Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta

A detailed history of the musical and social impact of the blues, the bedrock of rock and roll

“A lucid . . . entrancing study.”—Greil Marcus

“Palmer has a powerful understanding of the music and an intense involvement in the culture.”—The Nation

In Deep Blues, Robert Palmer traces the odyssey of the blues from its rural beginnings, to the steamy bars of Chicago’s South Side, to international popularity, recognition, and imitation. Palmer tells the story of the blues through the lives of its greatest practitioners: Robert Johnson, who sang of being pursued by the hounds of hell; Muddy Waters, who electrified Delta blues and gave the music its rock beat; Robert Lockwood and Sonny Boy Williamson, who launched the King Biscuit Time radio show and brought blues to the airwaves; and John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, B. B. King, and many others.