ABSTRACT
The blues is largely the product of a diasporic people, though the genre did not originate in Africa. When procedures recognizable as blues first entered the historical record around 1900, they already testified to centuries of fusions with North American genres. This chapter focuses on "Thinking Blues," one of Bessie Smith's own blues numbers, which was recorded in New York in 1928. It addresses the three tunes, representing women's Classic Blues, Delta blues, and the blues-based rock of the late 1960s. The chapter deals with contemporary compositions by John Zorn, Prince, and Public Enemy that engage once again with blues patterns—no longer as the conventional space they inhabit but as the locus of shared cultural memory, available for citation in the production of new meanings. It discusses some reasons why Johnson became an idol for musicians in England. The chapter examines one of Johnson's most celebrated cuts, "Cross Road Blues.
