Beatles ever record Blues?

Just curious.

Runnnerr...

George's "Soft Hearted Hana", 1979

Jeff...

How does this song sound anything like the blues? It sounds like a song
that was written
normally first...and then like Harrison tried to record parts of the
song..playing it backwards.
It sounds nothing like the blues though.

abe slaney...

I think almost all of the songs cited so far are stretches to call
"blues." Not that I'm a purist by any stretch, but 12-bars and 3 chords
don't necessarily make the blues. Some of them (I Want You, Don't Let Me
Down) might have some "blues-y" elements, but I think real blues fans
would scoff at the idea that the Beatles were playing the blues in these
songs.

Jeff...

I couldn't agree with you more, and if "for you blue" would have been
recorded by anyone else except for the Beatles..the song would have
been awful..but again, they were the
exception in making this song into something that's enjoyable. The
Beatles always
found a new way to present their songs..unlike most groups.

Have you been watching Tommy Lee's new band on TV? I was so sure at
first that
the little guy was to become their new lead singer..but now..I'm not so
sure.

fattuchus...

Would some musician out there at rmb please explain to us what makes a
song "the blues"? When I think of a song that is "the blues" I think
of one where the lyrics essentially say "My man (or woman) left me; I'm
so lonesome I could die." Something along the lines of Yer Blues or Oh
Darling.

Chris Jepson...

The classic "12-bar" blues is a musical form characterized by a
12-measure verse consisting of three four-measure phrases employing the
following chord progression:

I - IV - I - I
IV - IV - I - I
V - IV - I - V

Lyrically, a phrase is typically sung over the first four measures, and
repeated over the next four, followed by a different and rhyming phrase
sung over the last four. For example:

I IV I I
I'm sittin here wonderin would a matchbox hold my clothes ...

IV IV I I
I'm sittin here wonderin would a matchbox hold my clothes ...

V IV I V
..I ain't got no matches, but I sure got a long way to go.

The melody typically makes liberal use of "blue notes" (flatted third,
fifth, and seventh notes); the singer often does not use these exact
notes, but rather, sings microtones a little lower or higher. (For
example, the word "clothes" in "Matchbox"; if you don't sing that word
using a microtone, you sound like Pat Boone.) The archetypical subject
matter of the blues is trouble and woe, but the form is not defined by
the lyrical content; many blues songs have happy lyrics, and many sad
songs are not at all bluesy.

There are many, many variations on this basic form... but in general, a
song is "bluesy" to the extent that it employs that chord progression
and the use of blue notes in the melody.

Chris Jepson

Rev. Love...

I'd say that about wraps this case up! Excellent post.

abe slaney...

Except that it ain't so.
There are hundreds...thousands...of blues songs that don't use the 1-4-5
progression. I realize Chris was generalizing in order to fit the

poisoned rose...

I always thought the chord progression for Led Zep's "Since I've
Been Loving You" was an amazingly fresh take on the blues. That
final wrap-around is just fantastic. Although maybe I'll find out
one day that they borrowed it, in which case I'll be crushed. ;)

explanation into a single easily digestible post, and did disclaim at
the end that there are variations; but unfortunately, in general this
kind of static interpretation of "the blues" is exactly what spawned ten
gazillion suburban white-boy blues bands that all sound the same. They
all do the same I-IV-V progression and call it The Blues. But if you go
back and listen to the old recordings of guys like John Lee Hooker and
Lightning Hopkins and countless others, their songs are all over the
place in terms of phrase lengths, when chords change, *if* chords
change, etc. It's much more closely related to African music in that

Chris Jepson...

You are exactly right... I figured that the only workable strategy was
to define what I referred to as "the classic 12-bar blues", which is
arguably the single best (or at least the most recognizable) example of
the blues but is indeed only one of a multitude of blues subtypes.
Which does make it harder to say if the Beatles ever played the blues.
If Howlin' Wolf's "Do the Do" or "Wang Dang Doodle", which have nothing
to do with the 12-bar structure, are blues songs (and anyone who says
they aren't is messed up), then how about "I Wanna Be Your Man"?

I guess one could even ask whether the blues is really in the song or in
the performance. I can imagine someone performing a blues song but
doing it in such a soulless manner that it would be painful to have to
call it "the blues". I have the impression that most real blues artists
would probably take that viewpoint... that the blues is a feeling, and
if you put that feeling into your music, then you are playing/singing
the blues. Which makes a definition very difficult... but maybe "if you
have to ask, you ain't ever gonna know." From this viewpoint I guess
you could say that my previous definition might provide a starting point
for someone to understand the blues.

Chris Jepson

way. The rest of the post about microtones and blue notes I think is
pretty much on, as far as that kind of analysis goes. Of course, it's
often easier to say what something is not than what it is. Or easier to
say "I know it when I hear it." To me, the blues is some of these things
that can be pointed to in theoretical language, but more than that, it's
a musical atmosphere, a groove, an aura - mojo if you like. I know it
when I hear it. :)
I still say the Beatles never played the blues. Which is fine, because I
don't think they wanted to. Bluesy, yes - blues, no. Call it splitting
hairs if you like.

Dimitrios Paskoudniakis...

I guess you haven't heard their January 28, 1969 Get Back session track,
"The River Rhine". Or if you have, what genre of music would you define
this track, since the Beatles "never played the blues"? The asterisk is
that a black musician participated, namely, Billy Preston on keys, and this
added a necessary ingredient.

abe slaney...

