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The blues is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.

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BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

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# I woke up this morning

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# Feeling round for my shoes... #

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It's such simple music, it seems timeless.

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# Well, I woke up this morning feeling round... #

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But the blues does have a history and it keeps changing.

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For the 1920's New York record industry,

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the blues was a parade of powerful women on stage,

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singing about sex, sadness and feeling blue.

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# I woke up this morning

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# With an awful aching head... #

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This is the story of how a folk art met up with new media

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and became the bedrock of American music.

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# Woke up this morning I looked round for my shoes... #
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From the Deep South came the blues that gave birth to rock 'n' roll.

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In the 1960's, white kids got the blues.

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# I am the little red rooster

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# Too lazy to crow for... #

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The blues ended the 20th century as the ultimate brand of authenticity.

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Music that could be celebrated by prisoners and presidents.

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This is music with humble beginnings.

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# Woke up this morning

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# And found my baby gone... #

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It's a bent note here. It's something that says,

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"I've been somewhere and you've been there, too,

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"but we don't necessarily want to talk about it."

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And blues is kind of like that.

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It's kind of a mystery and long may it stay a mystery, you know.

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The blues may have had its roots in Africa,

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but the music was born in the USA.

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# I'm going down in Louisiana... #

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Why is it that there is no blues in Cuba, no blues in Puerto Rico,

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no blues in St Kitts and Nevis?

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Why is that not happening?

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# I'm going down in New Orleans... #

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In 1865, the American Civil War freed the slaves.

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By around 1900, the blues had emerged in the deep south.

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Their musical roots may have been ripped from the African soil, but to

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talk to each other, black Americans needed to forge a new language.

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In the United States, the music was broken up,

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the people were broken up.

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They were not parts of the same tribe,

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so there was nothing to express it except the blues.

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# Well, you know, I just found out

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# My trouble just begun... #

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From the start, the blues spoke in the first person,

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talking about moving on and leaving your troubles behind.

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# I'm going down in New Orleans... #

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The blues comes actually as a release from the kind

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of strict localism, you call it, you know, being confined.

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And it's... you suddenly get songs about people travelling,

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and people going to see this and people what they met on the road.

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BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

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# I'm on my way but I don't know where... #

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Appropriately, a railroad station was the setting for a crucial

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early encounter with the blues.

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Here, a college-educated black man named WC Handy,

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the leader of a coloured band, met a "lean loose-jointed Negro" vagrant.
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We're in Tutwiler, Mississippi and this place is famous in blues

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lore because some time around 1903 this is the spot where

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WC Handy recalled that he had first heard the blues.

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He was sitting here and heard a musician playing

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a guitar by pulling a knife across the strings,

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and Handy recalled it was the weirdest sound he had ever heard.

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The blues was being improvised all over the south

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for pleasure and profit.

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FRANTIC BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

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Later, Handy heard in Cleveland, Mississippi,

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not too far away from here, an African American string band

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playing the blues, and that was also a really pivotal moment

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because that's when he realised, he saw people throwing

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coins at their feet and realised that he could make money off it.

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The sort of music Handy heard is played
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today by The Ebony Hillbillies.

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Early blues music was dance music designed for adults to

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get them to come to some place and drink and have a good time,

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and so it's mating music, essentially.

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It's about men and women.

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The driving instrumental part of the blues certainly

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comes from early fiddle music, slave fiddle players, banjo players,

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but the blues was purposely formed as the dance music

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so the musicians would make money, you know, to come to dance halls.

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Oh, he got me!

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- He got you too?!
- Yeah, me too!

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At the turn of the century, the blues was being

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played by the poorest people on whatever came to hand.

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THEY SING

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You see old slavery pictures,

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guys working on the railroad track, they get to hitting the hammer the

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same way, you know, then they make up a song - ha-poom, ha-poom, ha-poom.

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I've heard guys that have put a piece on wire on the side

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of a house and played, take the tambourine and play, they take a

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washing tub, they take a wash board, take spoons, you know, anything

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that you put together like that with a feeling, somebody will listen.

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Handy translated the weird sounds that he heard

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into a publishing empire.

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In WC Handy Park in Memphis,

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a statue commemorates the writer, composer and publisher

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who gave himself the title, "Father of the Blues".

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Around 1914, in the era before records and radio,

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Handy's Memphis Blues and St Louis Blues became sheet music hits.

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What's really significant about Handy hearing this music is
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that within a decade he was writing these and making good

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money off of this music, so we often talk about blues as a folk

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music, but almost from its inception it was also commercialised.

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Soon this new musical form

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was crisscrossing the southern states of America.

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Today we think of minstrel shows as crude caricatures of black music,

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but at the beginning of the 20th century, dozens of African American

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minstrels were putting on tent shows across the south.

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# Woke up this morning Same thing on my mind

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# Woke up this morning Same thing on my mind... #

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Minstrel shows and their successors, the medicine shows, which toured

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the south right through the first half of the 20th century, were

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in a sense, academies for musicians who wanted to become professional.

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The tent shows travelled through the countryside, where audiences

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heard versions of the latest tunes from the big city.
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They were almost like travelling salesmen for songs.

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They would pick up stuff all over the place,

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whether from the vernacular,

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from songs that were being sung in plantations,

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or by professional troupes,

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by musical comedy troupes that was available on sheet music,

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and they mixed it altogether.

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LIVELY BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

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The men and women writing and performing the blues were ambitious.

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They used the latest media to bring their music to the public.

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It was New York, the capital of the new recording industry,

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that made the blues a driving force in popular music.

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Initially, the record business ignored black musicians.

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You have to remember that in this period, in the teens and '20s,

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the money in songs was in publishing, it was not in recording.

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And Perry Bradford, who was a black songwriter,

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he was a contemporary and a competitor of WC Handy,

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was writing these songs and he wanted to get hits.

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# I can't eat a bite

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# For the man I love... #

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In 1920, Perry Bradford scored a big hit with

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Crazy Blues, sung by Mamie Smith.

