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Blues music emerged out of Black experiences during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The music evolved out of the oppression African-Americans faced during these time periods such as: slavery, constant racial discrimination, and political exclusion. This sense of injustice led to a rejection of white, middle class values and morality; a lifestyle full of alcoholism, drug abuse, and sexual exploit. ... The Blues, no matter where it came from, or how it is interpreted, is heavily influenced by the “modern rock and roll” lifestyle, which includes the abuse of drugs and alcohol, and sexual exploitation.
The different aspects of the Blues are affected by sex and drugs including: the music itself, the individual lives of the Blues musicians, and the progression of Blues as a cultural phenomenon. The earliest known Blues music is permeated heavily with references of sex and drugs, which stems from the sense of injustice and rejection of white middle class values. One of the original blues musicians William Brown (a. ... ) once said, “I always thought that Blues and beer went pretty
good together” (Lomax 5). Many of the other original blues musicians such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, and “Leadbelly” Ledbetter all used sex and drugs as main themes of their original songs.
Alcohol is arguably one of the most used topics in the Blues. It is a staple in the lyrics of almost every Blues musician and in the everyday lives of the Bluesman. ... Leroy Carr song Corn Likker Blues “makes no bones about his fondness for alcohol” (Haralambos 64):
I love my good corn likker,
And I really mean I do. ...
Other songs such as Hogman Maxey’s Drinkin Blues and Otis Webster’s Whiskey Drinkin Blues are just a few of the songs that have alcohol as a main theme (Oster 49-50). It is almost unheard of to hear of a Blues musician that did not use any reference to alcohol in any of his/her songs. The Blues musician uses alcohol to drown away his sorrows, caused mainly by the theme of inescapability. ... Michael Haralambos refers to this as a “long time inability of Black Americans to act against Jim Crow and improve their status leaves few alternatives other than worrying and crying about the situation, and attempting to struggle on in terms of it, responses that are reflected in the Blues, feelings
that are relieved by the Blues” (79) Many felt that there was nothing that could be done to change their status in the world, so they turned to the bottle, and to the Blues to escape their reality in which they could not truly escape.
Approximate Word count = 2051
Approximate Pages = 8.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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