Topic: Herman E. Johnson Lyrics

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I have been listening to "Smoky Babe & Herman E. Johnson--Louisiana Country Blues" a lot lately, and have really been impressed by everything about Herman Johnson's music.  He was an outstanding writer and a particularly expressive player and singer.  His "Depression Blues" is a real stand-out, one of the finest Blues compositions and performances I can recall having heard.  It may be based on some prior model, but if so, I have never heard it's predecessor or can not bring it to mind.  Real originality is quite rare in any style, and I think Herman Johnson may have had it.

"Depression Blues" is an 8-bar blues with two beats added to the final measure of the form, as sung, to accommodate the vocal pick-ups for the next verse.  The solos are phrased more freely.  Johnson accompanies himself on an electric guitar played out of E position, standard tuning (approximately), capoed to the third fret and sounding in G.  His accompaniment carries on a dialogue between the treble, which closely tracks his singing, and the bass, which counterpunches and sets up the phrasing.  Apart from a shift to IV suggested solely by a IV note struck in the bass in the third bar of the form in some verses, the song doesn't appear to have any chord changes.  I have to say, the sound of the electric guitar suits the song beautifully, just as well as the rasty electric guitar on Jimmy Lee Williams CD.  The rhythm and scansion of the lyrics are wonderfully crafted, and Johnson's singing could not be improved upon; he tends to draw out the last syllable of the last word in each verse and really lean on it.  It is great spooky singing.  Here is "Depression Blues":



   I'm looking for a Depression in nineteen and sixty-one
   And what grieves me so bad, I can't have no more fun

   I've been driving, I've been walking, until my hands and feet is tired,
   And I been goin' here and yonder but I can't find a job

   A man called me down in the alley, and I went there by myself
   That man had a little job and give it to someone else

   And I went out on the railroad, my friend told me to go
   He had all the men he wanted and he wasn't gonna hire no more

   Now I'll admit, the times is hard, and that is everywhere you go
   And all I do for my little woman, she just don't be pleased no more

   I walked all night long, my poor feet is soakin' wet
   I's lookin' for that little woman but I haven't found her yet

   SOLO:

   I's lookin' for that little woman but I haven't found her yet

   I don't take the daily paper, I don't have time to hear the news
   I'm just a-rollin', rollin', rollin' with the Depression Blues

   I'm gonna take you for my friend, whoever you might be
   But if you hears of a job, will you break it on down to me?

   SOLO:

   I'm feeling sad and lonesome, but man, I been sad all day
   But, well, I had a sweet little woman but unkindness drove her away

   Well, it seem mighty hard, but I brought it all on myself
   For she was so kind to me but I was lovin' someone else

   SOLO:

What a great song!

All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

Tastes they are a-changing, methinks. I have looked out four British reviews from the time when Arhoolie first released material by Herman E Johnson (Arhoolie LP 1060, 1973). Critics  referred to his playing as "laboured" or "uncertain" or "sprinkled with cock-ups" or "not up to much". The general consensus on his vocal, "unexciting". However, all to a man, said that the best song on the LP was Depression Blues for its emotional or personal content! One of the reviews ended thus:

"Arhoolie have put out some bravely uncommercial releases in its history, and I wish I could recommend this, if only because Mr Johnson is now retired, and could probably use the money. Alas, I can't see this record as necessary to anybody's collection."

Ho hum...I still own this LP and don't think I've played it since the day I acquired it. Perhaps now is the time to do so. Thanks John.

[blueshome]

I have recollection of reminding John about this cd a one of the recent EBA events. I do know that the first time I heard Depression Blues I was moved to tears, so powerful is the performance. Almost on a par with this is "You Don't Know My Mind" which takes Virginia Liston's comic song from the 20's and turns it into a tour de force of "blue" feeling and expression. I still find that I can only listen to this artist when I'm in an "up" mood.

Bunker Hill - shame those reviewers were looking for perfection in playing and performance - talk about lack of understanding of expression of   the human condition!
Keep your experts and anoraks - they are still around, although they don't seem to pop up here too often. This, speaking as a "blues fascist".