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# So I got the crazy blues

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# If my baby went away... #

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It's said to have sold a million copies. No-one knows for sure,

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but what is certain is that it launched the blues as pop music.

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# Now I got the crazy blues... #

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In the early 1920's,

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record companies began to release race records -

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music by black performers for black audiences.

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# The blues ain't nothing but your lover on your mind... #

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The first successful blues singers were women.

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The threat to whites was not black women, it was

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black men, so the black men on the stage were forced to black up.

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Black women were not.

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They could perform with their own skin,

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but a black man had to be a clown.

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He had to put on funny clothes and do funny dances.

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There was always interaction, although not always favourable,

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between American white males and black women.

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They were allowed to do or be vocal or say certain things that the

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black males wouldn't be able to say or do.

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# The blues ain't nothing but a slow aching heart... #

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They were more showbiz in their own way,
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even though they were as gut blues as anybody else,

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but they had to dress it up and there is nothing like a dressed up

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lady to turn the interests, I think.

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# I love my man

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# But he treats me like a dog... #

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Luckily they were some of the most phenomenally great singers.

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Even through those old records,

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you can tell the timbre of their voice and their delivery was amazing

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cos this was out pre-microphone,

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so you know these girls had to be able to project.

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In segregated 1920's America, the blues queens performed on a black

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theatre circuit and they lived their lives in a black underworld.

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When the artists used to perform and travel around, they would have

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to stay in people's houses, which turned out to be things that we

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called the buffet flats in which you could get entertainment, food,
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you could get a bed

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and you could get a bed with someone else in it if you wanted.

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# Woke up this morning

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# When chickens were crowing for days... #

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The blues may have been a view from the bottom of society,

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but in 1923 the blues produced its first superstar, Bessie Smith.

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A dark brown woman from Chattanooga Tennessee,

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she was a veteran of ten years touring with minstrel shows.

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# Some people call me a hobo

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# Some call me a bum

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# Nobody knows my name

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# Nobody knows what I've done... #

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Bessie Smith was talking about the woes of life with women

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and that's probably why she was so popular.

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She talked about domestic violence, which is what we call it now.

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She talked about even fighting back.

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Come on out. You're gonna move.

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Don't you hit me. Now wait a minute there! Grab the woman.

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Emerging from a dirt poor background,

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Bessie Smith at her peak commanded 2,000-a-week

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for her live performances.

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# Woke my baby

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# He's done left this town... #

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Bessie Smith lives the blues, especially those sexual songs,

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because she had a reputation and she lived up to it.

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One of my favourites is Sugar in My Bowl, you know.

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# I need a little sugar in my bowl

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# I need a little hot dog on my roll

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# I could stand some loving for so bad

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# I feel so funny I feel so sad... #

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You know, it's just something to entice.

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You know, you're going to listen to things that entice you.

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You're going to eat food that entices you, you know.

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Why not have a little spiciness in the music?

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The blues was black music making a lot of money for its superstars,

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but the structure of the music came out of work songs and churches.

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If it wasn't for Cavalry, where I would be?

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Yeah! Yeah!

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The call and response between the preacher

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and the congregation came ultimately from Africa.

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In tribal music, one singer sang a line and the others sang it back.

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- Oh a hill called Cavalry.
- Yeah!

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In the blues, the second voice became an instrumental voice.

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- Y'all praying with me?
- Yeah!
- Y'all praying with me?
- Yeah!

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The call and response, when you sing the blues,

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you say a word, a lyric, whatever and then you play behind that, you know.

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For instance, I said, "Thank you, sir." Duh, duh, duh.

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You know, "Thank you, sir." Duh, duh, duh. You know.

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- At Cavalry.
- At Cavalry.

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We hear... the words.

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Yeah!

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The call and response, you can go back to early Africa,

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and it's usually based on a form of people returning from a hunt,

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saying, "I caught this blah, blah, blah."

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And the people say, "Yeah, you sure you caught that."

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It's acknowledgement and confirmation.

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You know, "Did you hear that?" "Yes, I heard that."

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"What did I say?" "This is what you said." "What does it mean?"

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"It means this."

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- We're going to show them on a hill called Calvary.
- Yeah!

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Religion spoke of the life to come,

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but the blues was rooted in the here and now.

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# I hate to see

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# The evening sun go down... #

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The music evolved into the 12-bar blues,

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turning sadness into stoicism

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and misfortune into humour.

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The blues is definitely more than just a sadness.

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Because basically a blues, especially

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if you deal with the 12-bar, it's set up like a joke.

248
00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:45,600
You know, you repeat the line twice,

249
00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:47,680
then you've got the punch line at the end.
250
00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:49,760
"I've got a man that treats me like a rat.

251
00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:51,800
"I've got a man that treats me like a rat.

252
00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:54,520
"He gets me so worried I don't know where I'm at."

253
00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:56,640
It's a happy music, it truly is.

254
00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:02,200
It's just that some of the subject matter of the blues

255
00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:05,440
sometimes had that sad feeling,

256
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:09,160
but truly, it is not a sad music.

257
00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:12,120
VINTAGE BLUES RECORDING

258
00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:21,440
# When the blues come and take me... #

259
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:29,920
In 1926, race records got into a new market and a new type of southern

260
00:18:29,920 --> 00:18:35,440
solo artist, Blind Lemon Jefferson, a street singer from Texas.

261
00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,800
His high lonesome voice and solitary guitar sounded like another

262
00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:42,200
world from the Vaudeville women who had dominated blues recordings.

263
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,160
It was a different kind of blues.

264
00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:52,120
It's one-on-one. A person is just kind of howlin' at the moon.
265
00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:55,920
There's no ulterior motive

266
00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,400
for a cat to do what he does

267
00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:04,400
because he's expressin' his or her soul to the universe.

268
00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:06,560
# You're so good lookin'... #

269
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,160
Blind Lemon Jefferson may have sounded like a voice

270
00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:16,880
howling at the moon, but he was backed by a business plan.

