12’ Bar Ramblin’ #58 ‘Hokum Blues’ with Stefan Matussek

Blues music is known for giving a voice to the heavily burdened and less fortunate in society, but it could also display a more lighthearted, comical and “naughty” side. Hokum Blues songs make use of extended analogies and euphemisms in a humorous fashion to convey sexual innuendos. These types of songs go all the way back to the earliest blues recordings, when it split off from its minstrel and vaudeville show origins. While very explicit lyrics in Blues songs did exist, typical hokum blues songs were more popular at that time as they were (if only barely) still within the boundaries of what was socially acceptable at the time.