[Johnm]

Hi all,
You are right, Phil, thanks for bringing Herman Johnson to my attention (though it took me a while to get around to listening to him).  He was certainly not what one would call a flashy player or singer, but I find him exceptionally expressive instrumentally and vocally, and innovative as a player and writer.  At this stage of the game, I would have to say that I do not necessarily place instrumental facility at the top of the list in things I'm looking for in a Blues musician.  I think that a lot of what passes for instrumental fluency may be automatic pilot, disengagement with the material, and having played it a few too many times.  In such instances, it may wind up being "dependable", but if you come away from it feeling like it would have been played the same had the player just been roused from a sound sleep, I'm not particularly interested in hearing it.  Someone who is occasionally klunky, but in the moment, and whose concept sometimes exceeds the ability to execute--I'm okay with that.  As far as I'm concerned, if you never screw up, you're not trying hard enough.
All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

Keep your experts and anoraks - they are still around, although they don't seem to pop up here too often.

Hee, hee. Indeed they are still around and one HAS popped up here. I'm no expert but 'anorak' fits me well and I wear it with pride, though the description, 'stuck in a timewarp', suits better.

[blueshome]

Bunker,

I would consider you an enthusiast and blues lover - you know very well the type of self-seeking arrogance I was inferring - that  possessed by many members of the blues "mafia" here and in the US.

Phil

[Richard]

Bunker, you are no more an anorak than I am and I don't mind being stuck in time warp either!

As Phil says you are an "enthusiast and blues lover ".

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Another Herman Johnson performance that I have been particularly enjoying is his mysterious "She Is Looking For Me".  It is an eerie, very freely phrased song played in Spanish tuning at A with a slide.  If you have not heard the song before, I would say that the piece it most reminds me of, so far as its sound goes, would be Charlie Patton's  "When Your Way Gets Dark", and it will give you some idea of the esteem that I hold "She Is Looking For Me" in to say that I do not think it suffers by comparison with the Patton performance.  Like many players before him, Johnson often uses the slide to complete vocal phrases, but his use of the device is particularly effective.  Moreover, he utililizes the friction of the slide on his wound strings to get a sound reminiscent of the sound of a chorus of peepers out in the countryside on a hot summer night.  Johnson does not keep time in any regular way with the thumb of his right hand, but the absence of a clearly stated pulse suits the mood and phrasing of the song better than its presence would have.  At the end of most verses Johnson just barely hints at the "3 phrased in 4" vamp found on a lot of Charley Lincoln records, that Charley most often phrased thumb-thumb-slide thumb-thumb-slide thumb-thumb-slide.  This is really a special performance.  Here is "She Is Looking For Me":



   She are looking for (slide), she are looking for me
   Yes, I know she are looking for me

   I'm going to catch me a train, if I have to ride on the top
   Because I know, she are looking for (slide)

   I am looking for my fiancee, and I don't intend to stop
   SPOKEN:  Not until I finds her!
   Because I know she are looking for me

   I dreamed about her a lot and I almost cry
   Because I know that she was looking for me

   Whenever I sees her in my dream, I know she is not satisfied
   That's how I knew that she was looking for me

   Yes, she is looking for (slide), she is looking for me
   Yes I know, she are looking (slide)

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Herman Johnson came through with another very strong song and performance on "She Had Been Drinking".  He played it on a distorting electric guitar that suited the song beautifully, in a variant of Spanish tuning I have not heard before.  The upper five strings are as they would normally be tuned in Spanish, pitched at A, but Johnson tuned his sixth string down a full octave below his fifth string, ending up with a really eerie-sounding very low root there.  The resulting tuning, A-A-E-A-C#-E, is similar to Roscoe Holcomb's version of Spanish tuning, except that Roscoe's fifth and sixth strings are tuned to a unison rather than an octave apart.  Herman Johnson's left hand on the song is almost exclusively fretting single strings--there are no chord positions as such, and the song could just as well have been down with a slide, though the effect might have been less punchy.  The song has a very funky sort of Latin groove.
Lyrically, the song is a chorus blues, with the chorus changing from verse to verse, a really neat feature.  The song is unusual for a blues in suggesting that drinking can result in something other than a great time.  The first two verses are especially tough.  Where Johnson ended a sung line instrumentally, I will indicate it with a dash.  Here is "She Had Been Drinking":



