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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Don't thank me, Fred. We complicate, you explicate.

JL

On Tue, Feb 3, 2026 at 9:42 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

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

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