Rock and Roll drew heavily from country (Elvis) and gospel (everyone) and the blues everywhere. And maybe many in the U.S. don't realize how heavily the Beatles drew on old English music hall songs you can hear so plainly in "let's all get up and dance to a tune that was a hit before your mother was born," and so many others, explicitly. Who ever mentions that? For people familiar with the music, it goes without saying, and the rest are just oblivious. The Stones are steeped in African-American blues, and often named their predecessors.
Hip-Hop, Rap, and such, is mostly spoken word with musical accompaniment, making essentially the waif art of poetry a billion dollar industry. Fancy that.
One of my favorite songs growing up was Hylo Brown’s version of Girl in the Blue Velvet Band.
The blue velvet band is basically a centuries old gansta rap murder, prostitution, drug addiction, betrayal and prison song updated to the forties, and cleaned up so the Foggy Bottom Boys could sing it at the Grand Ole Opry.
Here is a version written from memory by Bonnie Parker (Clyde Barrow’s squeeze) in a jail cell in 1932. The caption reads it was written in San Fransisco in the late 1800s, but only that version. It’s originates from the Scottish highlands God only knows how long ago:
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This is the version of this popular traditional poem by an unknown author, written in the late 19th century, set around the San Francisco intersection of Kearney and Pine, close to Maiden Lane and the Chinatown opium dens, as written from memory by Bonnie Parker, into her bank book from The First National Bank Of Burkburnett Texas with nine other poems, while she was in the Kaufman County Jail in 1932.
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In the city of wealth, beauty and fashion
Dear old Frisco, where I first saw the light
And the many frolics that I had there
Are still in my memory to night
02:
One evening while out for a ramble
Here or there without thought or design
I chanced on a girl tall and slender
On the corner of Kearney and Pine
03:
On her face was the first flush of nature
Her bright eyes seemed to expand
While her hair fell in rich brilliant manner
Was entwined with a ''blue velvet band''
04:
After lunch to a well kept apartment
She invited me with a sweet smile
And she seemed so refined, gay and charming
I thought I would linger awhile
05:
Then she shared with me a collection
Of wines of an excellent brand
And conversed in politest language
This girl with the ''blue velvet band''
06:
Her ladies taste was resplendent
From the graceful arrangement of things
From the pictures that stood on the bureau
To a little bronze Cupid with wings
07:
But what struck me most was an Object
Designed by an ''Artistic Hand''
Was the costly ''lay out'' of a ''Hop Fiend''
And that ''Fiend'' was my ''Blue Velvet Band''
08:
'Tis months since that ''craven arm'' grasped me
In bliss did my life glide away
From ''opium'' to ''dipping'' and ''thieving''
She ''artfully'' led me by day
09:
One evening coming home wet and dreary
With the ''swag'' from a ''jewelry store''
I heard the soft voice of my loved one
As I gently opened the door
10:
If you'll give me a clue to convict him
Said a stranger in accents so ''bland''
You'll then prove to me that you love me
It's a go, said my ''Blue Velvet Band''
11:
Oh how my heart filled with anger
At a woman, so ''fair'', ''false'' and ''vile''
And to think I once had adored her
Brought my lips a contemptuous smile
12:
Our ''ill gotten'' gains she had squandered
And my life was hers to command
But deserted and betrayed for another!
Could this be my ''Blue Velvet Band''?
13:
I challenged this stranger I found there
The draw on him I got first hand
He identified himself as a Deputy
My gun on him I held with firm hand
14:
The Law, not liking the ''glitter''
Of the ''forty-five'' Colt in my hand
He hurriedly left through the window
Leaving me with my ''Blue Velvet Band''
15:
What happened to me I will tell you
I was ''ditched'' for a ''desperate'' crime
There was ''hell'' in a bank about midnight
And my pal was shot down in his ''prime''
16:
Just a few minutes before I was ''hunted''
By the Laws who had wounded me too
My temper was none of the ''sweetest''
As I swung myself into their view
17:
As a convict of ''hard'' reputation
Ten years of this ''grind'' I did land
And I often thought of the pleasures
I had with my ''Blue Velvet Band''
18:
Many months have passed since this happened
And this story belongs to the past
I forgave her, but just retribution
Claimed this fair but false one at last
19:
She slowly sank lower and lower
Down through life's ''shifting sands''
'Till finally she died in a ''Hop Joint''
This girl with the ''blue velvet band''
20:
If she had been true when I met her
A bright future for us was in store
For I was an able ''mechanic''
And ''honest'' and ''square'' to the core
21:
But as ''sages'' of old have contended
What's ''decreed'' we mortals must stand
So a ''grave'' in the ''Potter's Field'', ended
My ''romance'' with the ''Blue Velvet Band''
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