Willie Dixon
I Am the Blues

The blues, there are those who have it...

… and there are those who are it. I am the blues.

Well, someone else might claim that title, like Robert Johnson for example.

Robert Johnson who?

Maybe be a bit less pretentious, though.

I'm from Chicago, it's in my nature.

Are you Chicago as well as the blues?

It's the Windy City for a reason, because the wind blows like nowhere else in the world and because that's how a true Chicagoan is, full of themselves and full of air, a braggart and a show-off.

There must be great people walking the streets of Chicago.

True, both when the wind blows and when not a leaf moves, it's nature.

Is it natural for you to be the blues?

Of course. But everyone carries the blues within them. Have you read the Bible and about the creation of Man? It's written in Genesis that God created Man, and Man was initially alone and sad.

Without invoking the Almighty, I meant in profane terms, my interest is purely musical.

Listen, the blues are the roots and all other forms of music are the fruits. The roots need to be preserved to yield good fruit. The blues are the roots of all music and as long as there's music, there will be blues.

So, is anyone who makes music the blues?

Could be, even the person you mentioned at the beginning could be, if they were a musician.

He's deceased now.

So am I, for that matter; but the blues remains.

I play the guitar, I am the blues too.

Calm down, it takes more than that to be the blues.

What do you have more than me to be that?

Do you know the blues?

The basics, yes.

The quintessential blues song, in your modest and insignificant opinion?

«Hoochie Coochie Man», without a doubt.

I am the blues, precisely.

You don't look like Muddy Waters.

For that matter, I don't resemble Bo Diddley or Howlin' Wolf either, much less Koko Taylor. But I have this innate talent for wearing their clothes and those of many others, while always remaining myself. And at my pleasure, I create tailor-made clothes for them, works of exquisite and high tailoring.

Always speaking metaphorically, shouldn't it be the tailor who praises the suit?

There's a reason why nobody has ever shed my clothes and they are still worn with style today. Out of the metaphor, I mean and reiterate that the blues is more than a suit, it's our skin, even yours, understand? Man is omnipotent but incapable of living peacefully, due to evil, ignorance, and stupidity: that's what my songs are about, that's what the blues is about. More than that, this is the blues, a documentary of the past and present, useful to inspire for the future. Only those who have never lived all this on their skin, only they are not the blues.

In short, the blues are the facts of life expressed in words and music, inspiration and feeling, understanding. Something that transcends the single song. Is that what you mean?

You're starting to get it.

I've read your biography, those are your words, not mine. But I still think self-proclaiming oneself the blues is boastful.

Look at this photo, do I look like a braggart to you?

No, on the contrary, it gives me the same feeling of peaceful bonhomie as Ella and Louis on the cover of their record.

Exactly, the two of them have the blues and are the blues too. Anyway no, I'm not a braggart but I like to pose as one, for fun. Does it never happen to you?

Of course, you've almost convinced me. Try also to convince me of the usefulness of «I Am the Blues».

Do you like it?

It's among my favorite blues albums.

Then it's useful for something.

Seriously.

I'm convinced that a poor version of one of my songs is always better than a great version by someone else.

Braggart.

Goodbye.