[New-Poetry] Langston Hughes/ W. Dixon, Robert Johnson, etc--

[TheOldMole]

The great blues lyrics do stand up on the page, and I've taught them as a 
literature, and have a proposal for a book on the literature of the blues 
(any academic presses listening?) but what Hughes did was of a different 
order. It was different because "Negro music" was not considered real art --  
I mean, there wasn't even a debate over it. So Hughes was using the blues 
the way Ives or Copland used folk melodies -- with the sense that he was 
taking something that wasn't "art," and making "real art" out of it. I don't 
think Hughes actually believed this. But it was important to him and the 
other Harlem Renaissance artists to be perceived as artists and not folk 
curios, and this made a difference in the way that he wrote.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Stroffolino" <cstroffo at earthlink.net>
To: "NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp; Views" 
<new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 7:43 PM
Subject: [New-Poetry] Langston Hughes/ W. Dixon, Robert Johnson, etc--


>
> Hey, I got in a really good discussion the other day about Langston 
> Hughes' blues poems
> (and yes I know that he recorded quite a few of them) and their 
> relationship to the blues lyrics
> of, for instance, the folks above, or John Lee Hooker, Big Mama  Thornton, 
> Ma Rainey, etc---
>
> And if anybody else here would maybe be interested in talking about  that 
> relationship here--
> Does it matter that Hughes worked primarily in a different field (in  the 
> artistic specialization sense) than these other folks?
> Is it somewhat analogous to the difference between, say, million  selling 
> hip hop artists today vs. a slam poet aesthetic which  utilizes many 
> devices of rap/hip hop?
> Or, for that matter, even the difference between say Bob Dylan and  Allen 
> Ginsberg's songs?
>
> There's alot of room for discussion (and, sure, bring on the "blues 
> bashers" though I'm definitely trying to
> avoid the tired argument "it doesn't stand up on the page" and will  try 
> not to engage it here if it comes up)--
> Also, if anybody knows of any good essays on the subject---- 
> specifically about Hughes and some of the other recorded bluesmen of  the 
> 20th C---that'd be a nice supplement, but I really am not a big  fan of 
> posts that just send LINKS
> without any commentary as to why I'm supposed to check out the  link......
> a discussion might be nice (but be careful what you ask for, Chris---)
>
> C
>
> _______________________________________________
> New-Poetry mailing list
> New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
>