Teaching the Blues
Mississippi Department of Archives and History: 38th
Social Studies Teachers Workshop
November 3, 2023
Kenneth V. Anthony and Valencia Epps
Mississippi State University
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Mississippi Social
Studies Standards Alignment
4.MS.9 Explain how literature, the arts, architecture,
and music distinguish Mississippi from other places.
1. Identify Mississippians known for their artwork, music, architecture, and
literature (e.g., Wyatt Waters, William Herd, Walter Anderson, B.B. King, Elvis
Presley, Marty Stewart, Eudora Welty, Willie Morris, etc.).
National
History Standards
Standard 6A: Regional folklore and culture
contributions that helped to form our national heritage.
The student understands folklore and other cultural
contributions from various regions of the United States and how they help to
form a national heritage.
Examine art, crafts, music, and language of people from a variety
of regions long ago and describe their influence on the nation.
Goal
TSW understand how the blues moved from Mississippi (and the
deep South) to influence popular culture in the U.S.
Objectives
1. TSW analyze blues music.
2. TSW write a definition of blues music.
3. TSW list ways that Muddy Waters influenced the
development of music.
Activities
Objective 1: TSW analyze blues music.
TTW play the song “Goodbye Newport Blues” for students
(twice) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3_7J1DokkI
TSW analyze the using the Observe Reflect Question Process
(Library of Congress). https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/
TT and TS will review the ORQ responses and discuss their impressions
of the song.
TSW describe the music.
TTS will ask students to contextualize the song using the
5Ws- who, what, when, where, and why. Students' responses will focus on the
lyrics and performance of the song. The teacher will contextualize the song in
the next step.
TTW provide a broader historical context of the song.
Specifically, it was written by Langston Hughes and performed by the Muddy
Waters Band at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 3, 1960. TTW provide a short description
of the Newport Jazz Festival and explain that Langston Hughes invited Muddy
Waters to the Festival to expand the audience of blues music. TTW why the song
was hastily written by Hughes and performed as the last song of the festival (the
riot the previous night had led to the last day of the festival being cancelled).
Objective 2: TSW write a definition of blues music.
TTW pass out copies of the defining the blues “Call and
Response” document. TTW explain that the document was a part of the script for
the festival. The performance included an education format where music was interspersed
with educational information about the blues. This call and response is one
part of the program.
TSW read the call and response document and conduct the Sentence-Phrase-Word
routine. https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Sentence%20Phrase%20Word.pdf
TSW share the results of the Sentence-Phrase-Word routine.
TSW will ask the students what the author’s purpose was. TTW
will explain that Langston Hughes was trying to help the audience understand
the nature of the blues.
TTW conduct the Color-Symbol-Image routine. Students will
share the results.
TTW ask the students to write their own definition of the
blues using what they have learned so far.
TT and TS will compare their definition of the blues to other
formal definitions of blues.
Objective 3: TSW list ways that Muddy Waters
influenced the development of music.
TTW take students on a Google tour of Muddy Waters’s life
and influence.
TSW Read “Growing Popular Culture: Muddy Waters and Langston
Hughes Spreading the Blues” or other appropriate informational text on Muddy
Waters.
TSW list ways that Muddy Waters influenced the larger
culture and music.
Recommended texts
Muddy Waters Blues Trail Marker
Muddy Waters Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Essay
https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/muddy-waters
Mississippi Writers and Musicians article
on Muddy Waters
https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-musicians/muddy-waters-mckinley-morganfield
Resources
Backlash Blues. "Goodbye Newport
Blues." https://www.backlash-blues.com/goodbye-newport-blues.
Library of Congress. "Folk
musician John Jackson performing in concert at the Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C." 1974-1978. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Accessed October 25, 2023. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2004004.ms070352/.
Lomax, A. (1941) Alan Lomax
Collection, Manuscripts, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas, -1942. to 1942.
[Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2004004.ms070352/.
Lomax, A. (1941) Alan Lomax
Collection, Manuscripts, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas, -1942. to 1942.
[Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2004004.ms070208/.
RIRocks. "Newport Jazz Festival
1960." https://www.rirocks.net/Band%20Articles/Newport%20Jazz%20Festival%201960.htm.
Mississippi Blues Trail. "Muddy
Waters Birthplace." https://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/muddy-waters-birthplace.
Mississippi Arts Commission.
"Blues Trail Curriculum." August 2017. https://arts.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/BluesTrailCurriculum.pdf.
Wolfgang's. "Goodbye Newport
Blues." https://www.wolfgangs.com/music/goodbye-newport-blues/audio/20020381-17613.html?tid=4880933.
Yale University Library.
""Goodbye Newport Blues” by Langston Hughes. 1902-1967,1961 https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/17394808.
Yale University Library. "Muddy
Waters interview." https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/archival_objects/348571.
Yale University Library. “Newport
Blues” by Langston Hughes. https://collections.library.yale.edu/iiif/2/17396179/full/1000,1265/0/default.jpg.
YouTube. "Muddy Waters - Live
Dortmund, Germany 1976 (Full Concert)." June 4, 2011. Video, 14:54. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvMCOedhaKg&t=894s
References
Armstrong,
Stephen. Review of Muddy Waters: Can't Be Satisfied. Film &
History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies, 37,
no. 2 (2007): 95-96. https://doi.org/10.1353/flm.2007.0040.
Backlash Blues.
"Goodbye Newport Blues." https://www.backlash-blues.com/goodbye-newport-blues.
Britto, David.
