The blues cliché is that it is sad music. The truth is that it is music made by someone who has gone thru or is going thru hard times and is just trying to get by, feel better. To get thru another dark day. It is inspired by hard times; sad, bad feelings, but it is often happy joyful music. Because…….it works! The music transforms the energy. It makes you feel better. And….the better the music is, the better you feel, the more power it has to lift you up. That’s how those players got so good. It was necessary, important. First it lifted up the player and then it lifted up the people around him. And it became joyful.
Blues has to come from a hard place. I mean that the player/singer has to know the harsh feeling of needing to change his state, mood, make things better, deal with the rough things of life, with music. Even if it’s just for the moment. So yes, if someone has not known hard times, sorrow, they can’t really sing the blues. But I guess in one way or another, we all have known hard times so it’s just a gift we have to help us be happier, feel better. So, we keep doing it. But hey…..the more shit you’ve gone thru, the better you sing? Ha, it’s a consolation prize.
But that’s what all good music is…..an uplifter. Even the sad stuff makes us feel better, cos it’s beautiful. Beauty and sadness go together…….
Beauty and sorrow go together.
When something is so beautiful it makes you cry. Waiting for that expensive, tear in your eye.
It costs to cry. They used to sell tears. The gypsy had a bottle. He’d saved up for years. Years worth of sorrow. Years worth of pain. The gypsy would follow old women around for the best tears. But they were not cried in vain. For he took that bottle and sold it to a witch. Fed his family for 2 solid years. What to do with a bottle of tears?
Jeff's Ramblins 