271
00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,800
Paramount Records employed black producer Jay Mayo Williams

272
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,440
to run their race records division.

273
00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:26,120
In his catalogue, Williams appealed to his customers, asking

274
00:19:26,120 --> 00:19:28,560
if they could recommend any new blues talent.

275
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:34,800
And, by God, someone working in a record store in Dallas wrote

276
00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:37,240
to Paramount Records and said there's this guy

277
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:41,000
plays down by the tracks here, who gets these huge crowds

278
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,920
and if we had a record of him we could sell a bunch of them.

279
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:45,920
And that was Blind Lemon Jefferson

280
00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:48,440
and the record company thought he sounded terrible,

281
00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:52,280
but they gave it a try and, by God, it sold all over the country.

282
00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:56,800
MUSIC: "One Kind Favor" by Blind Lemon Jefferson

283
00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:03,880
# Well, there's one kind favour I ask of you... #

284
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:07,520
He became a recording star and his success transported him

285
00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:10,400
far away from singing on street corners in Texas.

286
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,520
# It's a long, long lane, ain't got no end

287
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:25,640
# It's a long, long lane, ain't got no end

288
00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:31,280
# It's a long, long lane It ain't got no end

289
00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:35,160
# It's a bad wind that never change... #

290
00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:40,400
He did all right for himself. They say he owned his own car, he had

291
00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:45,040
his own chauffeur to drive him around. He was a doozy.

292
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:49,040
That's it. I don't know about ragged.

293
00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:51,200
Some people say he was mighty sophisticated.

294
00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:55,320
Some people say he had some of the wildest suits you ever seen.

295
00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:01,480
# Have you ever heard a coffin sound?

296
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:06,960
# Have you ever heard a coffin sound? #

297
00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:09,760
The success of Blind Lemon Jefferson gave birth to a new

298
00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:13,320
style of the blues, as if the vagrant with a guitar

299
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:16,880
heard by WC Handy at the railroad station had come back to life.

300
00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,480
But this time he was selling a lot of records.

301
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,880
THEY SING TOGETHER

302
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,760
All over the south, the songsters were auditioning.

303
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,280
They were street musicians with a big repertory of songs,

304
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:38,200
but the record companies wanted just one thing.

305
00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:41,200
The reason these fellows got pressed so hard into the blues is

306
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:44,920
because the recording companies found out that blues was big

307
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:49,880
business, so all these musicians who'd run around singing pop

308
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:54,480
songs and ballads of the day end up writing a bunch of blueses.
309
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:57,280
HE SINGS

310
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:03,960
The record company would simply go to the

311
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:06,960
songsters and they would go to the south, go to Atlanta.

312
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,600
They would just say, "Everybody come who wants to sing for us."

313
00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:12,240
They'd get a hotel, everyone would stay four or five people to

314
00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:15,000
a room, they would go and hear the songs.

315
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,040
They would pick the blues and nothing else.

316
00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:28,960
There was one region that supplied spectacular blues

317
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:30,960
talent for this southern market.

318
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,720
The Mississippi Delta was a flat area

319
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,360
formed by the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers.

320
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:41,520
# I'd rather be the Devil... #

321
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:50,840
It was amazingly fertile soil for cotton

322
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:53,440
and it proved equally fertile for music.

323
00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:58,920
But this was no ancient landscape
324
00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:01,920
of big plantations filled with former slaves.

325
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:04,960
There was virtually nobody in the Mississippi Delta

326
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:08,440
until quite late because it was flooded.

327
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:10,920
They had to build the levees on the Mississippi river.

328
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:12,960
You needed the army corps of engineers

329
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:14,880
in order to get the modern Deltas.

330
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,760
And what that meant was the population

331
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:23,560
that was there at the beginning

332
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:27,720
of the 20th century when blues was happening was very, very young.

333
00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:34,680
In the Delta everybody was ready to get into the new style, which

334
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,960
was blues, and so it becomes this huge blues centre,

335
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,320
not because it's ancient, but for exactly the opposite reason.

336
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,680
VINTAGE BLUES MUSIC

337
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,600
Will Dockery's farm was hacked out of the wilderness

338
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,640
in the 1890's to become one of the biggest plantations in the Delta.

339
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,800
When Mr Will first got here there were bears and panthers, er,

340
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,320
and the whole place was covered in woods.

341
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:19,960
And so he set about to clear it, and he needed help, and so that's

342
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:23,360
how he got so many people to come here cos he realised that these

343
00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:27,120
thousands of acres that he wanted to clear needed lots of helpers.

344
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:43,840
By 1920, there were more than 2,000 workers living on Dockery.

345
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,280
It was like a small town, a town which needed

346
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,480
entertaining on a Saturday night.

347
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,640
Well, once you had this commissary situation

348
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,440
and people standing out here in front of it being paid on Saturday

349
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,960
afternoon, it was the perfect place for these blues singers to come.

350
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:09,160
The greatest entertainer based at Dockery was Charlie Patton,

351
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,440
the father of the Delta blues.

352
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:15,040
Patton sang at the top of his voice.

353
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:18,000
He liked to clown, throw the guitar behind his head.

354
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,560
He liked to talk to people in the audience,

355
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:23,360
but he was a performer. He was an entertainer.

356
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:30,560
# She's tryin' to keep it here

357
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:35,760
# My rudder got sucked in

358
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,400
# She's tryin' to keep it here... #

359
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,800
He had a lot of the extremes. He had a lot of the hard lives

360
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:57,080
and he had a lot of women.

361
00:25:57,080 --> 00:26:03,280
He played... Every blues man gets a little but he had a lot!

362
00:26:05,360 --> 00:26:11,600
# But I got something to find them something with... #

363
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:18,800
He had him a rough wife and they lived a rough life,

364
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,800
and that's what killed him in his 40's...

365
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:25,600
And that's what almost got him killed

366
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,040
a few times before that, I'd wager!

367
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,760
VINTAGE BLUES RECORDING
368
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:43,480
The blues singers travelled the south and performed on isolated

369
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:48,680
plantations, but talent scouts connected them to recording studios.

