Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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As noted in the entries for cock, and rider, sexual references in the blues freely switch
genders. Lemon is another gender-shifting term; in blues songs, it may refer to female or
You done squeezed my lemon
now you done broke and run
In Cuba, where African ideograms called nsibidi developed into a rich sign-making
tradition among black Cubans, the color yellow represents the life force. A cross may be
drawn in yellow chalk on the forehead or the chest during an initiation rite to symbolize
this, for example. 275
Shango, the Yoruba thunder god, is often depicted squeezing his life-giving lemon, while
pointing with his other hand to the sky. When a devotee is possessed by Shango, he
his eyes to abnormal width and sticks out his tongue, to symbolize a fiery belch of
flames, and raises his thunder-axe on high and clamps his other hand upon his
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(Now we know where Michael Jackson got that move!)
The mythic third king of the Yoruba, Shango is the most energetic and powerfully sexual
Yoruba deity. He is both warrior and lover, described in praise poems dedicated to him as
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Like Obaluaiye, the smallpox god, Shango wreaks vengeance upon those who have
committed moral transgressions (see dust my broom for more on Obaluaiye). He is Joe,
embodied in the murderous rage of an enslaved man, expressed metaphorically in so
many early blues songs about infidelity and revenge.
Songs:
- Memphis Minnie (Lizzie Douglas)
- Robert Johnson
- Charlie Pickett
L E V E E
A levee is a man-made embankment that keeps a river from flooding lowlands. The
numerous levees built around southern rivers after the Civil War protected millions of
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