Topic: Blind Boy Fuller Lyrics

[lindy]

Need some ears in a couple of places for Oozing You Off My Mind, a more energetic clone of You Got to Change Your Mind, which Fuller recorded two years earlier.

A key word in the first line gets repeated throughout the song . . . at first I thought it was always ?dreaming,? but in two cases it really sounds like he?s singing ?grieving,? and in one case he might be singing ?feeling,? though I?m less certain about that one.



Oozing You Off My Mind (1937), key of C

Woman if you think I?m grievin' cause you quit me
You got to change your mind.
When you see me sittin? around sleepin?
I?m oozing you off my mind.

Said looka-hear gal, you been treatin? me mighty tough,
You know good and well I?m tired of that doggone stuff.
If you think I?m grievin' cause you quit me,
Gal you got to change your mind, still tellin? you,
You got to change your mind . . . Yeah!

Solo

Said, now gal you think I?m grievin' cause you quit me.
You got to change your mind.
When you see me sitting around sleepin?,
I?m oozing you off my mind.

Said ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
Show me a woman that a man can trust.
If you think I?m grievin' cause you quit me,
Babe you better change your mind, still tellin? you,
You got to change your mind . . . Yeah!

SPOKEN: Now mama if you think I?m grievin? cause you quit me,
You better change your mind.
When you see me sittin? around sleeping,
I?m just oozing you off my mind.

Scat

Baby if you think I?m grievin' cause you quit me,
You better change your mind.
When you see me sittin? around sleeping
I?m oozing you off my mind.

Said a nickel is a nickel and a dime is a dime,
Gal, what?s that you been givin? away of mine?

If you think I?m grievin' cause you quit me,
Gal you got to change your mind, still tellin? you,
You got to change your mind . . . Yeah!

SPOKEN: Lord, this world's in a turnip patch,
Everybody pickin' salad.
Awwww, too bad.

Scat

Said gal, if you think I?m grievin' cause you quit me,
You better change your mind.
When you see me sittin? around dreamin?
I?m oozing you off my mind.

Just like a squirrel that goes from limb to limb,
See my woman go from man to man and it?s too bad Jim.

Now gal, if you think I?m dreaming ?cuz you quit me,
Babe you better change your mind, still tellin? you,
Gal you better change your mind.

[banjochris]

I would say that it?s grievin? and sleepin? throughout

The spoken interlude sounds to me like:
Lord, this world?s in a tough patch
Everybody?s pickin? salad.

Last verse:
See my woman go from man to man, it?s too bad Jim.

Last line is
Gal you better change your mind (and no ?yeah?).
Chris

[lindy]

Thanks, Chris.

I still hear a "d"/dreamin' in a couple of places, but I'm going with "grievin'" throughout because I hear the "g" in two places, and the word is a better fit meaning-wise.

Anyone know of another song describing people as "picking salad" during hard times? I'm assuming the meaning is that people are so poor that they're going into the woods and fields to pick greens.

L

[banjochris]

Anyone know of another song describing people as "picking salad" during hard times? I'm assuming the meaning is that people are so poor that they're going into the woods and fields to pick greens.

I assumed that meaning too, but if someone hears something else, too, I'm certainly not 100% sure of it.

[Lignite]

Hey guys, I think he's saying "Lord this world's in a turnip patch. Everybody's pickin' salad". I had some good turnip greens at lunch today. They are a part of many North Carolinian's  diet. Also sometimes called turnips with roots with pieces of the true turnip mixed with the cooked greens in small cubes and prepared with some kind of fatback or ham for flavor.

[banjochris]

Yeah, Lignite, I believe you're right about "turnip" ? he kinda swallows the last syllable, but it sounds more like that (and makes more sense) than "tough." Reinforces the "salad" bit, which listening again I'm more sure that's correct.
Chris

[lindy]

It's really hard for me to imagine anyone sighing and saying, "Man, this world sure is in a turnip patch," but I was raised in southern New York City, so what do I know . . .

Change made -- thanks Lightnin'!

