Question

The blues had a profound impact on early rock and roll. From the list below, choose one of the three pairs of songs that include one blues and one early rock and roll song each. Your task is to identify, list, and describe in as much detail as possible two musical elements (e.g., instrumentation, form, subject of the lyrics, or vocal delivery style) that the two songs in each pair have in common, and two elements where they differ. Son House, "Walkin' Blues" and Elvis Presley, "Blue Moon of Kentucky" Charley Patton, "34 Blues" and Joe Hill Louis, "Boogie in the Park" Skip James, "Devil Got My Woman" and Goree Carter, "Rock Awhile"

Answer 1

Answer:

From the list, I picked  "Walkin´ blues" - Son House and "Blue moon of Kentucky" - Elvis Presley.

Two musical elements in common are:

- Instrumentation:

Both songs gave a main role to the guitars (lead guitar and rythm guitar) and the voice. The classic blues guitar chords are present in both songs and guitar riffs are an important part of the songs.  

- Lyrics:

Both songs deal with feelings of sadness. Elvis sings about a heartbreaking situation, when his lover said good-bye to him and he's blue, nostalgic, sad. Son House is also sad, nostalgic and desires to have the girl he loves by his side. Also, both lyrics have a similar repetitive structure .

two musical elements where they differ:

- Rythm:

Even if both of the songs follow a similar rythm, Son House plays with the lyrics pace and he uses rubato most of the time; he shows a free style of singing over a constant beat played in a very relaxed tempo. On the contrary, Elvis Presley has a very straight rythm; he follows the beat perfectly all over the song and his tempo is more like a country song tempo.

- Vocal delivery:

The way Elvis Presley and Son House sing is very different. Elvis has again, a more country-like way of singing, being allways on tempo with a bright chest voice. On the contrary, Son House is almost talking, it's a kind of recitativo way of singing with a full of sadness voice.

Explanation:

Blues is the grandfather of Rock and roll, so both of them have similarites: both are composed of drums, guirtars and vocals and we can find walking bass lines, antiphonic textures, riffs and lyrics full of deep emotions. As Rock and roll progressed, it integrated some innovations like an intense rythm, new ways of singing and improvising, etc.