Music: Criterion A
Investigate: Chicago Blues
2/24/2015
Aga Khan Academy Mombasa
Anmol Rajpar
Alberta Hunter, American Blues singer, once said “The blues means what milk does to a baby. It is what the spirit is to the minister. We sing the blues because our hearts have been hurt, our souls have been disturbed.” (1961) when asked what Blues music really means to her.
Although Chicago isn’t the birthplace of the Blues; people still refer to it as the ‘Blues Capital’ of the world. Blues music originated in the North Mississippi River Delta, North America, in the late 19th century. During that time, many Americans related Blues music to plantation slaves singing field hollers to each other whilst creating rhythms by stomping their…show more content… Chicago blues’ lyrics focus particularly on topical, sexual and chauvinistic themes. Topical themes include notions of work, travel and descriptions of the hardships faced during the Great Migration. Sexual themes emphasize on protest and adoration and lastly, chauvinistic themes embrace bitterness, resistance, infidelity and unrequited love. Similarly to the Delta blues, this new style of blues uses devices such as metaphors and symbolism to convey the message to its audience. Muddy Waters’ Got My Mojo Working is a great example of these lyrical themes. The chauvinistic theme is clearly expressed in the bitterness over this shattered relationship. One of the lines indicating this theme is “Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you.” The resentment expressed in this sentence is a result of his ‘lover’s’ unreciprocated feelings. Defiance is also observed in the verse “Going down to Louisiana to get a mojo hand. I'm gonna have all you women right here at my command.” A mojo is defined as a type of lucky charm which enables one to control any situation at hand. However in this song; the singer is devastated because his mojo won’t work on the woman he