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    Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
    Unavailable
    Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
    Unavailable
    Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
    Ebook526 pages8 hours

    Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues

    By Elijah Wald

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The life of blues legend Robert Johnson becomes the centerpiece for this innovative look at what many consider to be America's deepest and most influential music genre. Pivotal are the questions surrounding why Johnson was ignored by the core black audience of his time yet now celebrated as the greatest figure in blues history.

    Trying to separate myth from reality, biographer Elijah Wald studies the blues from the inside -- not only examining recordings but also the recollections of the musicians themselves, the African-American press, as well as examining original research. What emerges is a new appreciation for the blues and the movement of its artists from the shadows of the 1930s Mississippi Delta to the mainstream venues frequented by today's loyal blues fans.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 24, 2012
    ISBN9780062018441
    Unavailable
    Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
    Author

    Elijah Wald

    Elijah Waldis a writer and musician whose books include Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues and How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ’n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music. A respected expert on the folk revival, he collaborated with Dave Van Ronk on The Mayor of MacDougal Street, the inspiration for the Coen Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis. His awards include a 2002 Grammy, and he has taught blues history at UCLA and lectured widely on American, Mexican, and world music. He currently lives in Medford, Massachusetts.

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    Reviews for Escaping the Delta

    4/5

    70 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A history of blues anchored on the short life of the iconic Robert Johnson. A very interesting and lucid view on the blues, trying to dispel the myths and focus on what blues really meant to the people who listened to the music across the years, from its origins to the revival of the 1960s and then to modern day.
      Well worth the read for anyone who loves this musical genre.
    • 4/5
      Good historical overview of the blues, particularly notable in addressing common misperceptions about early blues artists.
    • 5/5
      This history of the blues places Robert Johnson in the context of his time and the music of his time and place. Therefore, it corrects the widely held impression that Johnson in particular and the Delta bluesmen in general were recognized as tortured geniuses and were popularly acclaimed. At the same time, Wald respects and loves the Delta blues recordings and his chapters on Johnson's sessions are a sensitive track by track appreciation and evaluation.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Excellent review of the history of blues. Brings common sense to a popular subject, and even shows some misconceptions that are seldom addressed. Less academic than most books on the subject I've read, but relates more to the typical fan/musician than to students. A worthwhile addition to the shelf.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Der Autor zeigt an Hand der Geschichte des Musikers Robert Johnson auf, dass es bei der Rezeption der Bluesmusik durch das weisse Mainstream Publikum in den sechziger Jahren zu einer Reduktion der Musik auf primitive, sogenannt authentische und einfache Muster gekommen ist. Im Gegensatz zu dieser Mystifikation war die Musik der schwarzen Gemeinden im Mississippi Delta der zwanziger und dreissiger Jahre vielfältiger als später behauptet und umfasste alle Formen und Stile der jeweiligen Zeit, also Einflüsse aus Jazz, Pop und Folklore. Die Genres waren noch nicht so definiert und differenziert, die Musiker spielten, was gefiel und verlangt wurde, sie mussten vielseitig und an allem interessiert sein, um an den verschiedenen Orten der Auftritte die Leute zu begeistern und kommerziell erfolgreich zu sein. Die These ist einleuchtend und an vielen Beispielen ausgeführt.
    • 3/5
      The legend of the wandering bluesman from the Mississippi Delta is one of those enduring images we have from early 20th century America. Even if Robert Johnson didn't sell his soul to the Devil to get a supernatural ability to play blues guitar, that sort of music burst out of the Delta to become R&B, infect jazz, and eventually lead to rock 'n roll. And it all started with these few musical geniuses that grew out of the poor black culture of the previous century, right?Well, maybe not, if you believe Elijah Wald. In Escaping the Delta, he makes three main points: (i) the blues that was most popular was the more urban, professional, often large-group music heard first on records and then on the radio, (ii) most blues musicians, including those from the Delta were quite versatile musicians that played a wide variety of music, an image not generally recognized today, and (iii) the mystique that's grown up around acoustic Delta blues is mostly that - mystique - and came from the attention mostly white, mostly urban folklorists and preservationists paid to a relatively minor group of artists.Just so you know, this is a fairly contrarian view of the history of the blues, and one that makes quite a bit of sense to me. Some of today's most highly revered blues musicians were pretty much unknown in their day and had marginal impact on audiences and other musicians. Yet these are the ones that are considered "Father of the Blues" or "King of the Blues". How did this drastic shift in thinking happen? Wald describes a process by which folklorists in previous decades, in trying to preserve the source of the blues, artificially selected unique material or songs that were considered "closer" to the source material instead of the wider selection of what blues artists actually played to audiences. This has distorted what we now view as pure blues and our consideration of the relative importance of various artists and styles.Escaping the Delta is not a history of the blues. Instead, it's a study on the study of blues history. As such, it's helpful to know something about the music and its history ahead of time. But it's not required. If nothing else, Wald's work is an interesting discussion of how researchers can inadvertently influence the results of their work in unintended ways and how that can ripple into legend and folklore.