This is an inquiry into the blues and the mind, a study of the blues as thought. The subconscious power of the blues is examined from a poetic and psychological perspective, illuminating the blues' deepest creative sources and exploring its far-reaching influence and appeal. Like Surrealist poetry in particular, blues communicate through highly charged symbols of aggression and desire--eros, crime, magic, night, and drugs, among others. An analysis of classic blues lyrics, along with source material from Freud and James Frazer, to Breton and Marcuse, conveys the blues' major poetic function of spiritual revolt against repression.