Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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metaphor for sexual intercourse in the blues. The rider is a sexual partner, a steady lover.
of either sex-
Song:
See see rider, see what you have done, Lord, Lord, Lord
Made me love you, now your gal has come
You made me love you, now your gal has come
- traditional
C H E C K E RB O A RD
Not only words and music, but potent signs and symbols from Africa enrich American
culture. The Ejagham people of southwestern Cameroon and southeastern Nigeria created
an ideographic form of writing called nsibidi. These sacred signs were used to designate
the meeting places and plans of secret societies that governed the ethical and moral lives
of Ejagham people. These secret societies exercised real power. The members of the
executioner society, for example, were men of the tribe who had been endowed by the
king with the authority to hunt down and kill convicted murderers. 96
king and his governing body. The checkerboard represented the spots of the leopard, the
s power animal, whose grace, speed, and strength made it the perfect embodiment of
royalty. The king was believed to have a leopard spirit that leapt into action when the
king was in danger, carrying him away to safety. 97
Among African Americans, the checkerboard became the symbol for another masculine
sanctuary- the corner bar. Like the fabled Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side of
Chicago, opened by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells in 1972, many blues clubs and bars use
the checkerboard name and symbol.
Song:
- Susan Tedeschi and John Hambridge
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