   CHORUS:  I know you had been drinkin', baby, I had --
   I just don't like it, woman, and it's no need to say I --

   I was standing at the gate when she looked around
   Caught her by the hand and I knocked her down
   Because she had been a-drinkin', my mama had --
   I just don't like it, woman, and it's no need to say I --

   She got a-loose from me, beat me to the door
   She and I stumbled all over the floor
   Because she had been a-drinkin', my mama had --
   I just don't like it, woman, and it's no need to say I --

   You've been giving me lots of trouble, running around
   That man you used to love he must have put you down
   Is that why you're drinkin', well, then I am --
   I just don't like it, woman, and I --

   I know you had been drinkin', then I had --
   I just don't like it, woman, and it's no need to say I --

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
After posting the lyrics to "She Had Been Drinking" yesterday, I realized there is something really striking about the way Herman Johnson uses the guitar to finish the vocal phrases on the chorus.  If you look at his first chorus as an example:

   I know you had been drinkin', baby, I had --
   I just don't like it, woman, and it's no need to say I --

The dashes at the end of each line represent the guitar being used to finish the line.  It seemed obvious that the omitted word at the end of the second line was "do", but I couldn't make sense with it rhyming with the end of the first line.  Then I realized that the omitted word at the end of the first line is "too".  I can not recall another instance in the Country Blues where the rhyme words at the ends of the lines of the chorus are never sung during the course of the rendition, and are only played, trusting the listener to pick up the implicit meaning.  It is a really advanced compositional concept, and I think it is especially cool the way Herman Johnson gave his listeners credit for being able to fill in the blanks.  Hats off!
All best,
Johnm

[Doug]

I'm no expert but 'anorak' fits me well and I wear it with pride, though the description, 'stuck in a timewarp', suits better.

I love Weenie Campbell.  Not only do I get to read about great blues I would probably never have heard of (thanks Johnm!), I get a free lesson in British slang.  I always though anoraks were a type of jacket, so I was wondering why Bunker was wearing a parka with pride until I googled the term...

[Bunker Hill]

I'm no expert but 'anorak' fits me well and I wear it with pride, though the description, 'stuck in a timewarp', suits better.

I love Weenie Campbell.  Not only do I get to read about great blues I would probably never have heard of (thanks Johnm!), I get a free lesson in British slang.  I always though anoraks were a type of jacket, so I was wondering why Bunker was wearing a parka with pride until I googled the term...

As this is way off topic I'll keep it short. In Britain an anorak and a Parka (which I used to wear in mid-60s when riding around on my Lambretta GT) are slightly different items of clothing. An anorak became synonymous with those whose hobby was trainspotting and the term started to be used derogatorily to mean anybody with an obsession for collecting, be it locomotive numbers or record matrix numbers.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Yet another outstanding Herman E. Johnson song is his "I Am Growing Older".  He plays it on an electric guitar out of E position in standard tuning, pitched at G, so barring extreme high tuning, he would be capoed at the third fret.  Despite his sometimes halting execution, the song accompaniment is beautifully worked out and played consistently throughout the performance.
"I Am Growing Older" employs the phrasing archetype used in Sleepy John Estes' "Airplane Blues", Memphis Minnnie's "Chauffeur Blues" and "Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl".  Johnson comes up with some terrific additions to the blues lyric canon, and makes a great point in verse three:  no empathy = no imagination.  He pronounces "filthy" "filther" in verse five.  This is a really blue song, and like most of the lowest blues, it shows the singer in a position of no power.  Things look up a bit in the next-to-last verse and then the other shoe drops.  Tough.  Here is "I Am Growing Older":



