On Appreciation

“I woke up this morning, My baby was gone.”

From B. B. King to Ten Years After, that simple couplet stands as blues music’s most pervasive cliché, a verbal caricature of the genre. It is also one of its most profound utterances.

Written in the first person singular and making no reference to age, sex, race, religion, occupation, wealth or social status, its sorrowful expression of a failed relationship is both deeply personal and broadly universal. Its nine words map the contours of the often turbulent interaction between the sexes that began when our ancient ancestors first dragged their knuckles out of the dust to stand erect and emotionally aware and will persist as long as mankind walks the earth.

Rooted in reality, blues music presents things as they are not as they should be. As such, it can be viewed as a reflection of society at large, one in which we are all characters trying to figure ourselves out, striving to get things right and, in spite of good intentions
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