Topic: Lil' Son Jackson Lyrics

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Just an update:  The Imperial "Rollin' Mill" is different musically from the Arhoolie version, though it shares some of the same lyrics, but does not include the line that I have thus far been unable to understand on the Arhoolie recording.  It was a good idea, but I guess I'll just have to keep listening.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Lil' Son Jackson recorded "True Love Blues" at his first session for Imperial Records, in 1950.  It is an unusual song for a number of reasons.  It is a slow one-chord 8-bar blues, a kind of under-populated category in the Country Blues.  Perhaps even rarer, it is a romantic blues.  You used to hear the phrase "poetry of the Blues" a lot; Samuel Charters even gave one of his books that title.  This is one of not all that many songs I've encountered in the genre that merit that description.  Lil' Son played this out of E position capoed up, and both the guitar part and the vocal have an interesting unresolved quality.  Musically, it has something of the quality of Walter Davis's ruminative pieces like "I Can't See Your Face".

   True love covers everything
   Well, like the shadows lay up under the ground
   If you got the kind of love in your heart for me
   Lord, you will never, never let me down

   Always will remember
   The first day that I saw your face
   There was somethin' in your heart, somethin' in your eye
   That will follow me to my grave

   Oh yes, I, you said you love me, baby
   You told me so many times
   Well, now, you promised that you wouldn't leave me
   That you would always, always would be mine

   Now, let her go, let her go, God bless her
   Wheresomever that she may be
   She may ramble this whole world over
   She'll never find another man like me

All best,
Johnm
   

[Bunker Hill]

   Now, let her go, let her go, God bless her
   Wheresomever that she may be
   She may ramble this whole world over
   She'll never find another man like me

In 1963 I owned an LP with somebody singing a number which contained:

   Let her go, let her go, God bless her
   Where e-v-e-r s-h-e may be
   She may search the whole world over
   She'll never find another man like me

I have it in my head that it was in a version of St James Infirmary (or something using a similar melody) but after an hour of pulling 1960s LPs from shelving I think I'm heading down the wrong track and need somebody to put me out of my misery. 

Sad life or what?

[Pan]

Hi Bunker Hill

You're not alone in your misery!

I too am sure that Ive seen/heard the line you are quoting in "St. James Infirmary", but am unable to say in which version and/or by whom...

Yours

Pan.

[Bunker Hill]

You're not alone in your misery!

I too am sure that Ive seen/heard the line you are quoting in "St. James Infirmary", but am unable to say in which version and/or by whom...

Got it. The 1959 Folkways Snooks Eaglin LP (side 1, track 6). It's the second of just three verses of St James Infirmary thus:

Let her go, let her go, God bless her
Wherever may be
She can look this whole wide world over
And never find another man like me

I'm guessing this is a standard verse but until John's LSJ transcription I've never come across it since hearing Eaglin.

Enough of this minutiae...I can now sleep in peace.

[Stuart]

Hi Bunker Hill and Pan:

Misery loves company, so here I am. I have a Dave Van Ronk version of "St. James Infirmary" that I *believe* has this verse with these lines. I don't have it close at hand, but maybe someone can help us out.

Stu

[uncle bud]

Van Ronk definitely did this on several records (also as Gambler's Blues I believe). I'm 99% sure, without listening, that he includes this verse.

[Pan]

FWIW Louis Armstrong included the line in his 1928 version. You can listen to it at Red Hot Jazz: http://www.redhotjazz.com/savoy5.html.

Pan

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Lil' Son Jackson recorded "Louise Blues" in his 1960 sessions for Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records.  "Louise" is a song that has been covered a lot, especially considering the fact that it is pretty much a standard issue chorus blues.  Some of the covers have been terrific; this one is great and Robert Pete Williams' is really special. 
Lil' Son accompanies himself in E, standard tuning, here and exhibits a trait that is not encountered all that often in blues guitarists:  instead of simply taking what the key/position he is playing in makes available, he plays the same sorts of lines and licks as he moves between positions.  Many of the licks and runs he plays here are the same ones, relative to the key, that he plays in Spanish--it's just that they live in a different place on the instrument in E.  He has an abundance of cool ideas here.  There is something about his playing that makes you work, as a listener, to pick up on what he is doing.  Any help with the bent bracketed phrase would be appreciated.

