Is there a name for this type of blues?

January 9, 2015 4:43 PM

The melody of the song Glory, Glory (Lay My Burden Down) is found in a lot of blues songs. Is there a name for this blues/gospel progression/style?

It's like

Glory glory, hallelujah,
Since I laid my burden down.
Glory glory, hallelujah,
Since I laid my burden down.

The second hallelujah is a higher note.

Other songs with the same vocal structure:
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Bukka White and Memphis Minnie - I Am In The Heavenly Way
Paul Simon - Gone at Last

I'm looking for more information about this progression/style/melody but my googling has found nothing. I'm not even sure there is a name for it but I know the Hive Mind will know if there is.

Thanks!

posted by saul wright to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Best answer: I think the common ancestor is the 1907 hymn Will the Circle Be Unbroken?. I'm sure the melody existed before that, but this seems to be the first time a composer is officially noted.

A lot of early blues songs were reworked hymns and spirituals. (And, interestingly, a lot of hymns were reworked folk songs, mostly about about drinking and death.)
posted by sportbucket at 4:48 PM on January 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Mr MMDP, a long-time blues musician, has just said much the same as sportbucket - tunes were reused and recycled, so it wasn't so much a style with a name as it was the same simple, memorable tune repurposed. His view was that ordinary working people would only hear music at church in most cases and it was a desire to keep the congregation's mind focussed on spiritual matters without the distractions of having to learn a new set of tunes that saw the reuse of familiar music.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 5:41 PM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Well, I guess that's that.

Thanks!
posted by saul wright at 11:04 AM on January 11, 2015