P and P Week Two

We continued the "Prelude" we began last week. We listened to some Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Simon and Garfunkel, and Bruce Springsteen. I showed them how to locate lyrics for songs, at places like here, here, here, and here, and also explained why many of the videos captured on YouTube and elsewhere were of poor visual or sound quality. I also introduced the "Resources" File on Blackboard, and showed people that there was a file created for each of them.

Read, in Talkin' 'bout a Revolution

Chapter 3, African Americans, through White Blues and White Audiences, pp. 63-94

As you read this you might want to have your computer handy. When you come across any reference, perhaps to an old book, or to a particular composer or song, and you find it interesting, see if you can locate it on the Internet. A good place to look is the Internet Archive. If you don't have an account there, create one. It is free, and it allows you to create a list of "favorites" which you have found--not only for this course but for others which have research components. If you want to see the list I've collected over the years, go to https://archive.org/details/fav-mswansonrwu. When you do find something interesting, you can add it to your resource folder. Click the notification button so you send an e-mail to other uses. This is the best way to share information among ourselves. We will have a class discussion on this section, and we'll include what you find.

The Illustration to the left is the front cover of a song which is part of a wonderful archive at Brown University. Click on it to reach the song, and then to browse through other elements of the collection. The Interior pages are there, too. Here are the lyrics of the first two verses:

Old Massa Linkum he’de man,

Tur break up dat ole wicked clan,

Who tink no rights to Nig’s belong

But lib a slave the whole life long.

Dey wuck’d us hard and paid us naught,

Our children dear dey sole an bought,

Our Wifes dey tore from our embrace,

And doom’d us to a brutal race.

Read, in Delta Blues

Chapter 1, The Blues and the Old Kingdoms pp. 1-17

Chapter 2, Where the Southern Cross the Dog. pp. 19-43

Frequently during this semester we're going to be "mashing-up" books, using several at the same time. As we saw on Wednesday, the Blues evolved from African-American Slave Songs. The tune of the song I put on the website is not exactly bluesy, but the text certainly is. Follow the same pattern I suggested for Wednesday's work. Have your computer handy, and when you run across a person, tune, idea, whatever, which seems interesting to you, try to find out more, and with success, put it in your resources folder. I'd love to have each student add one resource per class session. Don't forget to send the e-mail notification. If someone else found something first, then go back and look again.

Famed jazz singer Bessie Smith sings, Yellow Dog Blues. You can find the lyrics using one of the search engines above. You'll see why I've chosen this particular song as an illustration for today's reading.