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Something Blues - TV Tropes

  • ️Thu Nov 19 2009

Something Blues (trope)

Common method of naming things "The (Something) Blues". Very prevalent in Blues music, although there are also many, many non-blues songs with a title like this.

See also The Something Song and Ballad of X.

For the "something blue" worn at a wedding, see Old, New, Borrowed and Blue.

Examples:

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Anime 

  • Cowboy Bebop: The episode title "Asteroid Blues," and the credits song, "The Real Folk Blues," named after the famous album series.
  • The Sailor Moon DiC North American dub had a large number of episodes titled "Something-or-other Blues".
  • Reporter Blues is about the adventures of a reporter from Paris.

Comic Books 

Film 

  • Mo' Better Blues
  • Postman Blues
  • Habana Blues
  • Miami Blues
  • Varsity Blues
  • The French title of Analyze This was "Mafia Blues".
  • Undercover Blues
  • Biloxi Blues
  • There have been three movies called St. Louis Blues. The first was a jazz short in the 20's that depicted the only film footage of Bessie Smith, singing W.C. Handy's iconic song (see the Music entry below). The next one was made in the 30's. It was a musical comedy starring Dorothy Lamour. The third was a musical bio-pic about W.C.Handy made in the 50's with Nat King Cole as the lead. Because of this last film, the aforementioned 1930's St. Louis Blues was retitled to Best of the Blues for television.
  • "The Weary Blues" from Summer Holiday.
  • Israeli film Metallic Blues (which is a Pun-Based Title on the color metallic blue).
  • G.I. Blues
  • Basmati Blues
  • Bilbao Blues
  • Oxford Blues
  • Gangnam Blues
  • Paris Blues
  • Berlin Blues
  • LA Blues
  • Mali Blues
  • Taxi Blues
  • Navy Blues (1929 and 1941)
  • Steelyard Blues
  • Outlaw Blues
  • An unusual example is found in Adventures in Babysitting, when Chris and the kids accidentally wander onto the stage of a blues club and are told that "Nobody gets off stage without singing the blues." The teenager is forced to make up a song on the spot, which is of course called "The Babysitting Blues." It works.

Literature 

  • Spaceman Blues: A Love Song
  • Clive Barker's Pig Blood Blues
  • Bizarro author Jordan Krall's Squid Pulp Blues
  • Derek Robinson did two, not related: Red Rag Blues and Kentucky Blues. Both could be puns, with "blues" in the first title contrasting with "reds" (i.e. Communists), and "blues" in the second one alluding to the American Civil War.
  • The Hoke Moseley novel Miami Blues.
  • Richard Lupoff's novel Space War Blues.
  • The novel Shaman Blues. Makes sense, seeing how it was named after The Doors song below.
  • Joe Haldeman's short story "Lindsay and the Red City Blues".
  • Cornell Woolrich's "New York Blues".

Live-Action TV 

Music 

Puppet Shows 

  • Fraggle Rock: Convincing John, with help from his trio of backup singers, the Fragglettes, sings "Choose-Right (Up-Tight Move-Now) Blues", a lament about John's trouble making up his mind about everything, including which foot to put out of bed first.

Radio 

  • One game in I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue was to improvise a blues song. The title would always be in this form (eg, "The Trichologist's Blues" or "The Kerry Packer Blues"). In one case the song was called "The West Indies Blues", but was sung as a calypso.

Sports 

  • The St. Louis Blues, named for the W.C. Handy song of the same name.

Theatre 

  • "Women's Club Blues" from Love Life.
  • "Homesick Blues" from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
  • "The Red Blues" from Silk Stockings.
  • "Buddy's Blues" (also known as "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues") from Follies.
  • "L.A. Blues" from City of Angels.
  • "Papa's Blues" from Starlight Express.
  • "The Fatherhood Blues" from Baby.
  • "'The Half Of It, Dearie' Blues" from Lady, Be Good!.
  • "The Where-Has-My-Hubby-Gone Blues" from No No Nanette.

Video Games 

  • Little unrelated, but Proto Man's Japanese name is Blues.
  • The third Fallout: New Vegas DLC is Old World Blues. The DLC mentions it as an in-universe term for extreme, crippling nostalgia to the point that you can't really operate in the here-and-now — though a good karma ending has it evolve into a more positive term, with greater respect for the potential of Old World Blues to turn to New World Hope (an evil karma ending solidifies the old meaning and pairs it with New World Misery).
  • Interactive Fiction games Tinseltown Blues, Cowboy Blues, Chunky Blues and Castonegro Blues.
  • A series of hack-and-slash mods for Neverwinter Nights called Underdark Blues.
  • "Grinder's Blues," Poets of the Fall's Rockabilly Theme Song to the space opera Platformer Rochard, where the Asteroid Miner protagonist laments that he and his crew are barely skating by.

Webcomics 

Web Originals 

Western Animation 

  • Metalocalypse pokes fun at this in one episode, with an old man telling bizarre circumstances in which various songs with these kind of title, which are often massively convoluted, were made, including one that a person apparently composed as they were being killed by a train.
  • The Tom and Jerry short "Blue Cat Blues." Told in Jerry's narrative, it revolves around Tom's failed romance with a girl cat resulting in him about to commit suicide.

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