[Lignite]

Lindy,
I think that it's a saying kind of in the same context as "eating high on the hog." in this case,there is a super abundance of my favorite food and plenty for everyone.

[lindy]

Thanks Lightnin' ... up until your comment, the only two idioms I knew involving turnips were negative: falling off the turnip truck and getting blood out of a turnip. That's why I immediately interpreted "everyone's eating salad" to mean "poor people scrounging for wild greens 'cause there's nothing else to eat."

I know that "salad days" means "good times, when everything is going well," but when I saw turnips and salad next to each other I went for the negative interpretation, especially since the song was recorded in the mid-1930s, when economic times were at their toughest. Maybe BBF was singing about that wonderful time in late summer when gardens are really cranking out the greens.

L

[waxwing]

Excuse this aging thespian, but "salad days" refers to youth, first used by Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra, where the latter uses the phrase, "in my salad days, when I was green in judgement", speaking to her two servants, Iras and Charmion, moments before placing an adder to her breast.

Some years before money was thought of as cabbage.

You'd be surprised how many phrases in common usage were written by the Bard.

Wax

[Stuart]

You are correct, Wax, re: Shakespear's use being the locus classicus and the earliest attested usage. But Lindy is also correct as the meaning has expanded since the use in the text (and context) you cite.

Be that as it may. What we are trying to figure out here is what BBF specifically had in mind and what he was expressing in the spoken aside.

However, he may have had nothing specific in mind as it relates to the lyrics of the song. We've seen and heard this kind of thing before. --But it gives us something to do...

P.S. Aging thespian, you are excused 

Edited to add: Trying to think of a meaning that fits the context of the song, it is possible that the spoken aside may be a sexual metaphor. BBF might have meant, "The world is a turnip patch," that is, full of sexual beings, with everybody pickin'....

There's more than one turnip in the patch.

[Rivers]

... moments before placing an adder to her breast.

Hey wax, we did that one in school, it was an asp not an adder. Not that I know my asp from my elbow or anything

[Johnm]

Hi all,
"Mama, Let Me Lay It On You No. 2" was attempted way back in the beginning of this thread and it was never finished, so I thought I would give it a try.  Blind Boy Fuller accompanies himself out of G position in standard tuning for this version of the song, and he's joined by Sonny Terry.  Fuller's concluding solo is really neat--it's fun to be surprised that near the end of a song.  I'd very much appreciate help with the bent bracketed passage.   Here is "Mama Let Me Lay It On You No. 2":



INTRO SOLO

REFRAIN: Mama, let me lay it on you, mama, let me lay it on you
Said I'll do anything, this whole round world, mama, let me lay it on you

I'll buy you a diamond ring, now 'ets go shake that thing
Said I'll do anything, this whole round world, now, mama, let me lay it on you

SOLO

I'll try to live true to you, and nothin' else I know to do
Said I'll do anything, this whole round world, now, mama, let me lay it on you

SOLO

I'll buy you a Ford machine, then I'll furnish you the gasoline
Says I'll do anything, this whole round world, mama, let me lay it on you

SOLO

I'll buy you a Ford Machine, then I'll fill it full of gasoline
Said I'll do anything, this whole round world, now, mama, let me lay it on you

REFRAIN: Now, mama, let me lay it on you, mama, let me lay it on you
Said I'll do anything, this whole round world, now, mama, let me lay it on you

I got me a stingaree, I'll sting it sure as one-two-three
Said I'll do anything, this whole round world, now, mama, let me lay it on you

Babe, we had a fallin' out, says, over another man's wife
Said I'll do anything, this whole round world, now, mama, let me lay it on you

Now, mama, let me lay it on you, nothin' else I know to do
Said I'll do anything, this whole round world, now, mama, let me lay it on you

SOLO

Edited 7/24 to pick up corrections from Prof Scratchy and harry

All best,
Johnm

[Slack]

'll buy you a Ford Machine, then I'll [get it] full of gasoline

Looks good to me.

[Prof Scratchy]

...fill it full of gasoline...?