Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta

By Robert Palmer

Book Overview

A detailed history of the musical and social impact of the blues, the bedrock of rock and roll

In Deep Blues, Robert Palmer traces the odyssey of the blues from its rural beginnings, to the steamy bars of Chicago's South Side, to international popularity, recognition, and imitation. Palmer tells the story of the blues through the lives of its greatest practitioners: Robert Johnson, who sang of being pursued by the hounds of hell; Muddy Waters, who electrified Delta blues and gave the music its rock beat; Robert Lockwood and Sonny Boy Williamson, who launched the King Biscuit Time radio show and brought blues to the airwaves; and John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, B. B. King, and many others.

"A lucid . . . entrancing study" --Greil Marcus

"Palmer has a powerful understanding of the music and an intense involvement in the culture." --The Nation

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140062238
• ISBN13: 9780140062236
• Release Date: July 1982
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

An Aussie heads for Clarksdale

I read this wonderful book here in Canberra, Australia's national capital, far far away from the Delta. It was hard to put it down. But I did so just long enough to revisit favourite blues tracks by The Masked Marvel [aka Charley Patton] and Henry [Texas]Thomas...so evocative was Palmer's text that their voices crossed the decades and brought me to tears. Palmer surmounts the tyranny of time and distance and brings the Delta and its music to life for me on the other side of the world. My Road Atlas of the USA is open in front of me...Clarksdale here I come. Phil Teece Canberra Australia