370
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:51,360
The most important venue was a furniture store

371
00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:55,560
in Jackson, Mississippi, owned by a white man, HC Speir.

372
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:00,120
Well, really he's the godfather of Delta blues.

373
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:04,880
He is to Delta blues and Mississippi blues what Sam Phillips was

374
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:08,040
to rock and roll with his Sun label in the 1950's.

375
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:11,800
# Will you kill a man? Yes, I will... #

376
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:16,440
Gayle Dean Wardlow tracked down HC Speir

377
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,200
and interviewed him before his death.

378
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,680
This is HC Speir, Jackson, Mississippi.

379
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:28,720
By 1926, I became a talent scout through all the southern states.

380
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,120
Well, he would walk up when he was on the streets

381
00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:34,080
and listen to a musician play.

382
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:36,560
He was looking for four original songs.
383
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,280
The reason many bluesmen never got recorded is

384
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:41,680
they didn't have enough original material.

385
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,240
VINTAGE BLUES RECORDING

386
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:53,840
Speir told tales of drunken blues singers

387
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:57,120
and bootleg liquor that fuelled Saturday night parties.

388
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,480
People came to drink and they came to dance

389
00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:03,600
and they were drinking moonshine.

390
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:04,840
And, you know, some of this

391
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:08,000
moonshine was made through lead radiators, so I mean it had

392
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:11,880
a high lead content, but there was always booze to be found at a party.

393
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:23,480
HC Speir said the bluesman, he said he don't fit.

394
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,560
He said he got to have a drink before he can make a record

395
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:31,960
and he smells a little bit, but he says they're great guitar players.

396
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:39,320
He said the Delta blues was kind of like the meat barrel -

397
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,880
it smells a little bit. And someone like Bessie Smith,

398
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,680
the city singers, they had dolled it up and put perfume on their blues.

399
00:28:57,040 --> 00:28:59,920
Speir got a letter from Charlie Patton in the Delta

400
00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:03,160
and basically Patton said, "I think I'm as good as anyone who's

401
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:06,040
"been recorded and I would like to audition for you."

402
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:09,960
Speir got Patton a record contract.

403
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,760
Patton was good. Patton was one of the best talents I ever had

404
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,240
and he was one of the best sellers, too, on record.

405
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:19,320
His records made him famous

406
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:22,480
and he passed on his tips to the next generation.

407
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:26,080
I done started to make records, I was ploughing,

408
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:29,240
ploughing on the plantation,

409
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:34,240
and a man come through picking the guitar called Charlie Patton,

410
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:36,720
and I liked his sounds.

411
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,080
And so, every night that I'd get off of work,

412
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:44,000
I'd go to his house and he'd learn me how to pick the guitar,

413
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:46,200
so I got good with it.

414
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,160
For the musicians who started life on these plantations,

415
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,520
Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, BB King and many more,

416
00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,960
the blues offered a way out.

417
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:00,480
Excuse me. These guys never picked cotton in their life,

418
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,320
that's why they're playing the blues, you know,

419
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:06,240
to get out of the cotton fields, they were playing.

420
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,360
The black families working in these cotton fields were share

421
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:14,680
croppers and for many, it was a modernised form of slavery.

422
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:27,320
# Cos it's harder than ever been before... #

423
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,800
Mississippi was the poorest state in the Union.

424
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:36,640
Segregation was total and the white man's word was the rule of law.

425
00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,520
A white shop keeper like HC Speir

426
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:44,560
understood why this was fertile soil for the blues.
427
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:46,120
You take the Negro.

428
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:51,320
For 100 years, he's been deprived of so many privileges.

429
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:56,360
They could get into the fields and become more satisfied with themselves

430
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:58,000
by singing, you understand.

431
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,120
It was singing off something that has happened to them.

432
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:06,200
A white man would take him and keep him for a week or two and not pay

433
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,760
him anything, and even maybe kill one or two now and then.

434
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:12,240
BELL TOLLS

435
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:18,000
It isn't what we hear. It's what we don't hear.

436
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,800
What we don't hear in the blues is the real reason for the blues -

437
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:24,280
the segregation and the discrimination.

438
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,000
The control was total.

439
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:31,680
# Sing this song and I ain't gonna sing no more... #

440
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:38,040
Well, to me, the blues is the expression where a people

441
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:40,600
couldn't express themselves.
442
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:44,280
Those riffs and those songs came off of the expression of not being

443
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:48,560
able to say to their slave master vocally that "I don't like this".

444
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:54,760
# Down 61 Highway

445
00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:58,000
# It be the only road I know... #

446
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,720
What is the cause of we being on the Highway 61?

447
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:08,000
129 women and children here starving

448
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:13,560
and suffering, but we, who have the bite, are dividing with them.

449
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:21,440
Thousands of black people began to vote with their feet,

450
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:25,160
leaving poverty in the south for jobs in the north.

451
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:28,480
Their numbers were boosted by the Wall Street crash in 1929

452
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:30,600
and the depression that followed.

453
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,600
It signalled hard times for the music industry.

454
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:39,160
Sales of records slumped and the blues recording sessions dried up.

455
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:42,920
# Lordy, some folks sat down

456
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,600
# Greyhound busses don't run. #

457
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:51,520
Delta bluesmen like Son House and Skip James

458
00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:53,920
made records that were commercial flops.

459
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,240
# I'm so tired of here

460
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:57,800
# So tired of New Orleans

461
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,120
# I'm so tired of... #

462
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,680
Their music would lie buried like a time capsule.

463
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:10,080
But in the 1960's, they would be rediscovered

464
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:13,880
and acclaimed as masters of the Delta blues by a young white

465
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,560
audience who adopted the blues as their own.

466
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:21,840
# If that don't settle my drunken spree

467
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:25,160
# I'll never get drunk again... #

468
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:27,600
The path that led these young white people to the

469
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:31,400
blues began with a new kind of record scout driving south -

470
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:32,720
the folklorist.

