The wisdom of the blues - defining blues as the true facts of life: an interview with Willie Dixon

African American Review, Summer, 1995 by Worth Long

Evil, ignorance and stupidity The three worst things in the world. It ain't no good for no man or woman, Neither no boy or girl. 'Cause if you're evil, you're ignorant, And if you're stupid, you're wrong. And there's no way in the world You can ever get along. If you're evil, ignorant and stupid, You create prejudice and hate. If it don't be tomorrow, It will be sooner or late.

I try to say it in the facts of life - one way or the other, whether it's the fact of my life or somebody else's. That's why I make these particular types of songs. The blues are the true facts of life expressed in words and songs and inspirations with feeling and understanding. The people, regardless of what condition an individual is in, they want to be in better shape. They believe in letting somebody know what condition they're in, in order to help themselves. Whether it's good, whether it's bad, right, or wrong.

In that day, there weren't very many recordings out there, and anybody that could get a recording made was somebody that you had to hear. And there were very few Black ones out there at all. Records were played in places downtown, and people would be playing them out in stores. And everybody would stop and listen. I remember we finally got an old record player. You'd fool around and wind it up too tight - the spring jumped loose, and nobody knew how to fix it.

Folks played everything; they didn't have radio. I remember my brother, he was working where they made the little crystal radios, and he brought one home. We had earphones, and you could hardly hear anything, only about two or three stations on the line. But at the same time they played most of what they wanted to. Most was country-western. They had so many different kinds of songs . . . and dances, too. Nobody in the world could keep up with all the different dances: the two-step, the black bottom, the snake hip. Everybody that could do anything, they done it and named it that dance.

When I write a song, I hope that people like it well enough to dance to it. Because most of the time if people dance to something - ten to one - they learn something about the words of it that gives them a certain education they wouldn't learn otherwise. They learn because they like it. But they don't have to be listening directly to the words. As you know, rhythm is the thing. Everything moves to rhythm. Everything that's under the sun, that crawls, flies, or swims likes music.

But blues is the greatest, because blues is the only one that, along with the rhythm and the music, brings wisdom. When youngsters get a chance to hear the wisdom along with the music, it gives them a chance to get a better education and have a better understanding.

Most people never have looked at it like that. This is why I say the youngsters today are brighter and wiser than they were yesterday. Because old folks told you something, you believed it like that - you couldn't believe the old folks lied - but we found out the old folks lied so long that now you can't get the young folks to trust anybody.