Post 218: THE 12-BAR BLUES STRUCTURE AND 'SHAKE THAT THING'

In case you need help with mastering that most quintessential of jazz tune structures - the Twelve-Bar Blues - here is a tune that uses the chord progression in its least sophisticated form.

This is 'Shake That Thing' - well worth having in your repertoire. It was written by 'Papa' Charlie Jackson in 1926.

Born in 1885, Jackson was unusual in creating 'blues' that were
played faster and were more humorous than most.

Play 'Shake That Thing' at a moderately fast speed and if possible have someone singing the words. They are good fun.

There are various sets of possible words. In one of them the first two verses can go something like this:

Down in Georgia there's a dance that's new,

Ain't nothin' to it, it's easy to do.

You gotta shake that thing. [Shake that thing.]

You gotta shake that thing. [Shake that thing.]

I'm growin' tired of tellin' ya,

You gotta shake that thing.

The old folks are doin' it, the young folks too,

The old folks tell the young folks what they gotta do.

They gotta shake that thing. [Shake that thing.]

They gotta shake that thing. [Shake that thing.]

Growing' tired of tellin' ya:

You gotta shake that thing.

You can click on this video to see and hear how effective it can be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPhbe6RwABI

And here's a curiosity - the only 13-BAR blues I can think of. It occurs as the Interlude in Blind Boy Fuller's Untrue Blues. This is essentially an eight-bar tune, but he has two guitar links of 13 bars, which seemed to be based on the 12-bar blues, but with Bar 10 repeated. When Tuba Skinny revived this tune in 2014, they scrupulously followed the original and kept the 13-bar section.

Post 197: LYRICS - TASTE AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

If you are reading this, the chances are that you enjoy the jazz band music from the 1920s and 1930s, and you are happy when you hear a band of today playing it just as it might have sounded then.

But the words of the songs are a different matter. Not only have tastes changed; we also have to be careful these days about 'political correctness'.

A century ago, it was commonplace for certain words which are now considered racist to appear in the lyrics and even in the titles of popular songs that were adopted by jazz bands. But in the Twenty-First Century, singers have to beware before using such words. Almost invariably, if they want to sing the song, they have to edit the lyrics and tone things down.

Then there were dozens of songs that entertained and amused by including sexual innuendoes. My guess is that about a quarter of the blues recorded by such singers as Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Lucille Bogan, Barrel House Annie, Victoria Spivey, Ma Rainey, and Hattie Hart contain double entendres - sexually symbolic metaphors - so that a song ostensibly about an everyday event can be interpreted by the audience as a commentary on sexual activities. Perhaps the most famous of them is Kitchen Man; but there are dozens like it.

I think tastes in humour have become a little more sophisticated since then. Yes, audiences do still listen to and enjoy such songs, and they may smile or laugh; but they no longer think this kind of humour is really all that funny. It's a sniggering schoolboy kind of humour. In a few cases, some of the lines are fairly crude; and I have noticed that today's singers often omit these or replace them with some that are relatively innocuous.

In addition to the 'sexual innuendo' songs, there's another group of songs that raise the question 'Should they be censored?'. Songs about drugs - marijuana in particular - were commonplace at one time. They have such good tunes that we still want to play them. So what can we do? We adapt them. Marijuana - with its words toned down - became Lotus Blossom. Viper Mad - again with slightly different words - became Pleasure Mad. Willie the Weeper and When I Get Low I Get High are such romping numbers that nobody minds the words.

There are also songs that tell about life as it really was for the downtrodden and impoverished, especially during the Great Depression.

What about a song in which a prostitute tells you how she has fallen on hard times: in a whole day of searching, she can't find any customers and so can't make any money. Would you want to censor such a song today? Would it be 'politically correct' to sing it?

I think the answer is that if it's a good song and well performed, we still want to hear it. I'm thinking, of course, of Tricks Ain't Walkin' No More - a song many of us have met for the first time in the last few years - performed by one of our favourite singers with one of our favourite bands.

For a look at the music of  Tricks Ain't Walkin' No More, CLICK HERE.