mode: C blues — C D Eb F# G Bb C
melody: d r (ri) m f s l (li) ta t d’ (<— this is a bit much, I know)
form: AA’A’’A’’’
meter: duple
suggested time signature: 4|4
other recordings:
Loggins & Messina, C blues
Emmylou Harris, Bb blues
John Prine, B blues
There are times when no one is playing the flat seven in the tonic. There are many times where we have B natural and E natural. Such is the variety and changing nature of the blues. We like to have pat formulas, like the one listed under “mode” (which I list for improvisation purposes), but the truth of the matter is more apparent in the messiness of what is listed under “melody.” Scales are very artificial constructs, though they occasionally appear “verbatim” in songs (“Joy to the World” comes to mind…). The true sense of a scale/mode/tonality/style comes in how it actually ends up being used. A real education is to be had in slowing down this track and trying to imitate Berry’s delivery as closely as possible, whether you are singing or playing an instrument.
This a longer version — twice as long, to be exact — of the counterpoise inversion.
mode: C blues — C D Eb F# G Bb C
melody: S L TA d r (ri) m
form: ABA’B’
meter: duple
suggested time signature: 4|4
other recordings:
James Booker, C
Johnny Rivers, C
Phoebe Snow, D
The blues. Possibly the most important musical development in the past 150 years. It has certainly become the predominant sound-world of music making today.
In the blues, we have a situation where the notes of the melody are not fully represented in the harmonies — in fact, they clash, but in a way that somehow sounds right. So have a C major chord with a flat seventh degree, like a dominant chord, except it’s clearly the tonic — when naming the chord we still say “C dominant 7” anyway. In the blues scale, there is no E natural for the C major chord; there is no B natural for the G major chord (with the flat seventh degree, this time functioning more like a dominant).
This is where chord nomenclature starts to go horribly wrong. Part of the issue is that there is only so much you can fight centuries of habit. These names were already available and so people just used them, even though “dominant” stopped meaning what it was originally supposed to mean. Much in the same way that we use “octave” — which, yes, way, way back in Greek antiquity was separated by eight (uneven) steps — even though we now separate the octave into twelve steps (dodecatave is a bit unwieldy…). Think about the last four months of the year and how the number changed, but not the name. Old habits die hard.
In modern times, it has become important to separate “dominant, the chord function” from “dominant, the chord flavor.” I wish it were easier and Tagg’s new terminology helps a lot, but has not spread to the point of standardization. It’s not that traditional Euroclassical concepts of harmonic function need to be thrown out — they actually still have good use in musics that have roots in both European and African musics (basically, most “popular” styles that have come out of the Americas since colonialism and slavery), but they most definitely need to be enhanced and modified, just as they have been throughout its history. We do not analyze Josquin like we analyze Bach, we do not analyze Philip Glass like we analyze Mahler. But as each composer pushed the boundaries of what was considered musically acceptable in Classical music, the theory expanded to include those examples. While there are definitely conservative strongholds in some areas of academia who feel music that is not purely from the Euroclassical tradition is not worth studying, for every one of those there are progressive strongholds expanding the canon. In this case, more is more.
Now. All that said, the melody to this song has a lot of slides and more speech-like pitches (as we heard in Life During Wartime, for example), which is a hallmark of the blues style. I hear this song as using mostly E natural — not a blue note — when C7 is in play.
In terms of form, this is a less common 8-bar blues, as opposed to the usual 12. But isn’t that what rock ’n’ roll was supposed to be? Straight to the point. Short and punchy.
Am I the only one who gets a kick out of a soothing hot cup of “Black Coffee;” no milk or sugar? That’s my story morning glory. I wonder what was Mary Lou Williams’ was when she came up with the concept of a blues ballad? #blackcoffee #bluesballad #cblues #whatsyourstorymorningglory #marylouwilliams #sarahvaughan #positiveenergy #spoonfednyc #musicdaily #musicians #midtown #nycmusic #singersongwriter #indieartist #stephaniejeannot
