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How To Sing the Blues (1 Viewer)

Jon_Are

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2001
Messages
2,036
1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning..."

2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, 'less you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."

3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it.

Then find something that rhymes...sort of:

"Got a good woman with the meanest face in town.

Yeah, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town.

Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pound."

4. The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch – ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet.

Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best place to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is.

Breaking your leg ‘cause you’ve been skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg 'cause a alligator been chomping on it is.

9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot and sit by the dumpster or get yourself a shopping cart to wheel down the street.

10. Good places for the Blues:

Highway, jailhouse, empty bed, bottom of a whiskey glass.

Bad places:

TGIFriday’s, gallery openings, Ivy League institutions, golf courses.

11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be a old person, and you slept in it.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?

Yes, if:

You’re older than dirt, you’re blind, you shot a man in Memphis, or you can't be satisfied.

No, if:

You have all your teeth, you were once blind but now can see, the man in Memphis lived, or you have a 401K or trust fund.

13. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the blues.

14. If you ask for water and your darlin' gives you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are:

Cheap wine, whiskey or bourbon, muddy water, and nasty black coffee.

The following are not Blues beverages:

Perrier, Chardonnay, Snapple, and Slim Fast.

15. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, and dying lonely on a broken down cot.

You can't have a Blues death if you die playing raquetball or getting liposuction.

16. Some Blues names for women:

Sadie, Big Mama, Bessie, and Fat River Dumplin‘.

17. Some Blues names for men:

Joe, Willie, Little Willie, Big Willie, and Blind Willie.

18. Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Jennifer, and Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

19. Make your own Blues name Starter Kit:

a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)

b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.)

c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)

For example, Blind Lime Jefferson, Jakeleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")

20. I don't care how tragic your life is; if you own a computer, you absolutely cannot sing the blues.
 

Bill Kane

Screenwriter
Joined
Feb 5, 2001
Messages
1,359
"Woke up this mawnin' turned on my DSL,

Woke up this mawnin' turned on my DSL,

Ever'thing was workin, guess I aint be goin' to Hell"
 

Dome Vongvises

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 13, 2001
Messages
8,172
Remember, singing the blues isn't about being sad. It's about making other people feel down and making money off of it. :D I think that was from Bleeding Gums Murphy.
 

John Spencer

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 2, 2000
Messages
857
I remember a greeting card one time that described the ultimate blues song consisting of a story about waking up drunk, in an alley, where your girl done shot you and left you. Then you go to your house that the government just seized, put your hound dog and your harmonica in the pick-up with the four bald tires and the cracked windshield, and head down to Mississippi to visit your Mama. In prison.
 

Jagan Seshadri

Supporting Actor
Joined
Nov 5, 2001
Messages
528
Woke up this morning

'cept it still was night

Lit up by the shadow

Of Australia's sunlight.

Woke up this morning

Except it was night...

Got them grad student blues

Been learned enough to know it ain't right.

(Harmonica solo)

-JNS
 

Tim Hoover

Screenwriter
Joined
May 27, 2001
Messages
1,422
Another blues rule: if your blues name contains the name of a fruit, the fruit has to be sour.
 

Grant B

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2000
Messages
3,209
Remember the question asked by the Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band,"Can Blue men sing the Whites"?

Grant aka

Blind Boy Bishop
 

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