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Monday, November 27, 2006

Give me some of Ye Olde Blews

It occurred to me while reading an etymological site describing the possible origin of the phrase "the Blues", (spelled "Blews" in 18th century style), that maybe there is a connection between the Blues and the word to blow (in the musical sense).

A quick game of word association went through my mind -
from "I've got the blews (blues)" to "blew his mind" (freaked him out), to "blowing session"(a Jazz jam session with horns).

The recent passing of my father in law (Goodman Al Ritz, 1926-2006), brought to mind the Hebrew term for passing on - "Naphach Et Nishmato" - which is literally "he blew out his soul", since in Hebrew, the word for soul (Neshama) is the same as the word for breath, and you can also reference John Lennon's "he blew his mind out in a car", and that brings me back around to "he blows with allot of soul".

Finally, may I argue that the phrase "blow me" can actually be interpreted somehow as "give me the blues (blews)" or "play me some blues"???

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