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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Here's another misleading ex., from Newspapers.com:

1859 _Public Ledger_ (Philadelphia) (Aug. 15) 1: SANFORD'S OPERA
HOUSE...Blockley Blues, Donnybrook Fair, Dixey's Land.

The _Sunday Dispatch_ (Aug. 14), p. 2 explains (via GenealogyBank) that
"Blockley Blues" refers to "The Blockley Blues' [sic] Quartette" described
only as "a novelty."

The construction " X Blues"  usually referred to a militia unit that wore
blue uniforms, so perhaps the Blockleys were in costume.

JL

On Wed, Feb 4, 2026 at 7:50 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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."
>


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

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