People have been brainwashed into believing that it's got to be down or it wouldn't be blues. But it's not so. It's got to be a fact or it wouldn't be blues.
Interpretation
Blues music is often misunderstood; it doesn't always have to convey sadness, but must be rooted in truth.
Willie Dixon's quote serves as a critique of the common perception of blues music, which suggests that it must necessarily be gloomy or sorrowful. Instead, Dixon emphasizes that the essence of blues lies in its authenticity and truthfulness, indicating that moments of joy or life experiences can also contribute to the genre, thereby expanding its emotional range beyond just sorrow.
In practice
During a music appreciation class, when discussing the evolution of blues music.
The whole of life itself expresses the blues. That's why I always say the blues are the true facts of life expressed in words and song, inspiration, feeling and understanding. The blues can be about anything pertaining to the facts of life. The blues call on God as much as a spiritual song do.
The blues is the roots, the rest is the fruits.
The blues will always be because the blues are the roots of all American music.
The blues has been the foundation of all other American music since the beginning.
The Blues are the true facts of life expressed in words and song, inspiration, feeling, and understanding.
We don't want to be Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. That type of thing wasn't what we were after. It was most important for each of us to be equal in input and output - each of us has to pull the same amount, musically, in composition and in every sense of being in the band.
There is a lot to say about what Bikini Kill and other 'riot grrrl' bands were able to achieve when they first set out. They were not some momentary, convulsive, creative spasm of independent music. There was a very real, relevant point of view being expressed.
When I think about country music, I think about America.
This banjo surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.
There are people these days who can do things on the guitar which are beyond my reach. There's one guy who plays with Queen who can do things I would dream of doing. I sincerely mean that.
There was a point in the '80s when I looked out at my audience and I saw people that - were I not on the stage - they'd sooner slug me as they walked by me on the sidewalk. And I realized that I was way beyond the choir.
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