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Country Blues => Country Blues Lyrics => Topic started by: Blues Vintage on June 09, 2021, 06:05:10 AM
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Hard Time Blues
It’s got to be the worst stage name in (blues) history but he could play.
I could use some help with 2.1 and 3.3
Monkey Joe (Jesse Coleman) - Vocals, Piano
Walter Vinson - Guitar
August 10, 1935
New Orleans, Louisiana
Piano in G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8xGBGdpXDg
INTRO PIANO SOLO
Well, these hard times have got me, got me runnin’ from door to door
I said, these hard times have got me, got me runnin’ from door to door
I ain’t got no bed to sleep in, I got to sleep down on the doggone floor
Well, it’s hard times here and it’s, (hard times everywhere you go)
I said, it’s hard times here, hard times everywhere you go
I’ve got to make me some money, so I won’t have to move no more
PIANO SOLO
Well, I used to could get a dollar, just before I could catch my breath
I said, I used to could get a dollar, just before I could catch my breath
But now I just cannot get a dime, unless'n I talk my poor self to death
Did you ever wake up in the mornin’, just ‘bout the half past four
I said, did you ever wake up in the mornin’, just about the half past four
Just soon in the mornin’, that’s when the rent man knockin’ on your door
OUTRO
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Thanks for posting that song, Harry, I'd not heard Monkey Joe before. I think the tagline in the next-to-last verse is:
But now I just cannot get a dime, unless'N I TALK MY POOR SELF to death
In the last verse, at the front end of the first two lines I think it is:
4.1 DID you
4.2 I said, DID you
I really wonder about that attribution of Walter Vinson playing the guitar. I never heard him do all of the tremolo work in the treble with a flatpick before or the chromatic bass runs later on in the song. It sounds more like Charlie McCoy, but it really doesn't sound like him either. If it was Walter Vinson playing the guitar, this side of his musicianship was not featured on very many of his recordings.
All best,
Johnm
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2.1 from the sound, he just gets tongue-tied and means to sing what's in 2.2; I don't think you're going to get an accurate transcription of that – maybe put (hard times everywhere you go) in parentheses?
3.3 unless'n I talk my poor self to death
posting at the same time as John, I see – glad we agree on 3.3!
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Thanks John and Chris.
Document and DG & R have Walter Vinson as the guitar player.
Charlie McCoy is listed on Monkey Joe's second recording session in 38'.
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There are several other sides he recorded that session where he says things like "Play that thing Walter". Also that session, Little Brother Montgomery was recorded with Walter Vinson as the guitarist and Monkey Joe in the background of a couple of songs similarly encourages them both.
Monkey Joe played piano on the Mississippi Sheiks stuff on the Chicago Living Legends South Side Blues LP along with Walter Vinson which was recorded in the sixties.
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Great research, Thomas. He even hollers "Play that guitar, Walter" on "Monkey Joe Got The Blues".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPm3Si1vZJE
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Thanks harry I'm a big fan of Monkey Joe's, and Walter Vinson's guitar playing on those sessions with him and Little Brother Montgomery are some of my favourites. The guitar playing on "Monkey Joe Got The Blues" is absolutely stellar.