I have just finished doing an extensive study of Albert King, the blues musician, with an iPod, during an eight-hour drive. I can still hear the bass line run in my soul: Bom…ba bom…ba bom…ba bom ba ba bom. For eight hours, this strand of melancholy ran through my ears, the blues making me so depressed that I began to view the world as a hopeless place where my dog is gonna leave me and my wife is gonna bite me on the heel; where the credit union is gonna cut me off, and my boss is gonna marry my mama. “Oh, good Lord, have mercy on me,” is the plea.
Keep that “bom…ba bom…ba bom…ba bom ba ba bom” bass rhythm in your head as you hear some of the blues I have learned. “Can’t you see what you are doing to me baby? They say you are going to leave darlin’, bom…ba bom…ba bom…ba bom ba ba bom. I ain’t got no time to play. Everybody wants to laugh, ain’t nobody want to cry, bom…ba bom…ba bom…ba bom ba ba bom, everybody want to hear the truth, but everybody just want to lie, bom…ba bom…ba bom…ba bom ba ba bom, everybody want to go to heaven, ain’t no body want to die. Albert taught me about “distrust” in a rainy night song, “Layin’ around home alone…on a rainy night like this…starving for your lovin’…longin’ for one kiss.” Or when Albert sang, “The sky is cryin’ baby…look at the tears roll down the street…I been looking for my baby…and I wonder where can she be…I saw my baby early one morning…and she was walking on down the street… You done hurt me so bad…it made my poor heart skip a beat.”
Albert taught me about "bad fortune" with, “I went to work this morning…my foreman looked me in the eye…he said fellow I don’t know what is wrong with you…but you look sick enough to die. He sent me to the company doctor…and he examined me from head to toe…he said whatever is wrong with you young man…my x-rays just ain’t gonna show. Angel of mercy…won’t you look down on me…a little mercy is all I need. The finance company…they just garnered my check. They said they want a payment by Friday…or they just want all my money back. I went to the credit union to get myself a loan…they say I would let you have it young man but it says here you won’t be working here for long. Angel of mercy…won’t you please look down on me…a little mercy is all I need.”
Are you inserting some of those “bom…ba bom…ba bom…ba bom ba ba boms” into some of these lyrics?
I learned that I could feel so low that, “I’m going down baby…my nose is in the sand…
a cloud of dust just came over me…and I think I am drowning on dry land.”
I love the blues, for they tell about the pains of this life. Blues singers would be nothing if it weren’t for bad luck, betraying women, lost jobs, broken hearts, and rainy nights. They surely frame life in this world as if there is no hope.
It is for this reason that I have never heard a blues song about our relationship with God. Somehow, a blues song and a godly life just don’t go together. God is not a part of betrayal, bad fortune, bad blood, deals made with the devil at the crossroads, or broken hearts. If God were in a blues song, the song would be about glory, joy, peace, healing, deep hearts, and righteousness. A godly blues song would suddenly become a godly gospel song. A godly blues song would deal with the cure and not the wallowing around in the miry clay of despair. And so we sing for joy because God has brought joy to our broken hearts.
So here is my godly joy song, “Bom…ba bom…ba bom…ba bom ba ba bom, My dog done licked my pork chop, ba bom ba ba bom, my sorry tails been a draggin’ all day, ba bom ba ba bom, I ain’t nothing but a hound dog, ba bom ba ba bom, and I don’t know the meaning of ‘stay.’ Bom…ba bom…ba bom…ba bom ba ba bom, Then Jesus laid his hands upon me, ba bom ba ba bom, and the nighttime turned to day, ba bom ba ba bom, it’s raining outside in buckets, ba bom ba ba bom, but the sun shines on me all the way.”
The blues “don’t” have a chance when faced with the truth of the day.
Rev. Dan Martin is pastor of First UMC, Hendersonville. He can be reached at moose1953@hotmail.com