471
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:36,640
# Be my woman, girl, I'll

472
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:39,480
# Be your man...

473
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:41,560
# Be my woman... #

474
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,760
The only white people so far involved in the blues had

475
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,360
been record manufacturers looking for hits.

476
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:52,960
But the folklorists were looking for music they wanted to preserve.

477
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,240
THEY SING

478
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:00,680
John Lomax had grown up in Texas

479
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,320
and had a long-standing love of folk music.

480
00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:08,400
# His wife and his sister too... #

481
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:12,360
In 1933, he and his son, Alan, received a grant

482
00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:15,600
from the Library of Congress to motor through the south,

483
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:19,000
visiting big penitentiaries to make recordings.

484
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:24,640
My son and I conceived the idea this summer that the best way

485
00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:28,560
to get real Negro singing in the Negro idiom was to find
486
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:32,560
the Negro who had the least contact with the whites.

487
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,480
People have written that my grandfather

488
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:38,840
was obsessed with the prisons

489
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,840
and he wanted to capture something isolated.

490
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,760
But he wanted to find the oldest material,

491
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:47,480
which is a very important thing to do.

492
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:51,520
It's like archaeology. It was very scientific.

493
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,280
THEY SING

494
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:07,600
Prisons in the south were huge farms, which were run for profit.

495
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,160
I think you could almost call it

496
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,280
an extension of slavery in the 20th century.

497
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:23,840
And the men had to work from sun up to sun down what they called

498
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:25,160
"from cane to caint",

499
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:27,960
from when you can't see in the morning until when you

500
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:32,560
can't see in the night. You know, the whole of the day in unbearable heat.
501
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:36,080
ALL SING TOGETHER

502
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:49,000
The music sung by black prisoners inspired an extraordinary

503
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:51,360
passion in the young Alan Lomax.

504
00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,200
He would spend the rest of his life recording music

505
00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:58,000
created by people at the bottom of society.

506
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,680
I had heard all the symphonies there were,

507
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:04,160
and the chamber music and the best jazz,

508
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,720
and I said, "This is the greatest music."

509
00:36:07,720 --> 00:36:12,280
There were 50 black men, who were working under the whip and the gun,

510
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:17,080
and they had the soul to make the most wonderful song I'd ever heard.

511
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,240
The most spectacular discovery the Lomaxes made in jail was

512
00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:30,120
a 45-year-old prisoner, Huddie Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly.

513
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:33,360
HE SINGS SOMBRELY

514
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:39,240
He was a convicted murderer

515
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:42,760
and had a fantastic repertory of blues and ballads.

516
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:46,960
# Take this hammer

517
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:48,320
# Haaa!

518
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,400
# If he asks you

519
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:51,800
# Haaa... #

520
00:36:56,240 --> 00:36:58,720
He had a big, penetrating voice.

521
00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:03,840
He was a dynamic presence, almost frightening to some people.

522
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:05,800
He was, in one sense, a great performer,

523
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:07,760
you knew it from the second you saw him.

524
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,800
But another way you thought, "This guy is beyond performance."

525
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:17,680
# My girl, my girl, don't lie to me

526
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:22,800
# Tell me where did you sleep last night. #

527
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,360
When Lead Belly got out of jail and met the media it became

528
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:30,760
clear how much American journalists enjoyed writing about bad black men.

529
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:33,160
Life Magazine published a profile,

530
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:36,200
"Bad Nigger Makes Good Minstrel".

531
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:38,720
He was called a "Murderous Minstrel",

532
00:37:38,720 --> 00:37:40,480
a "Sweet singer of the swamplands

533
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:44,360
"here to do a few tunes between homicides".

534
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:48,560
# I'm going where the cold wind blows... #

535
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:52,800
This narrative had been shaped by reporters

536
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:56,480
and the like who wanted to see, number one, a murderer who was

537
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:59,120
out walking around and a murderer who sang songs that people

538
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,480
enjoyed, which was, you know, it's priceless.

539
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:07,720
# My girl, my girl Don't you lie to me... #

540
00:38:07,720 --> 00:38:12,920
In February, 1935, John Lomax took Lead Belly to a mansion

541
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:17,200
in Connecticut where a newsreel crew staged and filmed a re-construction

542
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:21,920
of Lead Belly's journey from singing convict to grateful performer.

543
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:24,360
Lead Belly, what are you doing here?

544
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:26,360
Boss, I've come here to be your man.
545
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,120
I've come here to work for you the rest of my life.

546
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:34,840
It is scripted in kind of cringing detail to

547
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:39,200
show Lead Belly as a servile,

548
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,280
compliant...

549
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:45,240
plantation negro

550
00:38:45,240 --> 00:38:50,800
who John Lomax shepherds out of confinement.

551
00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:52,840
Thank you sir, boss.

552
00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:55,000
I'll drive you all over the United States.

553
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,080
I'll tie your shoestrings for you

554
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,360
and you won't have to tie your shoestrings

555
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:00,720
as long as I work for you.

556
00:39:00,720 --> 00:39:03,280
Later, John Lomax was embarrassed by this newsreel,

557
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:05,920
while Lead Belly was angry because he didn't get paid.

558
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:08,760
Thank you, sir boss. Thank you, sir.

559
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:11,760
Despite growing tension between them, Lead Belly performed
560
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:15,240
with Lomax at Harvard University and literary conferences.

561
00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:21,240
He got a new audience that was unexpected

562
00:39:21,240 --> 00:39:26,160
and that was educated, middle class whites who were very liberal.

563
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:29,280
He didn't really have an audience among blacks.

564
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:35,520
Lead Belly was never a success with black audiences, and white society

565
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:39,880
saw him as wild-eyed and dangerous, an embodiment of his race.

566
00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:43,800
However Lead Belly did find support in left wing circles.

567
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:47,840
We do not preach the sure hope of socialism in the lives

568
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:50,680
of these young comrades of ours...

569
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,680
As the blues entered white liberal society,

570
00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:57,520
the music could now be heard in the context of civil rights.

