Singing the Blues - Requirements

Jerryc41

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I found this online somewhere. If it was posted here, I apologize for the duplication. It's very funny.

Requirements for singing the Blues

1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning..."

2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, 'less you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."

3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes...sort of:

"Got a good woman with the meanest face in town.
Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town.
Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pounds."

4. The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch - ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks.
Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles.
Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train.
Jet aircraft an' state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running.
Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues.
In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough for the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada.
Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression.
Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best place to have the Blues.
You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is.
Breaking your leg cause you skiing is not the blues.
Breaking your leg 'cause a alligator be chomping on it is.

9. You can't have no Blues in a office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong.
Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places for the Blues:
a. Highway
b. Jailhouse
c. Empty bed
d. Bottom of a whiskey glass

Bad places:
a. Dillard's
b. Gallery Openings
c. Ivy League Institutions
d. Golf Courses

11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be a old ethnic person, and you slept in it.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?
Yes, if:
a. You older than dirt
b. You blind
c. You shot a man in Memphis
d. You can't be satisfied

No, if:
a. you have all your teeth
b. you were once blind but now can see
c. the man in Memphis lived
d. you have a 401K or trust fund

13. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck.
Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could.
Ugly white people also got a leg up on the blues.

14. If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline, it's the Blues.
Other acceptable Blues beverages are:
a. Cheap Wine
b. Whiskey or Bourbon
c. Muddy Water
d. Nasty Black Coffee

The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a. Perrier
b. Chardonnay
c. Snapple
d. Slim Fast

15. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death.
Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die.
So is the electric chair, substance abuse, and dying lonely on a broke down cot.
You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or getting liposuction.

16. Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling

17. Some Blues names for men:
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie

18. Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Debbie, and Heather cannot sing the Blues, no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

19. Make your own Blues name Starter Kit:
a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc)
b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc)
c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc)
For example, Blind Lime Jefferson, Jakeleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")

20. I don't care how tragic your life: if you own a computer, you cannot sing the blues.
 
That is very funny, and so true.
 
Terrific, just terrific. I copied it. Thanks a lot, Jerryc41. I’ll read it when the blues gits me down - yeah, yeah . . . :eek:ld:
 
Possible exception to #5 and maybe #16, Mercedes Benz by Janet Joplin.
 
Does this fit the bill? (note that he plays slide ukulele)

 
Haha, that's a good one! But, it omitted the main requirement to sing the blues: Ya gotta pay your dues. :cool:
 
And then here's Robert Klein breaking all the blues rules:

 
There is a blues venue in Copenhagen with the slogan:
"You can't play the Blues in an airconditioned room."

Sort of the same ballgame.
 
yep i definitely got the blues, in Wales UK, it rains all the time, I sleep in an empty bed, I'm always injuring myself, because I'm old, cold and full of mold lol
 
Well, let’s see .....I’m getting old, all my joints ache, and I live somewhere cold & snowy. But I don’t think those things cancel out the fact that I drive an SUV, have a 401K, and never shot anyone in Memphis or anywhere else. Guess I don’t qualify to sing the blues.
 
Gotta disagree with one...I can sing plenty of golf course blues...:(
 
I think you can have the blues if you own a computer.

Woke up this morning
My identity's been hacked
It's out on the dark web
Ain't never coming back.

It's left me with nothing
Even fried my hard drive
No Facebook or Twitter
No one knows I'm alive.
 
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