Hey Lordy Mama / Meet Me In The Bottom
Attempting to answer the questions "who recorded it first and who covered it? I kept track of the early recordings I could find from the Thirties and kept going into the Forties.
Here?s the current list in chronological order. It shows the song?s early popularity and who were the first to record it. We can add more titles as they come up.
Recordings 1933 - 1949
Musical format: The layout is usually a more or less modified 12 bar blues with some swing. It lends itself to both a monotonic bass treatment and also a spacious, jazzy feel.
The famous ?Hey lawdy mama, great God almighty? refrain contributes to its catchiness. A common characteristic is the bugle call intro lick, first heard in Curley Weaver and Buddy Moss?s versions.
There are a couple of Frankenstinian rearrangements out there. The most famous is the Howlin? Wolf one. Willie Dixon grafts chunks of the lyrics onto the tune, beat and licks of Rolling And Tumbling, and Wolf plays it for laughs. Another genetic mutation is the Oscar Buddy Woods song for the LoC
Early days: Pink Anderson mentioned he had first heard it ?just after the first World War? according to Samuel B. Charter?s notes for Carolina Bluesman, Vol.1 (1961), Prestige/Bluesville. If anyone knows more let us know, perhaps Pink elaborated further and it didn?t hit the notes.
Curley Weaver?s unissued ARC recording in 1933 is the earliest session documented in B&GR that I could find. To date no masters or pressed examples have come to light. Curley recorded it again in 1935 and we do have that one.
His pal Buddy Moss got the first record out though.
The first three surviving recordings
Buddy Moss - Oh Lordy Mama (1934): This is the earliest version with an extant recording, at least that I can find. It set the scene and a high bar for most of the songs that followed.
The intro lick reminds me of a bugle call, perhaps the Reveille. Having woken us up Moss plays expertly and sparingly, walking selected strings to land on partial chords voiced for the melody. His time is solid while leaving ample space in the music.
See this post for the lyrics, and also for a link to a discussion of the song?s vocal phrasing.
Curley Weaver - Oh Lawdy Mama (1935): While we don't have his first recording from 1933 we do have Curley's second one for ARC. Blind Willie McTell accompanies him on a guitar, not sure how many strings on it. It's nice, but their mutual Atlanta friend Buddy Moss's recording the previous year is a hard act to follow.
We might wonder what Weaver thought about Moss getting his record released first, despite the older man recording it the year before. We know Moss was playing with Weaver regularly that year. If it was an older song, from ?just after the first World War?, no big deal, both were cribbing.
Bumble Bee Slim - Hey Lawdy Mama (1935): Dorothy Rice and Scrapper Blackwell split the backup out into piano and guitar parts, Amos sings. It?s interesting to compare with the Buddy Moss version and has grown on me.
For more background on Decca 7126, and a less whupped sound file of the 78, see this page on the Old Time Blues website. Dot Rice was a name unfamiliar to me so I did some further digging and found more sessions with Scrapper. She was a very talented player, we should have heard more from her.
Resources: Here are some more links.
wikipedia Hey Lawdy Mama song page
Stefan's Buddy Moss discography
Stefan's Curley Weaver discography
wikipedia Buddy Moss biography
wikipedia Curley Weaver biography
Next up: There are many more versions out there from the early days and the revival. I look forward to seeing what comes up and will duck back in and post some more as we go.
Cordialmente,
Rivers
Attempting to answer the questions "who recorded it first and who covered it? I kept track of the early recordings I could find from the Thirties and kept going into the Forties.
Here?s the current list in chronological order. It shows the song?s early popularity and who were the first to record it. We can add more titles as they come up.
