University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations 2007 Black, white and blue: racial politics of blues music in the 1960s Ulrich Adelt University of Iowa Copyright 2007 Ulrich Adelt This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/128 Recommended Citation Adelt, Ulrich. "Black, white and blue: racial politics of blues music in the 1960s." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2007. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/128. Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons BLACK, WHITE AND BLUE: RACIAL POLITICS OF BLUES MUSIC IN THE 1960S by Ulrich Adelt An Abstract Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in American Studies in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa December 2007 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Jane Desmond 1 ABSTRACT My dissertation is a foray into blues music's intricate web of racial taxonomies, an aspect that has been neglected by most existing studies of the genre. In particular, I am interested in significant changes that took place in the 1960s under which blues was reconfigured from "black" to "white" in its production and reception while simultaneously retaining a notion of authenticity that remained deeply connected with constructions of "blackness." In the larger context of the Civil Rights Movement and the burgeoning counterculture, audiences for blues music became increasingly "white" and European. In their romantic embrace of a poverty of choice, "white" audiences and performers engaged in discourses of authenticity and in the commodification, racialization and gendering of sounds and images as well as in the confluence of blues music’s class origins. I argue that as "white" people started to listen to "black" blues, essentialist notions about "race" remained unchallenged and were even solidified in the process. By the end of the 1960s, moments of cross-racial communication and a more flexible approach to racialized sounds had been thwarted by nostalgia for and a reification of essentialist categories. This marked the emergence of a conservative blues culture that has continued into the present. Individual chapters focus on key figures, events and institutions that exemplify blues music’s racial politics and transnational movements of the 1960s. Abstract Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date BLACK, WHITE AND BLUE: RACIAL POLITICS OF BLUES MUSIC IN THE 1960S by Ulrich Adelt A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in American Studies in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa December 2007 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Jane Desmond Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL _______________________ PH.D. THESIS _______________ This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of Ulrich Adelt has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in American Studies at the December 2007 graduation. Thesis Committee: ___________________________________ Jane Desmond, Thesis Supervisor ___________________________________ Laura Rigal ___________________________________ Kembrew McLeod ___________________________________ Corey Creekmur ___________________________________ TM Scruggs What is often called the black soul is a white man's artifact. Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I want to thank God for getting me through the challenging but also rewarding time of writing my dissertation. I also want to thank my wife Ursula and my three daughters Maya, Luna, and Stella who supported me and showed me there is more to life than reading books and listening to dusty records. My mother, father and grandmother have always been an inspiration, so I want to thank them too. From my academic mentors, I am mostly indebted to my advisor, Jane Desmond. She has been incredibly helpful and supportive throughout my time in grad school at the University of Iowa, and I couldn't have done it without her. Other current and former Iowa faculty members that have helped and deeply influenced me include Kembrew McLeod, Virginia Domínguez, Corey Creekmur, Doris Witt, Richard Turner, Thom Swiss, Laura Rigal, and TM Scruggs. As I made the transition from grad school to a professional career, I was immensely supported by the African American Studies program and the American Studies department at the University of Wyoming, in particular Dr. Gracie Lawson-Borders, Kerry Hodges, Eric Sandeen, Frieda Knobloch, and Pete West. There are many people and institutions that I relied on for my research, and I want to thank the following (in no particular order): Sabine Broeck at the University of Bremen; Janalyn Moss at the University of Iowa Main Library; Bob Koester at Jazz Record Mart; former Living Blues editors Jim O'Neal, Amy van Singel, Paul Garon and in particular Bruce Iglauer at Alligator Records with whom I had an intense discussion about the racial politics of blues over email; Craig Kessler at Real Records; Todd Harvey at the Folklife Center of the Library of Congress; Marybeth Hamilton at Birkbeck College; Newport experts and veterans Mary Katherine Aldin, Dick Waterman, Mike Seeger, and Bruce Jackson; Roxie Sawyer at Coles Supportive Living as well as the senior citizens I had the privilege to interview; Michael Rauhut at Humboldt University iii Berlin; Reinhard Lorenz at the International Jazz and Blues Archive Eisenach; Chris Strachwitz at Arhoolie Records; Joe Roesch at Roesch Records; blues singer Sugarpie De Santo; AFBF veterans and fans Fritz Rau, Günther Kieser, Axel Küstner, Lore Boas, Stephanie Wiesand, Reinhard Mussmann, Marita Letherby, Peter Turczak, Sr., Egbert Theissen, and Karlheinz Drechsel. Finally, I want to thank my cohort and my friends in Hamburg, Iowa City and Laramie that have supported me either by getting me involved in the blues, commenting on parts of my manuscript, or drinking beer: Erica Hannickel, Sam Graber, Charlie Williams, Patrick Oray, Rob Ostheimer, Craig Eley, Patrick Naick, Steven Ironbear Williams, Eric D. Johnson, Kristin Solli, Deborah Lombard, Richard Breaux, Mike Mario Albrecht, Ken and Anya Williford, Dave Ellsworth, Rufo Quintavalle, Shelby Shadwell, Diana Baumbach, Ecardo Baader, Sven Pirschel, Carsten Heimann, and the late Silvester Straub. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER I LIKE BEING BLACK TWICE: CROSSOVER POLITICS IN B.B. KING'S MUSIC OF THE LATE 1960S ................................................18 Introduction.....................................................................................................18 The Shifting Audience....................................................................................19 B.B. King at the Fillmore ...............................................................................25 "Crossover" as Progressive Movement ..........................................................29 The Studio Albums.........................................................................................32 The Live Albums ............................................................................................38 Conclusion ......................................................................................................43 CHAPTER II TRYING TO FIND AN IDENTITY: ERIC CLAPTON'S CHANGING CONCEPTION OF "BLACKNESS".......................................46 Introduction.....................................................................................................46 "White Negroes".............................................................................................47 The British Blues Movement..........................................................................49 Strictly Blues ..................................................................................................53 A Strange Brew: The Music of Cream ...........................................................61 Powellism and the Return of Purity................................................................75 Conclusion ......................................................................................................81 CHAPTER III THE REAL FOLK BLUES: BLUES PERFORMANCES AT NEWPORT, 1959-1969..................................................................................84 Introduction.....................................................................................................84 The Concept of Folk .......................................................................................87 Folk and Folk Music.......................................................................................89 The Folk Revival ............................................................................................92 The Emergence of the Newport Folk Festival................................................95 The Newport Audience.................................................................................101 (Re-)Discovering the Blues ..........................................................................106 Mississippi John Hurt ...................................................................................112 Newport and the Civil Rights Movement.....................................................116