You're right - I haven't heard it - or I did and forgot about it. Of
course I have no way of knowing that they absolutely "never played the
blues" - for all I know they may have played them every night for years
as soon as the tape machines were off. What I should have said was that
they didn't record any blues songs for release, with the possible
exception of "Yer Blues", which was admittedly a tongue-in-cheek send-up
of the British blues craze of the period.
I'll have to look around and see if I own the recording you mentioned.

Dimitrios Paskoudniakis...

Please refer to
for possible sources.

fattuchus...

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

terra...

Agreed. Every time they described one of their songs or lyrics or phrases
as being 'bluesy' I never heard it and still don't.

The only straight blues I ever heard them attempt was '12 bar' and it
sucked. They were NOT an improvisational band, they couldn't jam worth
squat. That's fine, they excelled at what they did do, and improv in any
art form demands technical proficiency and a talent to make it up as you go
along.

Their massive talents lie elsewhere.

Dale Houstman...

I don't really want to argue the "blueiness" of the Beatles; I think
they often do a variety of the blues, and I find these separations
between musical forms as close as rock-country-blues-jazz to be mostly
pointless. But I will say that although I agree that the Boys were not a
great improvisational group, I don't quite see how this pertains to a
discussion of the blues. Although many electric blues artists do improv
a lot, the blues doesn't demand improv as a part of its definition. In
fact, the blues is usually a matter of endlessly repeating the same
elements (chord structures, melodies, and lyrics) over and over in
multiple forms by many artists. One can easily be a bluesman without
even any great instrumental ability. The "blues" lies elsewhere.

Dimitrios Paskoudniakis...

"The River Rhine", January 28, 1969, with Billy Preston. It cooked. I have
to put my shades on whenever I hear it.

John Gutglueck...

Yeah, a nice definition, and one to which quite a number of Beatles'
originals measure up--at least in part. The old blues masters were
content to create entire songs out of multiple repetitions of the
pattern that Chris describes. As songwriters in the Tin Pan
Alley/Brill Building mold, Lennon and McCartney weren't comfortable
with that degree of formal repetition--at least they weren't in 1964
when they started incorporating the 12-bar blues pattern into their
songwriting--so they ended up creating something more complex. In the
verses they'd follow the 12-bar, 3-chord blues pattern, but in the
bridge they'd use a chord pattern more appropriate to a pop ballad
(incorporating minor ii, iii, and/or vi chords). The result was a kind
of blues/pop hybrid. I'm not sure that there was any precedent for
the mixture of styles heard in Can't But Me Love, You Can't Do
That, and She's A Woman.

A somewhat similar approach is taken in The Word (though there the
bridge is more rock than ballad) and in Birthday (where the bridge is
sort of bubblegum). For You Blue and (strangely enough) Flying are
closer to pure blues insofar as they rely on repetitions of the 12-bar
pattern exclusively, unmediated by a bridge of any kind.
Paradoxically, Yer Blues, which would seem to be the most
"authentic" blues song the Beatles did, doesn't quite meet the
strict definition because Lennon deviates from the standard chord
pattern in the third phrase.

donz5...

"12-Bar Original" (Anthology 2)
"For You Blue" (LIB)

Jeff...

They sort of worked around the blues. Harrison and Lennon weren't very
good on their guitars to play the blues...judging by their Jam
sessions. Their Jamming wasn't too good.

Runnnerr...

"Yer Blues" from The White Album, "I Wanna Cry" from Paul in 1990 are
two that immediately come to mind.

bottlebleu...

"Don't let me down" always sounded pretty bluesy to me.

fattuchus...

I'm not a music expert, but Oh! Darling seems bluesy to me.

lottamow...

Lotta more R & B.

Dale Houstman...

Rhythm and Blues...

donz5...

Add: "Flying" (MMT)

Rev. Love...

Many rock songs are nothing more than old blues songs with a more
electrified sound and a heavier beat. The Beatles are no exception.

The structures of a good portion of their catalog is really just blues
and R&B, riffs and rhythms. Revolution is another really good example.

Dimitrios Paskoudniakis...

My favorite and IMHO "most bluesy" is "Moving Along The River Rhine" from
the Get Back session, with Billy cookin' on the keys. In this one, Paul
starts to sing the lyrics of "The Long and Winding Road" to this blues
riff - classic.

IBen Getiner...

"The blues is a chair, not a design for a chair or a better chair....
it is the first chair. It is a chair for sitting on, not chairs for
looking at or being appreciated. You sit on that music.
...We didn't sound like anybody else, that's all. I mean, we didn't
sound like the black musicians because we weren't black. And because we
weren't brought up on a different kind of music and atmosphere, and so
'Please Please Me' and 'From Me To You' and all those were our version
of the chair. We were building our own chairs".

John Lennon, 1970, 'Lennon Remembers': The Rolling Stone interviews

Hope this answers your question...

IBen Getiner

IBen Getiner...

"The blues is a chair, not a design for a chair or a better chair....
it is the first chair. It is a chair for sitting on, not chairs for
looking at or being appreciated. You sit on that music.
...We didn't sound like anybody else, that's all. I mean, we didn't
sound like the black musicians because we weren't black. And because we
were brought up on a different kind of music and atmosphere, and so
'Please Please Me' and 'From Me To You' and all those were our version
of the chair. We were building our own chairs".

John Lennon, 1970, 'Lennon Remembers': The Rolling Stone interviews

Hope this answers your question...

IBen Getiner