I guess it's just human nature that when two people with the same skills get together there is competition.
The fields of the American South is where you could find the origins of head cutting in the Blues. In the "call and response" of a field holler, one singer is the caller and the rest responders. The lead singer earned that spot by inspiring the the responders, until someone new came along with a more inspirational delivery. Musical Darwinism.
Head-to-head competition requires quick thinking, lightning reflexes, and a colorful imagination. These skills fueled the improvisation that is the very essence of American music. It could be two vocalists in church, two piano players in a parlor, two harmonica players around a campfire, or two guitar players in a steamy juke joint. Musicians and singers pulled out all the stops to woo the audience and thus forced the music to evolve. As with any head-to-head combat, one head has to go, thus cutting heads.
Country Blues artists of the early 20th century like Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and Blind Lemon Jefferson rose to popularity by taking on all comers. Just like championship fighters, there was always a local hot-shot ready to take them on when they came to town. These were master head-cutters with dozens of musical, lyrical, and performance tricks to pull out of the bag when the battles got heated. The public was the judge and their verdicts shaped the sound of music today.
In the formative years of Jazz and Blues, cutting heads was the artform. With mass media in it's infancy, hit songs were not the reason people came to see certain artists. The popular artists garnered reputations as vibrant live performers who could stand their ground against the onslaught of wanna-be's. Commercialism has since mopped up much of the blood as successful musical formulas are copied until the original motivation is lost. Today the art of cutting heads is most prevalent in Rap and Hip-Hop. DJs battle in prose for the affections of the crowd in the same way the pioneers of Blues and Jazz battled in music.
Today in the Blues, guitar players usually are the combatants. It is of course a good-natured battle that usually ends with both players playing riffs together. Though they will never admit competitiveness in public, backstage is a different story with trash-talk and posturing worthy of a professional athelete.
A good head-cutter knows it's not what you play, but how you play it. One of the greatest is B.B. King, who can get more response out of one note than most players can with flurry. This phenomenon was portrayed in the 1986 movie Crossroads when little Ralph Macchio took on the Devil's favorite player for the guitar championship of Hell. Even though the ending was choreographed, in reality it was a battle between metal rocker Steve Vai and slide guitar wizard Ry Cooder on the soundtrack. Cooder won.
The next time you attend a Blues show or festival, remember that backstage the musicians are sharpening their axes.
