“
So ya'll gon' just go on and lose the blues music altogether," he came right out and said to her one night as they listened to a newly released CD of [Robert] Johnson.
"What you mean by that, Herman?"
"Well, if you don't 'ppreciate som'um, you lose it."
"And who are you talking about?"
"You know, Lena, black people in this country."
"Herman, you trying to say we don't care nothing about the blues?"
"I ain't tryin. I'm sayin' it. Ya'll gon lose it. Gon' look up, and it ain't gon be part a' us no mo'. It gon' be a part of somebody else, and we ain't gon' have nobody but ourse'fs to blame fo' it. Shoot, if it wa'n't fo' that trumpet-playin' boy from New Orleans, ya'll woulda lost Louis Armstrong. Lena, you gotta claim stuff to make it yo's. But we black folks gon' mess around and lose the blues. You watch.
”
”