"They say you love to fuss and fight

and bring a good man down.

And don't know how to treat him

when he takes you on the town.

They say you ain't behind him

and just don't understand,

and think that you're a woman,

but acting like a man.

Hey gal, what you gonna do?

* * *

When you love a man enough,

you're bound to disagree,

Ain't nobody perfect

Cause ain't nobody free."   from 'Blues for Mama'

MILLIONS OF WORDS have by this time been devoted to the study of black music: that unique area of musical expression created by Afro-Americans from the generous heart of their experience. For example, we might agree with Samuel Charters, author of The Poetry of the Blues: "It is in some ways discomforting to think of the blues as an expression of 'differentness,' since it is the difference between Negro and white in America which has been used as the justification for preventing the Negro from taking his place in American society, but there is a difference in tradition and in the social memory which gives to both blacks and whites their distinctiveness." The great beauty of the blues is partly that it is not a constant caterwauling of social protest but the lucid and poetic presentation of a shared lifestyle and sensibility.