“Artists that were influence by Muddy Waters: The American blues legend has
left his mark on music and movies,” Rolling Stone India, April 4, 2023. https://rollingstoneindia.com/artists-influenced-by-muddy-waters-jimi-hendrix-rolling-stones-eric-clapton-martin-scorsese/.
Blues Blast
Magazine. "Did a Clerical Error Change Muddy Waters History - Evolution of
a Nickname." October 25, 2023. https://www.bluesblastmagazine.com/did-a-clerical-error-change-muddy-waters-history-evolution-of-a-nickname/.
“Country Blues” and “Interview #1” from The
Complete Plantation Recordings Muddy Waters, 1941- 1942, Chess/ MCA, 1993.
“Did Muddy Waters’ First UK Tour Launch The
British Blues Boom?” October 16, 2023, https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/muddy-waters-first-uk-tour/
Christine Wilson,
“Mississippi Blues,” Mississippi History Now, Mississippi Department of
Archives and History, August 2003. https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/mississippi-blues.
David Whiteis,
“Blues Breakthrough at Newport,” n.d., The Coda Collection. https://codacollection.co/stories/blues-breakthrough-at-newport.
Dhakal, Larmstr.
"Musical Tradition and Cultural Vision in Langston Hughes’s Poetry." Literary
Studies, 33 (2020): 41-45.
Gary Blailock,
Liner notes, Muddy Waters at Newport, 1960, (Waxtime Records, September
2013).
Hypercritic.
"At Newport 1960." https://hypercritic.org/collection/at-newport-1960/.
Jack Tracy,
Original liner notes from the album Muddy Waters at Newport 1960,
(Waxtime Records, 2013).
Karl Rohr, “Muddy
Waters,” Mississippi Encyclopedia, Center for Study of Southern Culture,
July 11, 2017, http://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/muddy-waters/.
Khagendra
Neupane, “The Intersection of Blues and Gospel in Langston Hughes’s Poetry”. Cognition,
5 (1):63-67, 2023. https://doi.org/10.3126/cognition.v5i1.55409.
Langston Hughes,
“Newport Blues,” July 3, 1960, Langston Hughes Papers. James Weldon Johnson
Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library. https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/17394775
Lomax, Alan. Alan
Lomax Collection, Manuscripts, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas, -1942. to
1942, 1941. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2004004.ms070208/.
Lomax, Alan. Alan
Lomax Collection, Manuscripts, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas, -1942. to
1942, 1941. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2004004.ms070208/.
Lomax, Alan. Alan
Lomax Collection, Manuscripts, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas, -1942. to
1942, 1941. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2004004.ms070352/.
Leone, Frank
Della. "Muddy Waters: Down on Stovall’s Plantation." February
4, 2016. https://fdleone.com/2016/02/04/muddy-waters-down-on-stovalls-plantation/.
Lucy Chauduri,
“What is blues music?” Classical Music, BBC Music Magazine, November 28,
2022. https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/blues-music/
Massimo, R. I Got
Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival. Middletown, Connecticut,
Wesleyan University Press, 2017.
Michael Hill,
“Muddy Waters Hall of Fame Essay,” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1987 https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/muddy-waters.
“Muddy Waters
Birthplace- Rolling Fork” Mississippi Blues Trail marker, Mississippi
Department of Archives and History. https://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/muddy-waters-birthplace
"Muddy
Waters." The Mississippi Encyclopedia. October 25, 2023. https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/muddy-waters/.
Naman
Ramachandran, “Mick Jagger on New Rolling Stones Album, U.S. Politics and
Mortality: ‘As You Get Older, a Lot of Your Friends Die,’” Variety,
October 20, 2023. https://variety.com/2023/music/global/mick-jagger-rolling-stones-hackney-diamonds-1235762963/.
“Newport Jazz
Festival: Program, 1960 July 3.” July 3, 1960. Langston Hughes Papers. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/archival_objects/348561.
“Otis Spann
Singing Langston Hughes’ newly composed Newport Blues,” July 3, 1960, Langston
Hughes Papers. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/archival_objects/347615
PBS. https://www.pbs.org/theblues/classroom/essaysblues.html.
Recording Academy
Grammy Awards. Lifetime Achievement Awards. https://www.grammy.com/awards/lifetime-achievement-awards
Robert Gordon,
“Can’t Be Satisfied.” American Masters. PBS, May 24, 2006. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/muddy-waters-cant-be-satisfied/730/
Robert Palmer, “Muddy
Waters: 1915- 1983: An obituary of the blues legend, with memories from Eric
Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards and more,” Rolling Stone, June 23,
1983.
Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame Library and Archives. "Newport Jazz Festival 1960." https://library.rockhall.com/greatest_festival_moments/newport_jazz_1960.
"South Side
home of blues legend Muddy Waters a step closer to city landmark status." Chicago
Sun-Times, June 3, 2021. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/6/3/22517724/south-side-home-of-blues-legend-muddy-waters-step-closer-city-landmark-status
“The Blues had a Baby and They Named it Rock
‘N” Roll,” Lyrics.com. https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/1072858/Muddy+Waters/The+Blues+Had+a+Baby+and+They+Named+It+Rock+%26+Roll
The Complete
Plantation Recordings Muddy Waters, 1941- 1942,
Chess/ MCA, 1993.
Wolfgang's.
"Goodbye Newport Blues." https://www.wolfgangs.com/music/goodbye-newport-blues/audio/20020381-17613.html?tid=4880933.
YouTube. "Muddy
Waters - Live Dortmund, Germany 1976 (Full Concert)." June 4, 2011.
Video, 14:54. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvMCOedhaKg&t=894s
No comments:
Post a Comment