Spirituality and Escaping Reality with the Blues

The quality of life for the African American population in the United States from slavery through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, to the Civil Rights Movement was always a struggle in understanding the true sense of what equality and freedom should be. The earliest forms of American music that we know from recordings are blues and spirituals (gospel). Gospel music has always been a way to escape reality and find truth through a higher power, even if it’s within our own individual minds.

Charlie Patton lived on a plantation in the Mississippi Delta and was subjected to overwhelming inequality, in a nation that prided itself on being a free democracy. When Charlie Patton sang “I Shall Not Be Moved”, he was, in a sense, fighting for the last remaining possession, his faith.

On my way to glory, I shall not be moved

On my way to glory, I shall not be moved

Like a tree planted by the water, I shall not be moved.

Charlie Patton, as well as, Blind Lemon Jefferson and others from their era lived in the South through the most horrific period of segregation and Jim Crow laws that kept a race of people (African Americans) in no better position than slavery itself. To escape these realities, music provided that vehicle.

“See That My Grave is Kept Clean” originally recorded in 1928 by Blind Lemon Jefferson speaks of preserving the memory of one’s life through the symbolic action of the graveside vigil. The fight for freedom in speaking out against inequality often time resulted in lynching, murder, and constant threat of one’s life. To feel that one’s life was not in vain, it’s memory and accomplishments must be remembered. This song’s lyrics represent this idea.

Well, my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold
And, my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold
Well, my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold
Now I believe what the bible told

There's just one last favor I'll ask of you
And there's one last favor I'll ask of you
There's just one last favor I'll ask of you
See that my grave is kept clean

Mississippi John Hurt sang many spirituals, blues, and folk music. “Near My God To Thee” and “Since I Lay My Burden Down” are two songs that came out of the 1920’s that are consistent with, and follow the same pattern of escaping reality and the face of overwhelming hopelessness. “Since I Lay My Burden Down” tries to give the answer to the age old question, “What must I do to enter the Promise Land?” The answer here is to set all your troubles at the feet of a higher power. Gospel music and the blues are connected because they originate from the same source, which is post civil war, post slavery songs of discontent and the longing for a better way of life.

I feel better, so much better
since I laid my burden down

Starting in the mid 20^th century, the fight for civil rights became stronger and more wide-spread. Boycotts, freedom riders, voter registration campaigns in the South began to take the ideas of segregation and to wage a war head on. The combination of many things, including the Vietnam War of the 1960s, which had a high percentage of African Americans, the assassinations of the Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King Jr. all contributed to a line drawn that would change the course of history. This is what we know of as the “Civil Rights Era”. During the 1960s, many songs were written and sung using this battle as the subject. The Staple Singers were a gospel group, as well as, soul and blues. They have used their voices to sing about the disenfranchised and mistreated. “I’ll Take You There” is another blues based spiritual that tries to give hope and answers to those who are facing the realities of inequality.

I know a place, ya'all
(I'll take you there)
Ain't nobody cryin'
(I'll take you there)
Ain't nobody worried
(I'll take you there)

The blues and gospel music let the world know the problems and discontent of its’ people by speaking directly and trying to lead the listener to a place that holds hope and promise for a better tomorrow. Music is an art form. With that, it can be said that art imitates life. The music is just an extension of the feelings of the people. We learn by listening and understanding the plight and condition of those we may never hear about otherwise.