In a 1988 recorded conversation between Van Morrison, 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, Charters married a jewish radical from Berkeley — Ruth Danberg — who was intimately involved with his work.
In his own words Charters admitted that his work was politically motivated 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…
For any of my fellow Christians interested in adding a little more depth to the fact that modern popular music did not derive from Africa/blacks:
The origin of the blues have long been known in academia (which is where I discovered it while studying music at university), though, obviously, liberal-left humanities professors don’t fall over themselves to share this information due to it not reinforcing the Whites-invented-nothing false narrative of the Jewish left.
Van Morrison is essentially correct (and God bless him for speaking up against the deadly COVID vax too) in pointing out that the blues has its roots in White Christian music. But when Van says ‘The Blues came from Irish and Scottish traditional music’ he’s slightly wide of the mark (perhaps being a tad confused/biased towards his Northern Irish roots.
In actuality, the distinctive minor pentatonic tonality that became known as the blues – including its question and answer vocal format, improvised melodies and emotive/passionate delivery (all aspects which were later adopted, rather than invented, by black blues performers) – began in the Protestant churches of Northern England and, nearby, just over the border in Scotland (not Ireland, as Van Morrison suggested), as a form of Psalm singing.
Poor working class people of the 18th and early 19th century were often partially (if not wholly) illiterate, simply because there was precious little opportunity, appetite or time for schooling except at the most basic level for some children.
Consequently, when these good people would gather together each week in churches and rustic chapels to hear the Word of the Lord it was incumbent upon the vicar/pastor to pass on the truth of the Bible to those who could not read it.
Perhaps drawing upon the wisdom of older church fathers who had used images (hence the popularity of beautiful stained glass windows during the medieval period onwards, to pass on Biblical knowledge in a visual format) to convey the Good Word to parishioners who could not read it directly (whether in English, or, in the era of pre Reformation Britain, Latin), one idea that proved popular was for the person leading the service to not just recite the Psalms, but to sing them – literally improvising the melody on the spot. The congregation would then repeat the line they had just heard – usually also in song.
Thus a new form of worship and a new style of music was born in those Northern English and Southern Scots chapels and churches. From a technical point of view, the music, though, it was, at the time, a fresh new sound (that today we would recognise as ‘the blues’ or ‘gospel’ which are both built on the same minor pentatonic sound), its roots and influences are quite easy to unpick:
This new form of Psalm singing (that is the true root of the blues) was based on the music that those singing it wee exposed to at the time. These were:
Christian Hymns (sometimes these too were based on English and Scots folk tunes);
English folk/dance music, Scots folk/dance music and a smattering of popular Welsh tunes too;
A smattering of European folk/dance music (this would include Irish tunes);
Finally, a hint of sacred Christian music (Latin chants, root-fifth continental Catholic harmony pieces etc.).
Eventually the practice started to die out. perhaps because education became more prevalent as the 19th century progressed, negating the need for Biblical learning through oral tradition given that these later congregations would all be able to read the Bible directly to some extent. But in a few remote communities, almost exclusively in Scotland by his point in time, improvised Psalm singing survived.
When people from these Scots communities emigrated to America during the 19th century, they took their little known form of religious folk music with them and continued to perform it. Consequently, blacks working on plantations were exposed to the music and copied it. And that is the birth of what is now called ‘blues’ and ‘gospel’, which, despite all the Music of Black Origin media propaganda (pushed by Jews) is about as black as chalk.
So, as Van Morrison correctly asserted, the Blues is White music (made to praise God). But it’s not Scots/Irish, nor Celtic, it is Anglo (English)/Scots music. For some reason the vast contribution of English culture is often downplayed (similar to the roots of Country music, where many of the Appalachian tunes brought from the Old World were English fold tunes, not just Scots/Irish).
This is the origin of the blues, albeit a summarised/abridged version for the sake of brevity. It’s a fascinating subject if you want to research it in more detail (though it can be hard to get to some of the details unless you have access to an online university library because left-leaning academics are not keen on the public knowing these things).
Feel free to copy/share this information however you wish.
God Bless you all.
Very interesting, Alan, but let’s not forget that Van Morrison was from a Protestant family in Northern Ireland, and he has Scottish roots. There were far more Scot-Irish slaves in America than there were English. Yes, they were white, and they were slaves, which put them in close proximity to black slaves.
Were these Scot-Irish in America influenced by English hymns and folk music? Sure, no doubt. Were the black slaves influenced by the English hymns they hear in churches in the South? Sure. But they certainly would also have been influenced by the Scot-Irish folk music they heard from those fellow laborers.
Read the book “They Were White And They Were Slaves” to understand the relationship between white and black slaves in America. It may add another nuance to your thesis:
https://christiansfortruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/They-Were-White-And-They-Were-Slaves.pdf
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!