571
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:00,720
The blues were getting political.

572
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,920
# I want all the coloured people to listen to me

573
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,360
# Don't ever try to get a home in Washington DC

574
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:09,800
# Cos it's a bourgeois town

575
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:11,800
# Oooh, it's a bourgeois town

576
00:40:13,720 --> 00:40:17,800
# I got the bourgeois blues and I'm sure gonna spread the news... #

577
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:20,840
The only support for blacks in the south

578
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:25,800
in the '30s was the Communist Party, so there was a great symbiosis

579
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,360
between the communists and this black.

580
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:31,840
And in 1936, a meeting of the American Communist Party, they did

581
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:38,200
officially recognise the blues as the voice of the proletarian black.

582
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:40,480
UPBEAT BLUES MUSIC

583
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:50,680
But proletarian black record buyers were dancing to a different beat.

584
00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:54,240
The blues records that dominated the Harlem hit parade of the 1930's

585
00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:56,680
were by the Count Basie Orchestra.

586
00:40:56,680 --> 00:41:00,520
# Don't the moon look lonesome shining through the trees?

587
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:07,760
# Don't the moon look lonesome shining through the trees?

588
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:13,200
# Don't your house look lonesome when your baby pack up to leave? #

589
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,240
You say to dance you must have a beat.

590
00:41:16,240 --> 00:41:19,240
Every beat you put your foot down on a beat

591
00:41:19,240 --> 00:41:21,520
and that's what Basie does for you.

592
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:25,680
You can dance to Basie, it don't matter what he plays, any sound.

593
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:29,760
And that's why dah-dah,

594
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:31,800
dah-dah, dah-dah...

595
00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:33,920
That's so pronounced you can't miss it!

596
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:38,960
# You can't love me, baby, and treat me that way... #

597
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:44,000
Count Basie's band combined the blues sound of Bessie Smith

598
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:46,600
with the latest developments in swing.

599
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:49,320
It was a very successful formula.

600
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:53,160
He took an eight-bar phrase, made it a 12-bar phrase

601
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:55,840
and now you got the blues.

602
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:59,440
And he had 16 guys who can shout it.

603
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:01,480
Oh, God, they were great!
604
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:03,960
# In the evening

605
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:08,200
# In the evening

606
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:11,840
# Mama, when the sun goes down... #

607
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:14,320
The blues singers were getting more sophisticated.

608
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:16,320
The new style of blues crooners,

609
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,600
like Leroy Carr, were no longer shouting the blues.

610
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:23,160
We have electrical recording - simple as that.

611
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:27,360
You didn't need to shout, so these singers could be more intimate.

612
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:31,640
There's another innovation comes at the same time - radio.

613
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:33,800
So, an intimate voice,

614
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:38,320
singing softly in a radio late at night - irresistible.

615
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:42,120
# Well, it's hard to tell Hard to tell

616
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:44,840
# Which one will treat you the best

617
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:48,200
# When the sun goes down... #

618
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:51,800
This melody was not lost on a young man in Mississippi.
619
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:55,400
# Well, it's hard to tell It's hard to tell

620
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:58,600
# When all your love's in vain

621
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:01,880
# All your love's in vain... #

622
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:05,600
In 1936, a 25-year-old walked into HC Speir's

623
00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:10,440
store in Jackson, Mississippi - his name was Robert Johnson.

624
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:12,200
He had a bunch of songs

625
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:14,880
and he wanted an audition to make some records.

626
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:17,760
# Well, I felt lonesome I was lonesome

627
00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:21,600
# And I could not help but cry

628
00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:23,840
# All my love's in vain... #

629
00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:27,760
Robert Johnson really used his ears and he listened to everything

630
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:29,680
that was going on around him.

631
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:32,240
And he took in everything that was

632
00:43:32,240 --> 00:43:35,160
goin' on around him, all the popular musicians,

633
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:39,840
he took them off other instruments and arranged them for his instrument.

634
00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:44,920
He's the first person we have from the blues world who had heard

635
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:48,320
all the blues records and, as a result,

636
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:52,800
he's the first person who doesn't just play a style from his place.

637
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:57,560
He's like already this compendium of the greatest blues

638
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:01,680
styles of the '20s and early '30s, and he's putting it all together.

639
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:10,760
# I woke up this morning

640
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,360
# Looking round for my shoes... #

641
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:18,800
In his short lifetime, Robert Johnson recorded 29 songs.

642
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:21,560
He remained almost totally unknown.

643
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:27,400
But beginning in the 1960's, Johnson's songs would see him

644
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:31,880
acclaimed as, "King of the Delta Blues Singers".

645
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:36,160
# I got these old walking blues... #

646
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:41,480
I think he brought the idea of writing them yourself

647
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:45,280
and playing them yourself to a new peak, you know, where it

648
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:49,280
became important that you were actually singing your own songs.

649
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:54,960
# I've been mistreated

650
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:58,200
# And I don't mind dying

651
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:02,840
# Well... #

652
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:05,320
His guitar playing is on the virtuoso scale.

653
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,600
This is... You're listening to an orchestra.

654
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,880
You're not listening to one guy - this is impossible.

655
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:32,480
In New York City, Robert Johnson had one very important fan.

656
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,440
John Hammond was a record producer from a wealthy background who

657
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:41,400
combined left wing politics,

658
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:45,160
man-about-town sophistication with a very discerning ear.

659
00:45:47,240 --> 00:45:52,120
He discovered and encouraged Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan.

660
00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,440
Hammond described Johnson as "the greatest Negro blues singer

661
00:45:57,440 --> 00:46:01,120
"who has cropped up in recent years", in a Communist magazine.

662
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:04,720
He asked the magazine to sponsor a concert he was planning,
663
00:46:04,720 --> 00:46:08,360
which would showcase the rich heritage of black music.

664
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:13,520
I'm sure John had never bothered to join anything,

665
00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:17,600
but he didn't mind contributing to the Communist Party

666
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:21,560
if they would help make it possible to have this concert.

