ga402c02.qxd 1/8/2007 8:42 AM Page 47 “Blue Yodel #9 If you were searching for one artist who incorporated the widest (Standin’ on the Corner)” range of American roots music in the early twentieth century, you Artist: Jimmie Rodgers couldn’t go wrong with Jimmie Rodgers. While considered the first true country music “star,” Rodgers’ songs incorporated blues, Music / Lyrics: Jimmie Rodgers country, jazz, and even Hawaiian guitar. Rodgers wrote 12 Label: RCA Victor (1931) blues–country hybrid “Blue Yodels”; number 9, recorded on September 11, 1931, is listed as number 23 in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.” Musical Style Notes “Blue Yodel #9” is a blues song, with elements of country and jazz. The song features typical blues chord progres- sions but an irregular form. It’s basically an 8-bar blues (8 bars of 4 beats each), but Rodgers adds some 2-beat bars here and there, and not all the verses have exactly the same structure. (At 1:07 and 1:16 you can hear the pianist changing chords quickly; she is concentrating intensely on following Rodgers as he varies the 8-bar form.) Each verse also ends with Rodgers’ signature yodel, which gives this blues song a country twist. To further add to the stylistic mix, the song features the New Orleans–style improvisations of jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong; the pianist is his wife Lillian Armstrong. Musical “Road Map” TIMINGS COMMENTS LYRICS 0:00–0:14 Introduction; trumpet and piano 3 Guide Listening 0:14–0:32 Verse 1 Standin’ on the corner, I didn’t mean no harm . 0:32–0:53 Verse 2 It was down in Memphis, Corner of Beale and Main . @0:47 Trademark yodel at 0:47 (yodel) 0:53–1:01 Verse 3 I said you’ll find my name on the tail of my shirt . 1:01–1:06 (Brief trumpet interlude between verses) 1:07–1:27 Verse 4 Listen all you rounders, leave my woman alone . 1:22 Yodel at 1:22, leading into instrumental solo (yodel) 1:27–1:54 Instrumental verse; trumpet solos 1:54–2:11 Verse 5 My good gal loves me, everybody knows . 2:11–2:37 Verse 6 She come to the joint, a forty-four in each hand . 2:27–2:37 Yodel, leading into final trumpet phrase . .’Cause I’m lookin’ for my man. (Notice this is the first time you can really hear the guitar—the slow strum right at the end!) BLUES AND COUNTRY MUSIC 47.