakest winds, some of us fold at dawn, most of us just feel bad.  Not suicidal or anything, just the general malaise of life getting you down and looking for an escape valve, maybe, not neccessarily looking to get out.

     Now the Blues, in all it's forms, from the Deluxe Las Vegas  Hoity Toity Uptown Blues of B.B. King to the Drunk In The Gutter and Maybe a Little Psychotic Blues of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is a place where feeling bad is embraced, loved for what it is, given voice in a celebration music and song and acceptance, then processed in such a way that the creator and the creation are equally the better for the experience.

     That's a lot to hang on 3 chords. But really, how many amazing moments have happened within that 3 chord framework? The way Muddy Waters sings the line "'A' - child!" while spelling the word 'man' in 'Mannish Boy'. Confident like a motherhubbard. John Lee Hooker going 'A Haww Haww Haww Haww'. Cooler than we'd ever be. Buddy Guy bending a note from here to something like heaven. Transcendence. Incredible lyrics like: "I would rather be the Devil than to ever be your man.", "Nobody loves me but my mama, and she could be jivin', too."and the deathless "Before I'll be your dog I'll let you walk alone." This is all some pretty uncenscored stuff. This is maskless and unapologetic about the essential venality of man. It gives our so-called baser instincts a little breathing room, allowing us to (for want of a better phrase) 'exorcise' these 'demons' without judgement or punishment. The Blues is often called the Devil's music for this reason, for being a place where a man can deal with all that it means to be human, free from the restrictions of social influence that seeks to deny real emotions like lust, envy and hate by calling them sins. I would rather be the Devil indeed.

     Much, if not all, of the 'quasi-satanic mojo' that has surrounded this music since Robert Johnson sold his soul to Old Scratch at the Crossroads to folks like Ozzy today is as much bullshit marketing as Any Given Britney, but the cliches had to be co-opted from something, right? There had to be something for the money guys and admen to get wrong, right?

     There exists in the Blues, like anything spiritual, a Truth w/a capital 'T' for those who want to find it and it is as personal a truth as can be, our translations like snowflakes, no two alike. There exists in the Blues a place where man is exhalted in his exhaustion of always falling short of an idea of god; where feeling bad is attended to and thus transformed through muscle and mind and heart and soul, wood wires and sinew into something good. Something real.

     To stand upright,howling like a demon with a cheap guitar in the face of the endless trouble, bending notes to your will, calling in voices shaped like the screams of screaming angels that fall into a shroud self around the power of the noise and the message that is man.

     Hang that on yr 3 chords. Life is good.

Posted by: timbyrnes at 19:37 | link | comments (3)

Comments:

#1  23 March 2006 - 22:11

 

"America, I've given you everything and now I'm nothing...." :D

Excuse me now, Blind Willie Johnson beckons.... :D

burninglight

#2  24 March 2006 - 16:05

 

da blues. yeah.

that 1-4-5 diatonic thang. backbeat.

carnal. simple. and true.

limine

#3  24 March 2006 - 17:46

 

here here hear hear.... yessssssssssssssss...........

i'm gonna run to my elmore leonard (the sky is crying or stormy monday, can't decide, what the hell, ok, both) and have son seals for dessert.

howard

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