Recordings 1933 - 1949
Session Date Y-M-D | Artist | Title | Accompanists | Comment | B&GR page# |
1933-09-18 | Curly Weaver | Oh Lordy Mama | ARC unissued | 999 | |
1934-08-08 | Buddy Moss | Oh Lordy Mama | 668 | ||
1935-04-23 | Curly Weaver | Oh Lawdy Mama | Blind Willie Mctell g. | 1000 | |
1935-07-08 | Bumble Bee Slim | Hey Lawdy Mama | Dorothy Rice p.; Scrapper Blackwell g. | Decca 7126 | 235 |
1935-08-21 | Buddy Moss | Oh Lordy Mama No. 2 | Josh White g. | 669 | |
1936-10-21 | Bill Gaither | Tee-Ninecy Mama (Little Sweet Mama) | 283 | ||
1936-11-04 | Bumble Bee Slim | Meet Me At The Landing | prob. Broonzy g.; Black Bob p. | 238 | |
1937-02-08 | Bind Boy Fuller | Boots And Shoes | Floyd Dipper Boy Council g. | 278 | |
1939-07-21 | Sonny Boy Williamson | Tell Me Baby | Walter Davis, p.; Broonzy, eg. | 1045 | |
1940-10-08 | Oscar Buddy Woods | Look Here Baby, One Thing I Got To Say | LC | 1061 | |
1941 | Louis Armstrong | Hey Lawdy Mama | Hot 7 | Blues Foxtrot baby | |
1941-03-27 | Joe Williams | Meet Me Around The Corner | William Mitchell, imb. | 1039 | |
1941-05-16 | Josh White | She's A Married Woman | cl., sb., d., bass vocal | CO unissued | 1023 |
1943 | June Richmond | Hey Lawdy Mama | Andy Kirk & His 12 Clouds Of Joy | #4 Billboard charts | |
1944 | June Richmond | Hey Lawdy Mama | Roy Milton and his Band | ||
1949 | Joe Williams | She's A Married Woman |
Musical format: The layout is usually a more or less modified 12 bar blues with some swing. It lends itself to both a monotonic bass treatment and also a spacious, jazzy feel.
The famous ?Hey lawdy mama, great God almighty? refrain contributes to its catchiness. A common characteristic is the bugle call intro lick, first heard in Curley Weaver and Buddy Moss?s versions.
There are a couple of Frankenstinian rearrangements out there. The most famous is the Howlin? Wolf one. Willie Dixon grafts chunks of the lyrics onto the tune, beat and licks of Rolling And Tumbling, and Wolf plays it for laughs. Another genetic mutation is the Oscar Buddy Woods song for the LoC
Early days: Pink Anderson mentioned he had first heard it ?just after the first World War? according to Samuel B. Charter?s notes for Carolina Bluesman, Vol.1 (1961), Prestige/Bluesville. If anyone knows more let us know, perhaps Pink elaborated further and it didn?t hit the notes.
Curley Weaver?s unissued ARC recording in 1933 is the earliest session documented in B&GR that I could find. To date no masters or pressed examples have come to light. Curley recorded it again in 1935 and we do have that one.
His pal Buddy Moss got the first record out though.
The first three surviving recordings
Buddy Moss - Oh Lordy Mama (1934): This is the earliest version with an extant recording, at least that I can find. It set the scene and a high bar for most of the songs that followed.
The intro lick reminds me of a bugle call, perhaps the Reveille. Having woken us up Moss plays expertly and sparingly, walking selected strings to land on partial chords voiced for the melody. His time is solid while leaving ample space in the music.
See this post for the lyrics, and also for a link to a discussion of the song?s vocal phrasing.
Curley Weaver - Oh Lawdy Mama (1935): While we don't have his first recording from 1933 we do have Curley's second one for ARC. Blind Willie McTell accompanies him on a guitar, not sure how many strings on it. It's nice, but their mutual Atlanta friend Buddy Moss's recording the previous year is a hard act to follow.
We might wonder what Weaver thought about Moss getting his record released first, despite the older man recording it the year before. We know Moss was playing with Weaver regularly that year. If it was an older song, from ?just after the first World War?, no big deal, both were cribbing.
Bumble Bee Slim - Hey Lawdy Mama (1935): Dorothy Rice and Scrapper Blackwell split the backup out into piano and guitar parts, Amos sings. It?s interesting to compare with the Buddy Moss version and has grown on me.
For more background on Decca 7126, and a less whupped sound file of the 78, see this page on the Old Time Blues website. Dot Rice was a name unfamiliar to me so I did some further digging and found more sessions with Scrapper. She was a very talented player, we should have heard more from her.
Resources: Here are some more links.
wikipedia Hey Lawdy Mama song page
Stefan's Buddy Moss discography
Stefan's Curley Weaver discography
wikipedia Buddy Moss biography
wikipedia Curley Weaver biography
Next up: There are many more versions out there from the early days and the revival. I look forward to seeing what comes up and will duck back in and post some more as we go.
Cordialmente,
Rivers