   I am growing older, I am growing older
   But I just can't help, I just can't help myself
   After she got all my little pocket change
   She run off with someone else

   I can't tell hardly, I can't tell hardly
   That's Monday from Tuesday, and Tuesday from Wednesday noon
   But either Thursday, Friday or Saturday
   By Sunday I'll be there soon

   Now don't deny me, woman, don't deny me
   That's all that I, that's all that I can do
   But I want you to remember that
   Someday you'll be old too

   Now don't mistreat me, now don't mistreat me
   Because I am growing, because I am growing old
   Now you can have you another boyfriend
   Without you being so bold

   You treats me mean, gal, you treats me mean, gal,
   And you treats me dirt-, filther [sic] and dirty, too
   And you know there is no tellin' what
   A gal like you won't do

   SOLO

   I'm gonna leave here walkin', gonna leave here walkin'
   But I don't know where, I don't know where I will go
   Because the woman I been lovin'
   She drove me from her door

   I got a gal crosstown, man, got a girl crosstown, man,
   And she tall as a syca-, she's tall as a sycamore tree
   She walks through the rain cold weather just
   Man, just to be with me

   But she's deceitful, man, she's deceitful
   And she's tryin' to get, get me all worn down
   After she get all my little pocket change
   She gon' drive me from her town

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Herman Johnson played "Leavin' Blues" in the same low-octave sixth string variant of Spanish tuning that he used for "She Had Been Drinking".  "Leavin' Blues" is very freely phrased in a call-and-response fashion, going back and forth between the sung lines and the guitar's answer.  Some of what Johnson plays reminds me of early Robert Pete Williams ( though far less technical), in that it sounds as though occasionally he had no idea what he was going to play until he had played it.  It's a scary way to make music, but if you can get away with it, it can be quite exciting.  The singing is wonderful, as I have come to expect from Herman Johnson.  The track seems truncated; perhaps Johnson made some mistake later on in the rendition that disqualified it from use, but Chris Strachwitz thought the beginning was strong enough to issue as it was.  If that was the case, I'm glad that choice was made.  Here is "Leaving' Blues":



   I wanted to leave here this evening but I will stay here all night long (2)
   Because the girl that I love, she caught that westbound train and gone

   And this road is so foggy, Lord knows I can't see the road
   This road is so foggy until I can't see the road
   It'll take me so long to make it because I'll have to drive so slow

   I'll eat my breakfast here, eat my supper in Mexico
   I'll eat my breakfast here and eat my supper in Mexico
   So goodbye, Miss Corrinna, woman, I won't see you no more

   SOLO
   
   So goodbye, Corrinna, girl, I won't see you no more

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
There can be no doubt about Herman Johnson's "Piano Blues" being truncated, for it ends in a fade.  It sounds to be played in conventional Spanish tuning around A.  Johnson recycles many of the instrumental ideas he used on his version of "You Don't Know My Mind", and the rendition, up to the point at which it fades, is a particularly strong one.  Its two verses are tantalizing.  Here is "Piano Blues":



   Mama told sister, "Close the piano down." (2)
   She didn't have no blues, but she hated to hear the sound

   Come here, pretty mama, I wants to whisper in your ear
   Come here, pretty mama, let me whisper in your ear
   I got something to tell you, I don't want no one to hear

All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

Hi all,
There can be no doubt about Herman Johnson's "Piano Blues" being truncated, for it ends in a fade. 

How bizarre, that's all that Oster quotes in his transcription of the song in his book Living Country Blues (1969). However what he does is preface it with the following quote from Willie B. Thomas:

"What a piano blues come from, long time ago befo' the piano blues came out, we used to play these jazz bands, we had 'em on the plantation, mos' every plantation had its ban', but after the whiskey went out, then you couldn't drink this liquor free like you could befo', an' then we had the liquor, we had the bootlegger slippin' in the alley, so we had a piano joint; we played the piano, an' that's where these blues come from, in the same time. The blues come from when the liquor went out; we so sorry it went, we sung:

So long, highball, so long, gin, Tell me when yo' comin' back agin, I got the blues, I got the alcoholin' blues.

