These were the years--'53, '54, '55--when I became myself. I… created sounds which, people told me afterward, had never been created before… I started taking gospel lines and turning them into regular songs. Now, I'd been singing spirituals since I was three, and I'd been hearing the blues for just as long… All the sounds were there, right at the top of my head. None of the spirituals had copyrights. How could they? Black folk had been singing 'em through the hollow logs as far back as anyone could remember.