Moanin' at Midnight: Patterns, Themes, and Imagery in Blues Songs by Howlin' Wolf
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University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Student Work 11-1-1995 Moanin' at midnight: Patterns, themes, and imagery in blues songs by Howlin' Wolf Craig Edmundson University of Nebraska at Omaha Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork Recommended Citation Edmundson, Craig, "Moanin' at midnight: Patterns, themes, and imagery in blues songs by Howlin' Wolf" (1995). Student Work. 2840. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/2840 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Work by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MOANIN’ AT MIDNIGHT PATTERNS, THEMES, AND IMAGERY IN BLUES SONGS BY HOWLIN’ WOLF A Thesis Presented to the Department of Communication and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha by Craig Edmundson November 1995 UM1 Number: EP74369 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dissertation Publishing UMI EP74369 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Pro uest ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 THESIS ACCEPTANCE Acceptance for the faculty of the Graduate College, University of Nebraska, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree. Master of Arts, University' of Nebraska at Omaha. Committee p p — —... \ (j>vC) W a v v \ VLv-t.Cc.> C Name Department/School /*) /• YW l . L ,i v-uXd / </ ( _ . O /Y l/'•'I 0 ^ (- C\~l . low V {/• °o . Chairperson Date \ ^ Pro 2L_,— ABSTRACT Blues music originated in the Deep South where it matured into a recognizable style, known as the country blues. Socioeconomic changes in the 1920’s and 1940’s encouraged large numbers of blacks living in the rural South to migrate northward. Chicago, Illinois was a destination for many blacks from the Mississippi Delta region, and the country blues was similarity transplanted to an urban environment. In this new setting, the familiar music of the country began to change and a new style of blues evolved, urban blues. One way to better understand the links between the country and urban styles wc 'Id be to look at the country and urban features in the lyrics of a performer who played in both styles. Howlin’ Wolf. This study explores the country and urban features of Howlin’ W olf s music during the 1950s through an analysis of the patterns, themes, and imagery in his song lyrics. The lyrics are analyzed in the context of three theories oral formulas in blues composition; the bluesman as fictional persona; and thematic patterns in blues lyrics. The thematic patterns in blues lyric theory proved to be the most useful in identifying the patterns, themes and imagery in the sample. The results indicate a nearly even split in the sample between country and urban lyrical features. The sample indicates that Howlin’ W olfs music did change after he migrated northward; but it retained many of the major features of the country blues style. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my wife Joan for all her sacrifice, support, and encouragement while I attended classes, completed assignments, and wrote this thesis. I also want to thank my parents for believing in my abilities and for all their prayers and encouragement. My daughters Sarah and Rachel also deserve my gratitude, for while they were too young to fully understand, they always tried their best to keep their laughter and cheerful shouts down to a dull roar as I tried to study. Dr Marcia Hoffman deserves my thanks for her early encouraging words which I recalled often and used as inspiration to keep on persevering. I am also indebted to Dr. Mary McNamee, who in addition to showing a sincere interest in my progress, saved me countless hours of unnecessary work when she saw me working from three-by-five cards and pointed out that I could work a lot more efficiently by photocopying journal articles and typing my notes directly into the computer. Lastly, I would like to thank my regular First Thursday lunch buddies: Simon Danigole, Vic Paul, Hugh Reilly, and Kevin Wameke who, in the course of our rambling conversations, shared with me a wealth of advice regarding their theses experiences and in the process made things a whole lot easier for me. God bless you all. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................... .................. 1 Central Research Question ............................................................ 5 2 Review of the Literature ............................................................. 12 Introduction................................................................................... 12 Part One: Overview of Major Them es...................................... 14 Glimpses Into Black Society .............................................. 14 Function of the Blues .......................................................... 18 Techniques of Composition ........... .................................. 25 Criticism of Past Research ................................................ 28 Part Two: The Blues Tradition, Country Blues, and Urban Blues ................................................. 31 The Blues Tradition ............................................................ 31 Country Blues ...........................................................................40 Urban B lues .............................................................................44 3 M ethods ............................................................................................ 50 4 R esu lts.............................................................................................. 55 Introduction .......................................................................... 55 General Observations Regarding the Compositions ... 57 Oral Fromulas in Blues Composition Theory ................... 60 Bluesman as Fictional Personal Theory ........................... 61 Thematic Patterns in Blues Lyrics Theory .........................63 Macro Level Themes .......................................................... 65 Micro Level Themes............................................................ 67 Country Blues Features of the Songs .............................. 67 Urban Features ..................................................................... 71 Patterns in the Com positions .............................................. 73 Imagery in the Compositions ............................................ 74 5 Summary and Conclusions .......................................................... 77 Summary ............................................................................... 77 Relationship Between Results and Research Questions . 81 Conclusions .......................................................................... 82 Appendix Table I Song Titles and Lyrics ................................................................. 91 Table II General Features of the Compositions ......................... .... 99 Table III Macro Level Features of Songs .............................................. 100 Table IV Half-Line Formulas and Variations in the Songs ............... 101 Works Cited 104 1 Chapter One: Introduction Blues music is a uniquely American form of expression.1 The term blues dates back to around the beginning of the 20th century .2 Almost from the start, the term has been used somewhat loosely - even by early 1900s black musicians, who would use the word ‘blues’ in the title of ragtime songs or ballads 3 This practice has persisted, and through the years there have been numerous examples of popular and country/western songs that use the word ‘blues’ in the title, yet the music itself isn’t blues. Adding to the confusion is fact that there are a wide variety of styles or types of blues, each sharing some (but not always all) of the features that make the blues music ‘the blues.’ Thus, definitions of the blues can be as numerous as the varieties of the music;4 and it can be hard to define the blues in a very specific way. Instead one winds up talking about general musical tendencies -e.g., blues songs tend to follow a twelve-bar, AAA or AAB verse forms; they tend toward melodies composed on a five note scale, with a tendency to play the third note flat.5 While tendencies such as these allow for the inclusion of a 'Lawrence N. Redd, “Rock! It’s Still Rhythm and Blues,” The Black Perspective in Music 13 (Spring 1985): 33. 2Robert Palmer, Deep Blues (New York: The Viking Press, 1981), 42. 3Ibid., 43. 4Robert Springer, “The Regulatory Function of the Blues,” The Black Perspective in Music 4 (Fall 1976): 278. 5Palmer, “Deep Blues,” 43 2 wide variety of compositions into the blues canon, another more satisfying approach is to think of the blues in terms of styles based on localities. In this manner, it is possible to discuss, for example, the style of the blues from the Mississippi Delta region, a style