Topic: Blues in Minor/With Minor Chords

[Pan]

I'm not sure exactly if Sam Collins is really playing a IVm (Cm) chord in "Graveyard Digger's Blues", but he certainly stresses the minor 3rd of the IV chord in the key (E flat in the key of G), both in the vocal and the guitar melody. There's some other weird and fascinating harmonic stuff going on as well.



Cheers

Pan

[Johnm]

Wow, what a sensational find, Pan!  I haven't listened to that for a couple of years, and it's an amazing track.  Sam Collins is working out of A position in standard tuning, tuned a whole step low.  If you listen to his solo starting at around 1:34, it's a killer.  He goes from a B, fingered like a "long A" moved up two frets to a B7 out of the same position (sounding a step lower, because of his tuning).  He resolves to E7, then back A.  He then goes from long A to A7 to D resolving to G7(!), the flat seven of which is the same note as the minor third of a D minor  chord.  Then to a momentary E minor resolving to E7, and finally back to A, then to B minor7 to E7 to A for the instrumental version of "I ain't got no lovin' baby now."  Whew, what a ride!
Sam Collins certainly sings to a minor IV chord from beginning to end in the song and plays that minor melody note (flatVI of the scale) over the IV chord, too.  His substitution of the flat VII 7th chord, G7, for the IV minor chord, D minor, is the kind of stuff that is encountered in the writing of people like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Tadd Dameron, and Burt Bacharach.  Sam Collins got a lot of harmonically exotic effects by assuming that the melody note was the root of whatever chord it was happening over, though he goes to many more remote places in this song.  What a beauty this one is, and man could he sing!
All best,
Johnm

[Pan]

Wow! Thanks for the detailed analysis, Johnm! It is very much appreciated, as always. Looks like this tune is a good candidate for the "one of a kind" category as well.

Cheers

Pan

[Batson]

I'm also a fan of this song. A clean copy turned up on Yazoo's "The Best There Ever Was" compilation. Also, maybe this is common knowledge, but Blind Boy Fuller's "Lost Lover Blues" seems to be basically the same song (minus the "exotic" chord changes).

[Pan]

As Johnm pointed out on Facebook, the song "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone?" by Tampa Red And His Hokum Jug Band, from 1929, contains minor chords, and I believe, changes back and forth between the relative keys of F-Major and D-minor:



If I'm not mistaken the 32-bar form goes something like this:


A
|| F7 | % | % | % |

| Bb7 | % | % | % |

| A7 | % | Dm  | % |

| C7 | G7 | C7 | C7 ||

B
|| F7 | % | % | % |

| Bb7 | % | A7 | % |

| Dm | % | A7 | Dm  Gm7(b5)/Db |

| F/C | G7 C7 | F | F ||

According to B&G the personnel here is Tom Dorsey, piano; Bill Johnson bass; Jasper Taylor, washboard; and Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, vocals.

Cheers

Pan

Edited to reflect corrections by Johnm. I had missed a nice little change in bars 28 to 30. As John points out the Gm7(b5)/Db chord could be played with guitar as: X - 4 - 5 - 3 - 6 - X. The chord could also be seen as being a Bbm6 with the minor 3rd on bass. Also in bar 13, I believe had missed a C7 chord preceding the G7.

[uncle bud]

Rev. Gary Davis's Eagle Rocking Blues is a 12-bar blues dirge in E minor.

[Pan]

Hi all,

Johnm kindly pointed to me, that the chord changes to "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone?" are a little more complex than I originally thought! 
I've edited my original post above to reflect the changes I'd missed. 

Cheers

Pan

[Pan]

Walter Davis' "Please Remember Me" is a very nice minor blues, which reminds me of "St. James Infirmary".

I posted a  link on the YouTube thread:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=2101.msg72051#new

Cheers

Pan

[Rivers]

Memphis Jug Band ? Oh Ambulance Man is a good one. It's on the juke.

[Pan]

Hi all

Bumble Bee Slim's "Slave Man Blues" is a very nice blues in a minor key. I like how the B-section starts with a major(b7?) chord with the root of the key, for contrast.



Cheers

Pan

[Johnm]

That's a great find, Pan, thanks for posting it.  For a song that has a relatively Pop, Tin Pan Alley sort of feel, it still has some really "country" elements, especially in its phrasing.  The B part starts on a I 7 chord, as you noted, and sounds like it is going to be a 12-bar blues, but ends up like so:

   |    I7    |    I7    |    I7    |    I7    |

   |    IV7  |   IV7   |    V7   |   V7  + 2 beats  |

The measure that concludes the B part has two extra beats to accommodate the vocal pick-ups to the return of the final A part.  The A parts are similarly asymmetrical, short in the first line, and long in the second.  It's nice when something calculated for a mainstream market ends up being crooked almost in spite of itself.  I suspect this can mostly be attributed to how Bumble Bee Slim felt the lengths of his vocal phrases.
All best,
Johnm

[Pan]

A song that I think deserves to be mentioned here, is Clifford Gibson's "Don't Put That Thing On Me".  It is not often that you encounter a II minor chord in a pre-war country blues tune.

Here's JohnM's gret analysis of the song in the "One of a kind" -thread:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=2044.15



Cheers

Pan

[Pan]

E.C. Ball switches back and forth with both the major and minor tonalities in his tune "Warfare". Both with the melody and the tonic chord, I believe.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estil_C._Ball

Cheers

Pan

[Johnm]

Wow, that is a beauty, thanks for posting that, Pan.  The melody sounds like it may have originally been an unaccompanied hymn or ballad.
All best,
Johnm

[frailer24]

Speaking of the Rev., "Children of Zion" is based out of A minor.