In a 1988 conversation between Van Morrison and Derek Bell (Chieftains), Martin Lynch and Professor Bob Welch at the University of Ulster, Van Morrison emphasized that the Blues did not originate from Black people–rather it came from White spirituals. As Morrison explained,
“The Blues came from Irish and Scottish traditional music. That’s actually where it came from, though spirituals. There’s this theory about blues that come from Africa, but the people that were saying this….Samuel Charters, who was the authority on Blues, said they came from Africa. It’s nicer to place it somewhere in Portugal. If you want to check it out, it’s right. Look it up. Twenty years ago he said it’s Africa, but it actually came from the White spirituals that were transplanted in America, then it came back when the black people started singing the White spirituals, and that turned into the Blues, and then it later became rock and roll, as we know, and came back this way.”
The “authoritative” blues historian whom Van Morrison mentions–Samuel Charters–was a radical leftist who, at one point, got into trouble with the anti-communist House On Un-American Activities. Not surprisingly, he married a jewish radical from Berkeley, Ruth Danberg, who was intimately involved with his work.
In his own words he admitted that his work was political rather than factual. He stated, “For me, the writing about black music was my way of fighting racism. That’s why my work is not academic, that is why it is absolutely nothing but popularization: I wanted people to hear black music.”
So in other words, Charters’ early claims that jazz and blues were original “black” music were not based on real history–it was a marxist attempt at legitimating and elevating black contributions to American culture by essentially robbing whites of their own history. Facts don’t matter as long as they fit into the politically correct story line that the nation wreckers are promoting.
You can see this interview in full at the following link. If you’d like to see only that part where he discusses the White roots of the blues, skip ahead to 5:45…
Bless Van the Man for telling the truth! Imagine his ‘career’ and record sales took a hit, but also imagine he doesnt care.
A true talent.
he just went WAY up in my estimation.
I became aware of this as a musician while delving into traditional Irish music..I guess as a teen Irish trad. evaded me..not unusual for an immature musician ..I eventually got it and now have a deep love for the tradition music of the old country…an interesting statement from Chuck Berry regarding his early influences…He adamantly said that he didn’t listen to the Blues growing up… proclaiming that it was Country music that helped him develop his style of Rock & Roll…of course American Country music and Bluegrass is deeply rooted in Traditional Celtic music…I personally believe that “The Blues” is an American art form that couldn’t have developed anywhere but here in America…blending traditional European folk music with Afro/Cuban-jazz rhythms, the English language and the American experience being it’s catalysts..I doubt it would have surfaced from Swahili.
precisely correct!