Blues Legend BB King Said: "The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn't know how other people would take it. " Here the Blues man is defined in connotative rhythm and denotative candor. Set to, against and on and over Charlie Patton's "Poor me," A Blues Man: Extremes goes back to source to a man with public domain music and only one known photograph. Charlie Patton from the M i crooked-letter, crooked-letter i crooked letter, crooked letter I, humpback, humpback I, is the Father of the Mississippi Delta Blues, before Muddy Waters, before BB King...blues right out of the river. Everyone and no one.
lyrics
“A Blues Man: Extremes”
A Blues man either is or ain’t.
A Blues man don’t drink socially.
A Blues man gets his clues, rhythms and instructions from haints…
For a Blues man prefers notoriety, locally.
It’s Jim, Jack and Johnny, the three wise men instead of pro-zac
Instead of couch, it’s the party pills, the weed, the crack….
and I ain’t talkin’ bout base baking soda neither, I’m talking bout that crack but there is some coca-cola along the lines…
Glass tables.
A Blues man lives within himself, himself lives within.
A Blues man ain’t just a man, ain’t just black.
A Blues man don’t believe in healing, just leaving.
A Blues man needs to feign suicide to live.
A Blues man don’t need no music only feelin’..
A Blues man never pays his bills on time, but always makes a killin.
Instead of stardust, he’s made of blood, sweat, tears.
He remembers dates by numbers of whiskey, wines and beers, not years.
He thinks everybody loves him, he thinks nobody loves him.
He’s a walking ball of organized fear, but it ain’t scared of nothin’.
He sings into a can and people listen but not hear, hear but not listen.
All the way back to the pews just to forget church, a blues man worships firm breast glistening, tongues of pearl, beeds of sweet, trees of knowledge…hissing.
A Blues man is a pariah, baptized by fire.
Sometimes he’s everybody, same times he’s no one.
Sometimes heaven says you ain’t clean and complete enough, sometimes hell says you too dirty even for us.
The middle ground, is red dusty clay, sawdust, sticky linoleum, dry-rote wood, slick ballroom floors, black-ass-black asphalt….
He’s the only one who knows, the smirk, everyone else think’s the end product, the whining, call and response effect…..is so cool.
Sometimes, he’s everybody, sometimes he’s no one.
Jabulani is also an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and writer who attended Journalism School at the University of
Missouri.
Currently he is the host of Central Standard, a general interest radio talk show on KCUR 89.3 FM, a super-regional National Public Radio member station based in Kansas City. The show reaches listeners in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Northern Arkansas....more
This album by Kenyan electronic producer rPH and poet Kins of Spade reflects on the impact of religion in their lives and society. Bandcamp New & Notable May 12, 2023