[Dixielandjazz] Re: Black & Blue was Blues

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/30/03 9:30:29 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
jbeebe at centurytel.net writes:

> 
> I don't know about Louis 'fooling most of the world'  with his  rendition of
> 'Black  &Blue"  Fats Waller also did it as a put-on humorous song.  Franz
> Jackson does it this way.
> 
> Jim Beebe
> 
> 

As is the case with many Blues songs as well as country songs they tell 
stories, that are set to music that many diverse people can relate to during 
different emotional periods of their passing time.   The lyrics to Black & Blue are 
adaptable to more than one  potential situation, and therefore the tune was 
used and presented by different artists to address their particular message of 
interpreting the song.

It is also one of those very good songs that has a melody that touches the 
hearts and emotions of many people  Red and Yellow Black and White, perhaps 
Louis just liked the song and wanted to play it, or maybe he played it when he was 
in a Blue mood.

That's when I play it, not in a parade or at a wedding party, many songs have 
a time and a place to be played for their best impact on the listeners and 
the players, knowing when and where to play them helps a player become popular 
and more successful for having touched someone with a particular song at the 
right time.

I would tend to believe that the actual meaning of the song and intention is 
in the original writer's head, as many of the Blues writers wrote from 
personal life experiences, and just like many songs have been selected for subliminal 
messages in advertising, so too have they been chosen to address another 
usage in the mind of the latest artist recording it.

If Bonnie Raait sang it she might be singing about her husband beating her up 
and leaving her so Black & Blue.

Cheers,

Tom (I got da good time jump  Blues) Wiggins