“The Death Issue” December 2015 1

was listening a lot of at that time to Charlie Patton's work which is not usually in high
quality recording, because he was a genius I think, Charlie Patton. But also listening to
Reverend Gary Davis and Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson, all these guys. I mean,
Tommy Johnsons', the kind of pathos of his songs. He died young, he died from the effects
of canned heat, which was one of the great songs, Canned Heat Blues. You know, he was
predicting his own death because they would use a can of cleaning fluid and pour it
through to sift out the liquor, and drink that. And they knew that was happening at the
same time, and that would kill them. Some kind of release from the life they were living.
Blues men were mobile and they had that advantage, moving from place to place with
music. But also, you were outlaws as you had no protection from local people, so a lot of
blues men got shot at, and got into trouble.
OV: and that creates its own possession – it's not comfortable, there's often not much
solace in blues music, that pathos -
JB: solace might not be the right word. What this means is the satisfaction of saying it,
there's a satisfaction in saying 'this is how it is'. And I think from blues songs they say 'I'm
not going to entertain you, I'm not going to tell you to make you feel better, I'm going to
tell you this is how it is'. A satisfaction in saying it, pinpointing exactly in the right words
'this is how it is'. I was listening to something this morning, basically while unpacking, the
old process of a bag unpacking, and I was listening on the music machine to Connor
Oberst, who I like, and there was a great album of his - Casa Dega. And I was listening to
that, and he really – he'll calculate, he'll pin it down as 'this is how it is', it's not nice, it's
not reassuring, it doesn't make you feel better. But to say it, to say this is how it is, and
then move on from there, is something significant.
OV: it's its own beauty, I guess, despite this. Can I ask, would you mind reading one of
these blues poems, and there's Death Room Blues and Dope Head Blues. Could you go
for one of those?
JB: Death Room Blues
Before the songs I sang there were the songs
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