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John Sinclair and his New Orleans' Blues Scholars - "We Just Change The Beat", John Sinclair and his

from School Everywhere! Lagniappe for Lessons in Songs & Poems by John Sinclair, Cole Williams, William Blake, Johann Goethe, Maryse Philippe Déjean, Don Paul

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about

The first track among John Sinclair's welcome contributions to Sticking Up For Children's role with the SCHOOL EVERYWHERE! Team, led by educator Marie-Marthe Balin Franck Paul in Haiti. SCHOOL EVERYWHERE! is bringing the capacities for universal literacy to Haiti through Lessons and Modules from Madame Paul's textook, Mon Livre Unique, that's printed in 110,000 copies for first-year students across Haiti.

More about SCHOOL EVERYWHERE! can be found at www.stickingupforchildren.com/school-everywhere
The page for John Sinclair there is www.stickingupforchildren.com/john-sinclair

Recording Date
February 15, 2001 - February 21, 2001
Recording Location
Mike West's Lower 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor, New Orleans, LA
Personnel: John Sinclair (vocals); Bill Lynn (vocals); Marc Adams (piano); Andre Williams, Smiley (background vocals). Audio Remixers: John Sinclair ; Mark Bingham. Liner Note Author: John Sinclair . Recording information: Mike West's Lower 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor, New Orleans, (02/15/2001-02/21/2001). Editors: John Sinclair ; Mark Bingham. Photographers: Laurie Hoffma; Steve Gebhardt; Barry Kaiser.

lyrics

”We Just Change the Beat”

for Johnny Evans & Martin Gross


”You know,”
Willie Dixon says,
”when you go to changin’ beats
in music,
you change the whole style.

The difference in blues
or rock & roll
or jazz
is the beat. The beat
actually changes the whole

entire
style.” The beat actually
changes
the whole en-
tire style. Where you

put that beat, be
careful
or you’ll change the whole
change the whole
change the whole entire

when you go
to changin’ beats you know
you can
change
you can go to changin’

you can change the whole style"


2

Now Frank Frost
of Lula, Mississippi
put it like this. He says:
”In other words,


we taking the down blues
& bring it up tempo.
I don’t know what
you would call it.

Just take the cotton-picking blues,
I would say,
& bring it up to modern music
today. I guess that still be blues.

The onliest difference
between the cotton-pickinG blues
& what we doing today
is the tempo. . . . Let me see

if I can give you something
to remind you
of back in those days”—
[& he plays a few notes]

”Now that’s just the old,
ordinary
original way, you know.
That’s just the cotton-picking blues

that way. Then we change up
just the tempo
& the beat. That’s the dance tempo
you hear now. Just something

they can dance to
these days. That’s the same blues.
We just change the beat.
It’s no different.”



—Detroit
March 21, 1982/
New Orleans
December 7, 1995/March 5, 1998

credits

from School Everywhere! Lagniappe for Lessons in Songs & Poems, released August 12, 2020
Recording Date
February 15, 2001 - February 21, 2001
Recording Location
Mike West's Lower 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor, New Orleans, LA
Personnel: John Sinclair (vocals); Bill Lynn (vocals); Marc Adams (piano); Andre Williams, Smiley (background vocals). Audio Remixers: John Sinclair ; Mark Bingham. Liner Note Author: John Sinclair . Recording information: Mike West's Lower 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor, New Orleans, (02/15/2001-02/21/2001). Editors: John Sinclair ; Mark Bingham. Photographers: Laurie Hoffma; Steve Gebhardt; Barry Kaiser.

license

all rights reserved

tags

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