Paul Oliver (1) (1927–2017)
Autore di Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues
Per altri autori con il nome Paul Oliver, vedi la pagina di disambiguazione.
Sull'Autore
Paul Hereford Oliver was born in Nottingham, England on May 25, 1927. He trained as a painter and sculptor at the Harrow School of Art, but switched to graphic design because most art materials aggravated his asthma and various allergies. After receiving a diploma from Goldsmith's College in London mostra altro in 1948, he returned to the Harrow County School to teach art. In 1955, he received an art-history degree from the University of London. He wrote numerous books on blues music including Bessie Smith, Blues Fell This Morning, The Story of the Blues, Screening the Blues: Aspects of the Blues Tradition, Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions in the Blues, Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records, Broadcasting the Blues: Black Blues in the Segregation Era, and Barrelhouse Blues: Location Recordings and the Early Traditions of the Blues. He was also as an architectural historian. His books on architecture included Shelter and Society, English Cottages and Small Farmhouses: A Study of Vernacular Shelter, Dwellings: The House Across the World, and Built to Meet Needs: Cultural Issues in Vernacular Architecture. He died on August 15, 2017 at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno
Serie
Opere di Paul Oliver
The Devil's Son-in-Law: The Story of Peetie Wheatstraw & His Songs (1600) — Series Editor — 21 copie
Kings of Jazz 3: Bessie Smith 1 copia
Opere correlate
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome legale
- Oliver, Paul Hereford
- Data di nascita
- 1927-05-25
- Data di morte
- 2017-08-15
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- England
UK - Luogo di nascita
- Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK
- Luogo di morte
- Oxfordshire, England
- Attività lavorative
- architectural historian
professor emeritus - Organizzazioni
- Oxford Brookes University
- Premi e riconoscimenti
- Royal Institute of British Architects (Honorary Fellow, 2009)
- Breve biografia
- Paul Oliver (1927 - 2017) was a UK architectural historian who has also written extensively about blues music.
Utenti
Recensioni
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 37
- Opere correlate
- 1
- Utenti
- 1,030
- Popolarità
- #25,005
- Voto
- 3.9
- Recensioni
- 8
- ISBN
- 161
- Lingue
- 4
- Preferito da
- 1
The best bit is the discussion of the appearance of Peetie Wheatstraw in Ralph Ellison's novel, Invisible Man.
But what you get mostly is filler, sociology, and pages of lyrics. (There is a much better book that covers the same ground. -- "Screening the Blues", by Paul Oliver. It goes into socially taboo blues themes found in the dirty dozens, etc. )
Garon promises "insight"into Peetie Wheatstraw's persona as "The Devil's Son-In-Law", but really doesn't deliver. I suspect this may be down to the limitations of his surrealist critical view point. If surrealism really was liberatory, it wouldn't have been so easily co-opted by the advertising industry.
"Although many songs do not truly depict a singer's life in terms of concrete reality, they do often depict desire, frequently in open opposition to reality. Of course, there were songs that accurately reflected the circumstances of Peetie's life and the conditions under which he lived, but we should be careful, when analysing song lyrics, to ascertain exactly how the singer's life and songs are woven together.
Thus on the one hand we can avoid a too-literal interpretation, while on the other we can avoid an artificially metaphysical one, of the kind produced when blues and poetry are brought together in the light of dilettante academicism."
Yes, but what's the link? Between life and art?
Garon is obviously opposed to metaphysics, but why does he think William Bunch used an essentially metaphysical figure like the Devil in his byline in the first place? And when is metaphysics" artificial "? If it all is, wouldn't the Tooth Fairy have been just as good as the Devil?
Again, there's a better book which covers the same ground: Blues People, by LeRoi Jones, argues against going too far the other way . He argues against viewing blues musicians as just" existentialists with guitars", and discusses the social position of the black working class in American society, but it's just a better argued book.
So, my recommendation would be to get Blues People, and Screening the Blues, instead of this book. But if you do want to read it, check which edition you're getting. I got ripped off with the copy I bought. I got sent the 1972 studio vista edition, without the CD. These editions are generally cheaper on Amazon, so if you're on a tight budget, you can get this cheaper edition and a good CD seperately. Grooves.land in Germany sell the Wolf Records compilation "Peetie Wheatstraw :The Devil's Son-In-Law, 1934-1941" for just over a tenner including post.
Also, if you like Faustian blues, be sure to check out Robert Johnson, the master of the genre, and also the modern blues singer Adia Victoria 's fine version of Johnson' s "me and the devil blues".… (altro)