667
00:46:24,240 --> 00:46:27,240
Hammond sent scouts down south to locate Robert Johnson,

668
00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:29,760
but they returned with the news that Johnson had died

669
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:31,760
in mysterious circumstances.

670
00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:37,560
Nevertheless, the show went on.

671
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:46,600
In December of 1938, John Hammond put on a concert here at

672
00:46:46,600 --> 00:46:51,040
Carnegie Hall, the most prestigious classical music venue in New York.

673
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:53,520
He called it, From Spirituals to Swing

674
00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:56,080
and the idea was that he was taking swing music,

675
00:46:56,080 --> 00:47:01,000
which everyone knew as a pop music, and trying to show its depth,

676
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:05,800
put it in context of spirituals, of blues, of African music,

677
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,560
and suggest that this was serious art.
678
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:11,480
This was something they should take with the same seriousness

679
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:13,600
as European classical music.

680
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:17,480
UPTEMPO BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

681
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:29,240
Hammond began the show by playing two Robert Johnson records.

682
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:41,240
Then, as a substitute, he brought on another blues singer -

683
00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:42,640
Big Bill Broonzy.

684
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:46,040
# Way down yonder in New Orleans

685
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:49,280
# Looking for a girl that I had never seen... #

686
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:53,200
Broonzy was based in Chicago.

687
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:56,680
He had released over 100 records under his own name.

688
00:47:56,680 --> 00:48:00,160
He wore sharp suits and played the latest musical styles,

689
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:03,280
but because Hammond was in love with the idea the blues came from the

690
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:07,480
primitive countryside, he presented Broonzy as a simple farmhand.

691
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:14,960
Hammond wrote, "Big Bill Broonzy was prevailed

692
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:18,040
"upon to leave his Arkansas farm and mule,

693
00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:20,760
"and make his very first trek to the big city to

694
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:23,600
"appear before a predominantly white audience."

695
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:28,840
He was completely a Chicago musician,

696
00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:34,840
but his job in that concert was to represent the rural blues,

697
00:48:34,840 --> 00:48:37,000
and so they turned him into that.

698
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:40,640
And Big Bill Broonzy was no fool and realised that that was a good

699
00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:46,840
part to play and kept playing it in New York, in London, in Paris.

700
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:50,520
# I got the key to the highway

701
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:55,600
# And I'm bound to go... #

702
00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:57,320
# Hey

703
00:48:57,320 --> 00:48:59,560
# Hey-hey

704
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:02,520
# Hey, Lord, Lordy, Lord

705
00:49:02,520 --> 00:49:05,440
# Hey, Lord, Lord, Lord... #

706
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:08,880
The blues was being re-defined.

707
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:11,760
It was no longer just black pop music.

708
00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:16,520
It was now folk art from the era before records and radio.

709
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:19,960
Its new middle class white audience heard the blues as music

710
00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:22,560
endangered by the modern world.

711
00:49:22,560 --> 00:49:26,360
ARCHIVE: Musicians and sociologists can now study American folk songs

712
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,960
that have never been transcribed and would otherwise be lost

713
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:33,040
if the Library officials did not go into the field to record

714
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:35,160
unknown primitive singers.

715
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:42,400
In 1941, John Lomax's son, Alan, was at the Archive of Folk Song

716
00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:46,040
at the Library of Congress and he was heading back into the field.

717
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:48,920
# It ain't what you do It's the way that you do it

718
00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:51,880
# It ain't what you do It's the way that you do it

719
00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:55,280
# It ain't what you do It's the way that you do it

720
00:49:55,280 --> 00:49:57,520
# That's what gets results... #

721
00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:00,240
Working with a team of black academics, Lomax set out to
722
00:50:00,240 --> 00:50:03,840
examine every aspect of music in the Mississippi Delta.

723
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:09,000
They visited juke joints to discover what the locals were listening to.

724
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:12,280
It wasn't Robert Johnson's blues but recordings by urban,

725
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:14,080
black hit makers.

726
00:50:15,720 --> 00:50:18,240
In Lomax's notes there's a wonderful

727
00:50:18,240 --> 00:50:23,480
account of late one night he's wandering around,

728
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,640
stumbles across

729
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:30,160
a juke joint on the edge of a cotton field and opens the door to find the

730
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:35,880
whole place lit up and everybody in there jitterbugging to Fats Waller.

731
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:38,920
# It ain't what you do It's the way that you do it

732
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:42,880
# It ain't what you play It's the way that you play it... #

733
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:44,920
This could have been any place.

734
00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:51,680
In his field trip through the Delta, Lomax recorded one man who

735
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:56,920
was to become a blues legend - a 28-year-old tractor driver,

736
00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:00,040
McKinley Morganfield, also known as Muddy Waters.
737
00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:08,360
# Like blowing my horn

738
00:51:08,360 --> 00:51:14,360
# I woke up this morning and found my little baby gone... #

739
00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:19,240
Muddy Waters had a profitable sideline distilling illegal liquor,

740
00:51:19,240 --> 00:51:22,920
so he was suspicious of this white man and his recording equipment.

741
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:27,560
Muddy thinks that Alan Lomax is going to bust Muddy for bootlegging

742
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:31,360
moonshine and so Muddy doesn't trust this guy as far as he can throw him.

743
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:35,840
The way Alan Lomax wins Muddy's trust is Alan, white,

744
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:39,640
drinks out of the cup that Muddy has just had a sip out of,

745
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:44,400
and Muddy thinks, "Oh, my God. Even the revenue agent wouldn't

746
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:47,080
"drink after a black man. This guy must be serious."

747
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:49,880
I want to know the facts,

748
00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:52,600
how you felt and why you felt the way you did.

749
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:54,600
That's a very beautiful song.

750
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:59,920
Well, I just felt blue and the song fell into my mind,

751
00:51:59,920 --> 00:52:03,760
and it came to me and I start to singing and went on.