The "Piano Blues" come along just behind that, what the piano man played."

[Johnm]

Your point regarding Dr. Oster's transcription of "Piano Blues" is interesting, Bunker Hill.  Maybe the rendition was truncated when released commercially, but the lyrics were not?  Perhaps the song only had two verses after all, and the portion of the performance that was was cut was all instrumental.  Dr. Oster's transcription of the lyrics would seem to indicate that this was the case.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Herman Johnson weighed in with another excellent number in "I Just Keeps On Wanting You", played in Spanish tuning with a slide.  Like many of Johnson's songs, it features a chorus and his favored technique of using his guitar to finish a vocal line.  I admire Johnson's craft in the way he employs this technique.  It took me a while to notice that he was consistently using the slide to play the last word of the second repetition of his opening line in each stanza.  Where that occurs in the transcription, the instrumental take-over is indicated with a dash.  Johnson's playing on this song is really expert; he does some tricky tremolo effects by bouncing the slide.  That's not easy to do!  What makes it noteworthy, of course, is that it sounds great.  Here is "I Just Keeps On Wanting You":



   I just keeps on wanting you, I just keeps on a-wanting you
   I just keeps on a-wanting ---, and tell your mama that just -- no way to do

   You don't cook, you don't wash my clothes (2)
   You don't cook, you don't wash my  -------, but everytime I look, you is in the road

   But I just keeps on wanting you, I just --------------------
   I just keeps on a-wanting ----, tell your mama that ---------------------

   Can you remember last Friday night? (2)
   Can you remember last Friday -----, I put my arm around your sister and she wanted to fight

   But I just keeps on a-wanting you, I just a ---------------
   I just keeps on a-wanting ---, mama that just ---no way to do

   Seem like you just got to have your way (2)
   Seem like you just got to have your ---, oh, but you keep me broken-hearted both night and day

   But I just, ------------------------------------------------
   ------------------------------------------------------------

   I just keeps on wanting you, I just ---------------------
   I just keeps on a-wanting ----, and tell your mama that just ------------------

All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

From memory of this number the structure and melody is that of pianist James Wiggins's 1928 "Keep A Knockin" An' You Can't Get In", which in itself was from an earlier generation.

[Johnm]

Hi Bunker Hill,
The phrasing is similar to "Keep On Knockin'", but melody and chord structure are different on "I Just Keeps On Wanting You"--certainly not a blatant or actionable cop on Johnson's part if a cop at all.
All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

I did say it was from memory having divested myself of the LP some decades ago! I can hear and see myself leaping about telling the ozone "that's  Keep A Knockin' with a new lyric". Mind you I was young and foolish back then and prone to such extreme behaviour.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Herman E. Johnson did an outstanding version of "You Don't Know My Mind", which blueshome pointed out earlier in this thread was originally recorded by Virginia Liston in a comic mode in the mid-1920s.  Johnson's version is anything but comic; like most of his songs, it is emotionally wrenching.  This performance was brought to my attention by Weenie Ryan Leaf, and is the first I had heard of Herman Johnson.  He plays it in Spanish, and the solo has an odd digression that is reminiscent of "I Will Turn Your Money Green".  Lyrically, "You Don't Know My Mind" is a chorus blues, and Johnson varies the first line of the chorus that arrives over the IV chord, in a very effective way.   Here is "You Don't Know My Mind":



   You don't know, you don't know, you don't know my mind, doggone, you
   You don't know, you don't know my mind
   REFRAIN:  But when you sees me laughin', that's just to keep from cryin'

   I served my little woman, sweet jelly roll, took the shoes off my feet and put me out in the cold
   Man, you don't know, you don't know my mind
   REFRAIN:

   I asked my little woman, could she stand to see me cry, told me, "Why the heck, man, I can stand to see you die!"
   You don't know, how can you know my mind?
   REFRAIN: 

   SOLO:

   Got a handful of nickels, pocket full of dimes, house full of children, neither one of them is mine
   How can you know?  Man, you don't know my mind
   REFRAIN:

   You don't know, you don't know, you don't know my mind, doggone
   SPOKEN:  Woman, you don't know I said
   You don't know my mind
   REFRAIN:

Edited 8/22 to pick up missing word from Bunker Hill

All best,
Johnm
   
   

[Bunker Hill]

I think the unintelligible word might be "served", but...