   Louise, baby, won't you please come home?
   Uh, Louise, baby, won't you please come home?
   Lord, I ain't had no lovin' since my Louise been gone

   Louise wasn't good-lookin', she didn't dress fine,
   But she had somethin' that stayed on my mind
   Louise, baby, won't you please come home?
   You know I ain't had no lovin' since my Louise been gone

   Louise woke up this morning, her head all bad
   She won't mind, I was lookin' sad
   Louise, baby, why don't you hurry home?
   You know I ain't had no lovin' since my Louise been gone

   Louise wasn't so good-lookin', her hair wasn't gold
   But she had somethin' would satisfy your soul
   Louise, baby, why don't you hurry home?
   You know, I ain't had no good lovin' since my Louise been gone

Edited 10/25 to pick up correction from Bunker Hill

All best,
Johnm


   

[Bunker Hill]

   Louise woke up this morning, her head on the bed
   She [                               ], I was lookin' sad

Don't know what you'll make of this but it sounds to me like he's singing:

Louise woke up this morning, her head all bad
She won't mind that I'm lookin' sad

[Johnm]

Thanks for the help, Bunker Hill.  It sounds good to me, except I think he concludes with "I was lookin' sad."  I've made the change.
All best,
Johnm

[MTJ3]

With respect to "Gambling Blues," the song that started this thread, I am familiar with only the Gold Star recording.  I hear the lyrics as follows:

You know I once was gambler, but I bet my money wrong. (2x)
Now I ain't got no money, and all I got is gone.

When you lose that doggone money set around with your head hang down.
When you lose that doggone money and set around with your head hang down.
You wake up in the morning with your face all full of frown.

You know I'm through with gambling some Jack Stropper can have my room.
Boys, I'm through with gambling some other hustler can have my room.
Well, now drinking may kill me, but gambling won't be my doom.

Well, I gambled so long till I thought that I would never change.
Boys, I gambled so long till I thought I would never change.
Well, I ain't gonna gamble no more, I swear I'm gonna save my change.
 

[Johnm]

Hi MTJ3,
I just dug out the Arhoolie re-issue of Lil' Son's Gold Star recording of "Gambler's Blues", and your transcription sounds dead on the money.  All of that stuff he recorded in that run of records is so strong.  Thanks for posting those lyrics.  The ones he did for Chris Strachwitz in 1960 differed slightly.
All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

You know I'm through with gambling some Jack Stropper can have my room.

Interestingly - for me anyway - is that Lightnin' Hopkins recorded a Jackstropper Blues (The Jackstropper) for Gold Star (673) sometime around 1949/50 which was the same period in which LSJ's Gambling Blues (GS668) was cut. In the distant past the meaning/derivation of the term Jackstropper was the subject of a lengthy magazine correspondence. I guess it's all there on the web so will curb my natural urge to unearth it all.

[MTJ3]

You know I'm through with gambling some Jack Stropper can have my room.

Interestingly - for me anyway - is that Lightnin' Hopkins recorded a Jackstropper Blues (The Jackstropper) for Gold Star (673) sometime around 1949/50 which was the same period in which LSJ's Gambling Blues (GS668) was cut. In the distant past the meaning/derivation of the term Jackstropper was the subject of a lengthy magazine correspondence. I guess it's all there on the web so will curb my natural urge to unearth it all.

Bessie Tucker (also a Texan) recorded "Mean Old Jack Stropper Blues" in 1928 or 1929.  I thought I had a copy of it, but I can't put my hands on it, so I can't make any meaningful comment. 

I'm sure that I speak for all of us when I say that I hope never to see your urge to unearth anything curbed.