[Ads-l] "blues" in early song title

[Shapiro, Fred]

Very interesting, Jon.  I have spent a lot of time studying the word "blues," and I can attest that it can be very difficult to distinguish "blues meaning unhappiness," "blues meaning the title of a particular composition," and "blues meaning a genre of music."  Your 1872 and 1878 discoveries complicate things further.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, February 3, 2026 8:16 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: "blues" in early song title

Newspapers.com:

1872 _Forreston [Ill.] Weekly Journal_ (Oct. 12) 1: "Salt River Blues" is
the name of an old but excellent piece of music.

1878 _Indianapolis News_ (Dec. 6) 2: Fauntleroy numbered music among his
numerous accomplishments, and composed several pieces which were very
popular in their day, among them were the "Wabah waltz [sic]" and the "Salt
River Blues," the latter was on the defeat of Henry Clay.

These are worth mentioning only because they are clearly *not* radically
early exx. of a "blues composition," as some might assume. "Blues" here are
simply feelings of sadness and depression. The form of the title, however,
["place-name + "blues"] is striking. I wonder how "popular" the "Salt River
Blues" really was in Indiana. I find no other mentions of it.

(To "row someone up Salt River (or Salt Creek)" was a frequent 19th century
phrase (recorded in 1830) for 'to defeat thoroughly, ruin, etc.; cf. 20th
century "up Shit Creek.")

JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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