Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues - Softcover

Oliver, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521377935 ISBN 13: 9780521377935

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1990

Synopsis

This is a new, thoroughly revised edition of Paul Oliver's classic study of the blues. First published in 1960, this remarkable book has not been superseded and its reappearance will be welcomed by all who wish to understand the complexity of meaning in the blues and the experiences which they expressed. The book examines the functions of the blues as black American folk music recorded during the 78 rpm era, from the 1920s to the 1950s. The lyrics are quoted extensively throughout the book, revealing their significance as a means of communication within black society. The author shows how the themes of labour and unemployment, migration and the Depression years, love, sex, and marriage, crime, violence and imprisonment, disasters, sickness, war and death are expressed in black idioms and he discusses their meaning on many levels.

About this title

Book Description:

First published in the early sixties, this extensively revised edition of a classic study contains many newly recovered examples of the "blues" as well as a text updated in the light of developments occurring over the past thirty years.

Review:

' ... remarkable ... a definitive study in breadth and depth of the themes, backgrounds, imagery and motivation of the blues.' The New York Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0521377935
• ISBN 13: 9780521377935
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 376