[Johnm]

Hi Bunker Hill,
Thanks for the help.  I agree that "served" sounds right.  I couldn't wrap my head around the missing pronoun reference change in the second half of the line.  It all makes sense now.  I will make the change.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Unlike most of the songs that Herman E. Johnson recorded, "Po' Boy" was what might be called a Blues Standard rather than an original number, though Johnson gave it plenty of individual touches.  He played it in Spanish with a slide, with the slide closely tracking the sung melody.  As he gets near the end of the song, from verse three on, he reiterates the last line of the form, messing with it and sometimes concluding phrases with the slide (indicated by a dash).  This vocal device of repeating the last line of a verse was often employed by Texas Alexander, whose voice bore some similarity to Herman Johnson's, though Johnson's voice is deeper than Alexander's.  Here is "Po' Boy":



   I'm the poor boy and a long ways from home
   I'm a poor boy and a long ways from home
   I'm a poor boy here and I ain't got nowhere to go

   I ain't got nowhere to lay my weary head (2)
   Rather than fer (sic) you to leave I would rather see you dead

   When I left her house, she followed me to her door (2)
   "You ain't got no money, man, I'd rather see you go,
   Man, I'd rather see you -----, and I'd rather see you go

   SOLO

   I am talking on that long distance phone (2)
   Tryin' to call my little gal but I think she been gone too long,
   I think she have been gone too -------

   Now, tell me, gal, what you want me to do (2)
   I tried so hard and I can't get along with you
   I just can't get along with ----, get along with ----, I can't get along with ---

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
The last song Herman Johnson plays on the "Louisiana Blues" CD he shares on Arhoolie with Smoky Babe (Arhoolie CD 440) is a hymn, "Where The Mansion's Prepared For Me".  Johnson plays the song with a slide, in Spanish tuning, and the integration of the vocal with the guitar part is excellent.  Johnson uses the verb "presting" throughout the song, which from the context seems like it might be a combination of "pressing" and "questing".  The meaning of the song is clear, in any event.  I wonder if Dr. Oster had more recordings of Herman Johnson that were never issued.  Here is "Where The Mansion's Prepared For Me":



   I'm presting (sic) on, more and more and more
   Presting on, everywhere I go
   Presting on, to that city
   That's where the mansion prepared for me

   If you don't go, don't hang to me (2)
   If you don't go to that city
   That's where the mansion prepared for me

   My sister gone, she left me presting on
   My sister gone, and she left me presting ----
   My sister gone to that city
   That's where the mansion prepared for me

   I'm presting on, more and more and more
   I'm presting on, everywhere I go
   I'm presting on to that city
   That's where the mansion prepared for me

All best,
Johnm

[Mr.OMuck]

Hi all,
Herman Johnson weighed in with another excellent number in "I Just Keeps On Wanting You", played in Spanish tuning with a slide.  Like many of Johnson's songs, it features a chorus and his favored technique of using his guitar to finish a vocal line.  I admire Johnson's craft in the way he employs this technique.  It took me a while to notice that he was consistently using the slide to play the last word of the second repetition of his opening line in each stanza.  Where that occurs in the transcription, the instrumental take-over is indicated with a dash.  Johnson's playing on this song is really expert; he does some tricky tremolo effects by bouncing the slide.  That's not easy to do!  What makes it noteworthy, of course, is that it sounds great.

   I just keeps on wanting you, I just keeps on a-wanting you
   I just keeps on a-wanting ---, and tell your mama that just -- no way to do

   You don't cook, you don't wash my clothes (2)
   You don't cook, you don't wash my  -------, but everytime I look, you is in the road

   But I just keeps on wanting you, I just --------------------
   I just keeps on a-wanting ----, tell your mama that ---------------------

   Can you remember last Friday night? (2)
   Can you remember last Friday -----, I put my arm around your sister and she wanted to fight

   But I just keeps on a-wanting you, I just a ---------------
   I just keeps on a-wanting ---, mama that just ---no way to do

   Seem like you just got to have your way (2)
   Seem like you just got to have your ---, oh, but you keep me broken-hearted both night and day

   But I just, ------------------------------------------------
   ------------------------------------------------------------

   I just keeps on wanting you, I just ---------------------
   I just keeps on a-wanting ----, and tell your mama that just ------------------

All best,
Johnm

I know this is an old thread but having recently discovered Herman E. Johnson I wanted to add my voice to the chorus of praise for this deep, under known musician. I was particularly  moved by "I just keep on wanting you".
There is really no one like him in my experience. He has an insightful , subtle  poetic and intelligent lyric
content which i think equals the best Blues writers. His sound is cool, somewhat distant, but somehow profound. More like what I think an ancient bard sounded like than a bar room shouter. I rank him right up there and am dumbfounded that there are discoveries like this to make this late in the game..thank the diety or cosmic, spiritual, or natural force of your choice  for that!

[Mr.OMuck]

Another thought: Does it sound to anyone else like Herman's got one or two gut strings on his guitar?

[Johnm]

Hi O'Muck,
I'm so glad to hear you are enjoying Herman E. Johnson's music, for I think it was perfectly wonderful.  Have you had a chance to listen to "She Had Been Drinking" yet?  If not, you should seek it out, it's really sensational.
all best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

I know this is an old thread but having recently discovered Herman E. Johnson I wanted to add my voice to the chorus of praise for this deep, under known musician. I was particularly  moved by "I just keep on wanting you".

When Harry Oster asked him about the song Johnson replied:

"Had a little female difficulty, cause me to compose this little thing, but after all, we won't discuss that, that's the cause o' me composin' it, a little female difficulty. Another guy gettin' between me an' my little female, cause me to want a little bit; I'm gonna pull the trigger if you won't do better."

Am I correct in thinking that the tune is very similar to the age old "Keep A Knockin' And You Can't Get In" and lyrical variants thereof?

[Mr.OMuck]

Definitely keep a knockin or busy bootin, but what a difference in mood here. Taking an up tempo hokum number and recasting it as a slower, pensive window on an internal dialogue is a brilliant repurposing of the tune.

[uncle bud]

I was looking through this thread after listening to some Herman E. Johnson and noticed that his version of Motherless Children is missing here, though everything else from the Arhoolie disc has been transcribed. It's a strong version, IMO, like most of his stuff, with really relaxed and subtle slide playing and an approach to the tune that's just different enough to make what can occasionally be a tired song (IMO again) into something special.

I haven't checked carefully, but it sounds like he's playing in Spanish tuning, pitched around A or B-flat.  Here is "Motherless Children":



Motherless Children - Herman E. Johnson

Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead, oh Lord
Father may do the best he can
So many things he don't understand
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead

(instrumental line)
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead
Sometime pleasures and sometime fun
Sometime food and sometime none
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead

(Yeah)

Yes, mother told her child, "Someday, I'll meet you after we are dead"
Mother told her child, "Someday, I'll meet you after we are dead, oh Lord
Come and shake my hand goodbye
Some days you will laugh and some days you will --- "
You know a motherless child have a hard --- when the mother's dead

Yes, motherless --- when the mother's dead
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead, oh Lord
Sometime pleasures and sometime ---
Sometime food and sometime ---
Motherless children has a ---  when the mother is dead

(You know)

Oh, Lord

Yes, motherless children has a hard time when ---
You know, motherless children has a --- when mother is dead
Father he will do the best he can
So many things he don't under---
You know a motherless child has a --- when mother is --

[uncle bud]

Going and looking at Harry Oster's notes to this song, I see that he writes that Johnson played this lap style with a knife, and that confirms what I was thinking while listening, though I had not tried it yet myself. Johnson has such great control that it really points to lap playing to my ear. Oster writes that this version is a variant of Blind Willie Johnson's (another not-so-ho-hum version). He describes the technique:

"Herman, who holds the guitar flat on his lap, uses an open tuning and slides the back of a small pocket knife (with the blade closed) on the strings to stop them, with frequent glissandi from note to note and much tremolo, the same general technique as Blind Willie."