752
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:06,720
# I feel mistreated, girl, you know now

753
00:52:06,720 --> 00:52:09,760
# I don't mind dying...

754
00:52:18,080 --> 00:52:22,480
# Yeah I've been mistreated, baby, now

755
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:25,200
# And I don't mind dying... #

756
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:33,360
Alan Lomax would return to the blues all his life,

757
00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:38,200
but he had an uneasy relationship with its commercial popularity.

758
00:52:38,200 --> 00:52:40,040
He always felt, of course, that it was

759
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:42,760
the music of the people who were singing it.

760
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:45,720
It wasn't an industrial music, it wasn't big business music,

761
00:52:45,720 --> 00:52:48,720
it was actual music that had come from the hearts of people,

762
00:52:48,720 --> 00:52:50,200
and from the lives they lived.

763
00:52:51,240 --> 00:52:54,560
Alan did not see the blues as a commercial form of music.

764
00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:56,880
He was more interested in documenting,

765
00:52:56,880 --> 00:53:00,880
like, the country-style blues, the early proto blues

766
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:04,040
and field hollers and those sorts of things.

767
00:53:17,560 --> 00:53:21,000
At the same time that Alan Lomax was recording Muddy Waters,

768
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:23,840
new media were reaching the Delta.

769
00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:25,640
The first blues radio programme

770
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:28,080
began to broadcast from Helena, Arkansas,

771
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:31,640
and they publicised themselves with a touring road show.

772
00:53:31,640 --> 00:53:34,360
UPTEMPO BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

773
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:42,640
# Ain't that a pity?

774
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:45,600
# I declare it's a crying shame... #

775
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:50,160
It starts out light as air, white as snow, that's world famous King

776
00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:53,520
Biscuit Flour, the perfect flour for all your baking needs.

777
00:53:55,560 --> 00:53:59,280
King Biscuit Time was sponsored by a local flour manufacturer.

778
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:00,920
Aimed at black listeners,

779
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:03,800
its broadcasts were timed to catch the workers at lunchtime

780
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:07,000
on the plantations, including Muddy Waters.
781
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:14,040
Muddy used to hear the show on the air every day at 12.15

782
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:18,440
and Muddy was out on the farmland listening to the show...

783
00:54:18,440 --> 00:54:21,320
and as so many others were.

784
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:23,520
That's how they knew about it.

785
00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:27,520
They said, "They should hear our kind of blues. We're the blues artists."

786
00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:31,240
UPTEMPO BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

787
00:54:44,200 --> 00:54:47,000
Muddy Waters was beginning to get gigs at the juke joints

788
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:48,480
in the Delta.

789
00:54:48,480 --> 00:54:53,360
The Blue Front Cafe started in the 1940's in Bentonia, Mississippi.

790
00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:58,240
SASSY BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

791
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:18,440
Juke joint music, drinking, gambling, eating...

792
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:20,200
I mean, you name it.

793
00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:25,360
You'd have people come by, they'd have a harmonica in their pocket,

794
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:29,000
a guitar strapped across their back and they would play solo.

795
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:31,880
Set a cap or a bucket down in front of them,
796
00:55:31,880 --> 00:55:34,200
and some of them would contribute, nickels, dimes,

797
00:55:34,200 --> 00:55:36,880
pennies or whatever, and they'd play for that.

798
00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:38,720
SASSY BLUES CONTINUES

799
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:57,960
CROWD CHEERING

800
00:56:02,800 --> 00:56:05,640
But blacks were leaving the south in large numbers,

801
00:56:05,640 --> 00:56:09,440
pushed off the land by new machines on the plantations, and pulled

802
00:56:09,440 --> 00:56:13,520
towards the north especially Chicago by jobs in the factories.

803
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,600
The motivation for Muddy Waters to put on his best suit,

804
00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:21,760
have his picture taken and leave Mississippi

805
00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:24,520
arrived in the shape of a record sent by Alan Lomax.

806
00:56:27,520 --> 00:56:30,000
In an evening at the White House devoted to celebrating

807
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:35,320
the blues, America's first black President focused on that moment.

808
00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:40,440
Lomax sent Muddy two pressings from their sessions

809
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:43,240
together along with a cheque for 20.

810
00:56:44,240 --> 00:56:47,480
Later in his life, Muddy recalled what happened next.

811
00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:50,640
He said, "I carried that record up to the corner

812
00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:53,520
"and I put it on the juke box.

813
00:56:53,520 --> 00:56:58,960
"Just played it and played it and said, 'I can do it. 'I can do it.'"

814
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:04,960
In many way, that right there is the story of the blues.

815
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:08,240
# Well, I feel... #

816
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:15,120
Heading for Chicago, Muddy caught the train out of the Delta in 1943.

817
00:57:21,040 --> 00:57:24,280
# Well, babe, I just can't be satisfied

818
00:57:24,280 --> 00:57:26,240
# And I just... #

819
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:30,840
The trains were segregated.

820
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:33,680
Black Americans rode in carriages at the back

821
00:57:33,680 --> 00:57:35,880
and the journey itself was an education.

822
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:41,040
They had a coloured car and a regular car.

823
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:43,120
One thing I always remember in the coloured car,

824
00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:46,000
they left the windows open, so you'd go through the tunnels, you'd

825
00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:48,520
get all that stuff in your face.

826
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:54,280
In terms of learning about

827
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:57,680
the real history of this country,

828
00:57:57,680 --> 00:58:02,440
you know, nothing is sharper than that teaching.

829
00:58:02,440 --> 00:58:05,240
# Well, I know my little old baby

830
00:58:05,240 --> 00:58:07,480
# She gonna jump and shout

831
00:58:07,480 --> 00:58:10,880
# That old train be late, man, and... #

832
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:14,160
In Chicago, Muddy plugged his guitar into electricity.

833
00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:15,760
The music made by Muddy

834
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:19,480
and other musicians from the south didn't just change Chicago -

835
00:58:19,480 --> 00:58:21,120
it changed the world.

836
00:58:29,720 --> 00:58:32,760
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd