…to East St. Louis…
When you play music like this, there are tunes you work out down to the tiniest details, and there are tunes that you just kind of get the gist of and then run with it. With me, this runs more toward the latter group. There’s some kind of nutty chord that McTell plays as either a substitute for B7 or E7, depending on how you think about the overall progression of the song. Personally, I play it either way, depending on what kind of lick I want to play. It sounds like he’s playing a familiar kind of shape that shows up in the playing of a lot of country blues guitarists in the key of E, standard tuning. The fourth fret of the 1st, 3rd and 5th strings are fingered (functioning here as E major with an added Csharp in the bass), then moving the whole thing up a half -step. It’s an evocative sound, in my opinion…
I’ve purposely not worked it out too closely, but tried to play & sing it as well as I could, anyway.
Generally speaking, I’m not all that interested in what instruments people use to play, but in case you happen to be interested, I’m playing a Fraulini Francesca.
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I’m definitely not a 78 collector - trusting somebody like me with that kind of artifact is a singularly bad idea. I do collect songs, after my own fashion, and the most common medium up to this point has been CDs, maybe easing toward mp3 very recently. Lately, I’ve found that putting on a whole CD of songs to be something I don’t always enjoy - rather, I’ll pick one specific song and just ease into it, listen to it, think about it.
Collections of songs are great - I have lots of them, but appreciating just one particular song, played in a particular way, is an activity that might almost seem antiquated, I guess. Music is so commonly available in some kind of bulk format that it seems almost ridiculous to think about just one song. Even worse, music tends to get used as some kind of audible packing material - filling in the little uncomfortable spaces at the grocery store. Who benefits from that kind of use of music, anyway? Maybe musicians, in some way…
I’m open to the possibility that the way I feel about music is, in the best case scenario, peculiar to musicians (or wannabe musicians) and in the worst case scenario, peculiar to me, but in the meantime, I’m going to put on Burnett & Rutherford’s Billy In The Lowground and just listen…
This is a really peculiar Blind Boy Fuller song and combines a unique 12-bar verse/chorus arrangement with a more typical twelve-bar instrumental break toward the end. The main verse/chorus section goes something like:
C / C7 / | F / C / | F / / / | F / G / | F / / / | F / G / |
C / / / | A7 / / / | D7 / / / | G7 / / / | C C7 F Ab | C C/G / / |
blind-boy-fuller-blacksnakin-jiver.mp3
In the fourth measure, Fuller descends chromatically from F to D, articulating this as part of a G chord - he repeats this later in the sixth measure. This repetition seems to make the resolution to the C chord in the seventh measure particularly dramatic, and then runs through a typical rag VI - II - V - I progression to finish out. I can’t say I’ve ever heard another blues musician manipulate the 12-bar form in quite this way… it caught my ear immediately. The lyrics are transcribed below - questionable words in brackets… suggestions for better guesses are always welcome.
Blacksnakin’ Jiver - Blind Boy Fuller
I woke up this early mornin’ mama
Someone was jivin’ me
If you don’t want me mama,
Stop that jivin’ and let me be
I’m goin’ to wake up some these mornings
And going to [beat you sore]
I’m not going to kill you mama,
Cause I got a bad motor for you, don’t you know
I’d rather be bit by a rattlesnake baby than to
Let you jive poor me
Says my baby she went away and she left me
I didn’t want her to go
She had the nerve to tell me that
I don’t want you no more
But that’s alright now, mama, I said
That’s alright for you
I did everything in the world I could
Trying to get along with you
I’d rather be bit by a rattlesnake mama than to
Let you jive poor me
Said I bought you - all last summer I bought you
Plenty of clothes
In winter’s [all] come, you had to
Put me out in the cold
You know now, mama, I said
That ain’t no way to do
I said the way you’re jivin’ me
Someone’s gonna jive you too
I’d rather be bit by a rattlesnake baby than to
Let you jive poor me
Says I [dumped] sugar all the Summer
And loaded coal all the Fall
Had to go out on Sunday, mama
In my overall
You know now, mama, I said, that
Ain’t no way to do
There’s a hearse and undertaker waitin’
Right there for you
I’d rather be bit by a rattlesnake baby than to
Let you jive poor me
I’ve been listening to this song a bunch lately. You can’t really describe me as a huge Jim Jackson fan, but this particular song is something special. The guitar accompaniment sounds more like a banjo technique than a guitar style, so I was inspired to try it out on the banjo. It’s a cool sound… first I tried it on a fretted, steel string banjo - that was ok… then I came into possession of a circa 1870 fretless banjo - simple oak rim, gut strings (Thanks, Peter for tracking it down!). What a dream! It couldn’t ever be described as a loud banjo, but what a perfect tone… volume is over-rated…
Anyway, here are the lyrics as I hear them:
Old Dog Blue - Jim Jackson
I’m goin’ back to where I’m come
I’m goin’ back to where I’m come
I’m goin’ back to Giles County
My wife died and left me a bounty
Way them pretty girls ganged around
That’s the reason why I’m goin’ to Giles County
I had an old dog whose name was Blue
You know that Blue was mighty true
You know Blue was a good old dog
Blue treed a ‘possum in a hollow log
You know from that he’s a good old dog
Blue treed a ‘possum out on a limb
Blue looked at me and I looked at him
Grabbed that ‘possum and put him in a sack
“Do fer me, Blue, ’til I get back.”
“Here, Ring! Yeah, Ring Here!
Here Ring! Hey, Ring here!”
Who’s been here since I been gone
Little bitty girl with the red dress on
Who’s been here since I been gone
Little bitty girl with the red dress on
Old Blue’s feet was big and round
Old Blue’s feets was big and round
Never ‘lowed a ‘possum to tech the ground
Me and Blue went out on a hunt
Blue treed a ‘possum in a hollow stump
You know that Blue was a good old dog
Blue treed a ‘possum in a hollow log
You know from that he’s a good old dog
Old Blue died and I dug his grave
I dug his grave with a silver spade
I let him down with a golden chain
And every link I called his name
Go on Blue you good dog you
Go on Blue you good dog you
Blue laid down and died like a man
Blue laid down and died like a man
Now he’s treein’ ‘possums in the promised land
I’m goin’ to tell you this jes’ to let you know
Old Blue’s gone where the good dogs go
When I hear old Blue bark
When I hear old Blue bark
Blue’s treed a ‘possum in Noah’s ark
Blue’s treed a ‘possum in Noah’s ark
This is from a stringband named the Grinnel Giggers. We first heard it on a County compilation called Echoes Of The Ozarks. This is from about a year ago (as are the rest of these). It’s undergone some changes in the meantime, but I still like listening to this.
I’m just getting finished tweaking things here and there. Of course, I’ve been sitting on this for a while, now, and just decided to get it all up and running before vacation was over. If I waited any longer, work would undoubtedly have sucked me under and provided me with a multitude of convenient excuses to leave the whole thing on my desktop. The old donegone.net was just a bunch of static html pages - easy enough to design, but annoying to maintain in the long run. Using blogware makes it easier to drum up content on the spur of the moment. It’ll be interesting to see whether I actually get around to following through.
Plus it gives me an excuse to mess around with a little php in the meantime. And who doesn’t need that?
I’ll be putting up some of the tunes I made scratch recordings of over the last year or so, and then later maybe adding some new ones. There’s some stuff from the old site that needs to go up too, like the list of Blind Lemon’s Songs and Keys. There are some revisions I need to make and a bunch of formatting changes… Then other stuff as I think of it.
Pretty soon I’ll get all the older recordings out of the way… this was recorded after a crappy day at work some time ago. It’s originally by Kid Prince Moore - the flip side of Sign Of Judgement. I’ve played the song for a long time, having been introduced to it by my friend Ari (he played it for me over the phone). After he played it for me, I happened across an old Wolf LP that included both Kid Prince Moore and Shorty Bob Parker - over the years I lost track of who I was covering, more or less. In retrospect, my take on the tune owes a lot to Ari.
This is another one I recorded a while back - Todd Cambio restored an old parlor guitar for me and this Willard “Ramblin’” Thomas song just popped right out of it… the nutty IV chord and everything. Ramblin’ Thomas has a sound that was almost completely bypassed on the road to “Blues As We Know It” - not that I have much use for that kind of blues, anyway… the old stuff is almost always the best stuff.
The lyrics are transcribed below.
Sawmill Moan - from Willard “Ramblin’” Thomas
Ahhhh, ahhh, hey, hey
Ahhhh, ahhh, hey, hey
And I had ‘em all night
And had ‘em all again today
Well, I wished I had my same old good gal back
I wished I had my same old good girl back
‘Cause that’s the only one that I ever did lack
How can I love you? How can I love you?
How can I love you, when you stay out both night and day?
How can I love you, you treat me most any way?
I’m gonna sing this time and I ain’t gonna sing no more
I’m gonna sing this time and I ain’t gonna sing no more
‘Cause my girl have called me, and I got to go
If I don’t go crazy, I’m sure gonna lose my mind
If I don’t go crazy, I’m sure gonna lose my mind
‘Cause I can’t sleep for dreamin’, sure can’t stay woke for cryin’
This is one of our early attempts to play this Mississippi Sheiks song. It’s got just the right amount of verses for me (i.e. one!). Mainly, it’s just a lot of fun to play, no matter how you slice it. This recording is pretty rough and is almost a year old by now… deserving of an update, I’d say.
On the 78, the song is credited to Kansas Joe McCoy, but I’m pretty sure that all the cool guitar stuff is done by Memphis Minnie. I worked it out some time ago without really paying much attention to who was doing what - just tried to find some kind of middle ground that I could live with. Some day I’ll record a cleaner version of it, but this pretty much spells out the sound I’m after.
The lyrics from the original by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie are included below. What I sang is probably different, based on my spotty ability to recall anything accurately from memory.
Joliet Bound - Kansas Joe McCoy
Now the police coming with his ball and chain
Mmmm mmmm
Police coming with his ball and chain
And they accusing me of murder, never harmed a man
Now some got six months, some got one solid year
Mmmm mmmm
Some got six months, some got one solid year
Now me and my buddy got a lifetime here
Now the judge he pleaded, clerk, he wrote it down
Mmmm mmmm
Judge he pleaded, clerk, he wrote it down
That if I miss jail sentence now, must be Joliet bound
Now cook my supper, let me go to bed
Mmmm mmmm
Cook my supper now, let me go to bed
I’ve been drinking white lightning and it’s gone to my head
Now you quit me baby, first thing you want to do
Mmmm mmmm
Quit me baby, first thing you want to do
Some day you gonna want me, cinch and I won’t want you
Now the police shivved his old pistol in my side
Mmmm mmmm
Police shivved his old pistol in my side
Said if you run big boy, now, must be born to die
When they had my trial, you could not be found
Mmmm mmmm
Had my trial, you could not be found
Now I done got all messed up and I’m Joliet bound