So here's a tangential question. Do you think Oster is referring specifically to Blind Willie's glissandi and tremolo, and only that, or suggesting that Blind Willie played lap style? Frankly, I have long wondered if this was the case, as it would make a lot of sense from a technical standpoint, but I have rarely seen it discussed (I think it was Peter Keane who mentioned his own suspicion that this was the case on Weenie recently).

Another aside: Hard to tell for certain, but in the photo of Herman inside the booklet, the capoed guitar looks like it has brutal action. Good for lap.

Discussion of Blind Willie Johnson technique continues over here:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=8585.msg70547#msg70547

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I was able to find links for all of the songs transcribed in this thread (which were all that Herman E. Johnson ever had released).  It really felt good to return to his music and hear him again.  He was a particularly good writer of blues.
All best,
Johnm

[JoeCigueno]

I have been enjoying Herman E. Johnson’s understated but captivating playing lately. There appear to additional recordings by Harry Oster, like this version of She Had Been Drinking from 1960. (The version that was issued on LP and CD was recorded the following year, per the Arhoolie jacket notes.)

The 1960 recording of She Had Been Drinking can be heard here:

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/04/folklorist-harry-osters-collection-of-1950s-60s-folk-music-ranges-from-english-folksongs-in-iowa-to-delta-country-bluesmen/

Not much to distinguish the 2 versions, but there are more 1960 recordings of other tunes that he did not record later.  Color me intrigued… From Wirz:    

- Crawlin' Baby Blues
- C. C. Rider
- Happy Days
- What Is Wrong With You
- The Bachelor's Blues
- The Deceitful Brownskin
- Esso Refinery Blues
- I Just Keep On Waiting
- Depression In '61

rec. November 3, 1960, March 26, 1961, April 5, 1961, April 27, 1961 & May 12, 1961 in Baton Rouge, LA by Harry Oster; Herman E. Johnson, voc, g
unissued

[Johnm]

Thanks for the information on the unreleased Herman E. Johnson cuts, JoeCigueno. It seems reasonably likely that "Depression in '61" and "I Just Keep On Waiting" are alternate versions of his "Depression Blues" and "I Just Keeps on Wanting You", with "waiting" a typo in the title. I'm tantalized by all of them, but particularly curious about the two Lemon Jefferson titles, "Crawlin' Baby Blues" and "The Deceitful Brownskin". It's really hard to imagine what Herman E. Johnson would have done with them--his style of playing and singing being so different from Lemon's. Harry Oster sure had some great finds--Herman E. Johnson, Smoky Babe, Robert Pete Williams, Guitar Welch, Hogman Maxey among them.
All best,
Johnm 

[JoeCigueno]

I am wondering what Herman had to say about the Esso Refinery… if he worked there, he probably had a story to tell. I love blues songs that tell a story.   How do curious, non-professional people pry music out of archives?

I assume this is the place Herman was referring to:

ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the fifth-largest oil refinery in the United States and thirteenth-largest in the world, with an input capacity of 540,000 barrels (86,000 m3) per day as of January 1, 2020. The refinery is the site of the first commercial fluid catalytic cracking plant that began processing at the refinery on May 25, 1942.

John, I will have to look up Hogman Maxey. I hope the nickname was related to his vocation, rather than his appearance. Maybe we should have a thread with memorable nicknames. Honeyboy is obviously classic, but he is well known.  Bogus Ben is another great one.

PS:  Thanks for the tip, I just bought Angola Prisoners Blues… wonderful stuff!