Stomping the blues

First lines

Sometimes you forget all about them in spite of yourself, but all too often the very first thing you realize when you wake up in that they are there again, settling in like bad weather, hovering like plague-bearing insects, swarming precisely as if they were indeed blue demons dispatched on their mission of harassment by none other than the Chief Red Devil of all devils himself; and yet perhaps as often as not it is also as if they squat obscene and vulturelike, waiting and watching you and preening themselves at the same time, their long rubbery necks writhing as if floating.

About this book

An impressionistic analysis of blues and jazz, although jazz is never mentioned except in titles. The analysis runs through history, motivation, and outcome, along with strong declarations about what blues is and is not.

Themes & subjects