---

Blues Lyrics On Line: The Answers

So you're dying to know those answers, huh? They may not be the ultimate answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything, but they're much more interesting... Here ya go:

• Has anybody ever written a blues song about spaceflight?
  Sho' Nuff. Lightnin' Hopkins recorded Happy Blues for John Glenn a few days after John Glenn had made his three-orbit spaceflight on February 20, 1962.

• Is there a blues song that mentions the Kinsey Report?
  You bet. The Kinsey Report on American sexual habits was the starting point for Archie "Stomp" Gordon's R & B number "What's Her Whimsey, Dr Kinsey".

• Godzilla?
  Hmm. Godzilla is referred to, albeit only in passing, in Wrong Number by Michael Hill's Blues Mob.

• President Eisenhower?
  Check out JB Lenoir's Eisenhower Blues.

• President Johnson?
  President Johnson is mentioned in a number of blues about the Vietnam War era, such as Lightnin' Hopkins' Vietnam War. Champion Jack Dupree had not much confidence in this president, as he sings in Going to Paris

• President de Gaulle of France?
  Monsieur de Gaulle welcomes Champion Jack Dupree in his Going to Paris

• Napoleon Bonaparte?
  According to Vivian Greene, Napoleon learned all his maneuvers along with Josephine...

• Margaret Thatcher?
  You gotta be kidding...

• Has there ever been a blues recorded to the accompaniment of a sewing machine?
  Yes. In the Fifties, Dr. Harry Oyster made a number of recordings in the Angola State Penitentiary, Angola, Louisiana; among them artists/inmates he recorded were Robert Pete Williams, Hogman Maxey, and Guitar Welch, and also Odea Mathews who sang The Moon Is Rising at a sewing machine (working). You can find it on the CD "Angola Prisoners' Blues" (Arhoolie CD 419). Sorry, lyrics not yet on line.

• Is there a blues about bad breath?
  Do I smell Garlic Blues? Helen Humes recorded that in 1927. I can't understand all she sings, but these fragments give a good idea:

  Breath as strong as Samson, tell the world it sure is loud
  Oh I can find my daddy in most any big crowd

  Way out in the forest, met a polecat in a lane
  Breathe upon that kitten, poor old thing went insane

  Tells me it brings good luck, not with me in any case
  To me it's just like the wind is snoring in my face

• And how's about a blues on the Internet?
  Why not? Of course you're much more likely to find it on the web than in a record store! The closest I've come to a "net blues" is Techy Blues Lyrics

• And how do I know if my mojo is working?
  Who feels it knows it...

• How lowdown can you get??
  If the workers in the mine have to look down at you, then you're really down! Big Bill Broonzy knows all about it.

• And most importantely, what is the blues???
  Well, the blues ain't nothin' but...