Topic: Pay Day by Mississippi John Hurt

[obrigadotony]

Hi everyone,

Pay Day is a very funny tune in that the licks that make up the song are very easy to learn but I always had trouble getting to point where I could sing and play the tune in it's entirety because MJH's version on "Today" is just so varied and for this particular tune, I wanted to play the song as he performed it rather than make my own arrangement.  While I'm sure MJH was just playing and not thinking about, I'm hoping that doing this kind of work will help me eventually create my own variations in the tunes that I play (for example, not singing for half a verse and just letting the guitar play, or cutting a verse in half, or hanging on for an extra bar or two as MJH does here and other Country Blues greats do).

What I've done below is created a 'structure' map for the arrangement that should greatly help anyone who wants to play "Pay Day" along with the record.   The song is about 4 minutes, there are 8 singing verses and MJH does something a little different in almost everyone one.  Note that I"m talking about the arrangement and I'm not getting into how to play the tune.  John Miller has a great two-DVD MJH instructional video available on Stefan Grossman's site and for the more experienced players this tune is easy to pick out if tune down to Vestapol D and put a capo on the 2nd fret to get to open E.

I prepared this primarily for myself as I've been dying to play this tune live for a couple of years but could never sit down and figure out the arrangement.  This is an attempt to provide something of value to this board as I've benefited a lot from coming on here and asking questions.  Any feedback is welcome provided you remember that I'm just an amateur (be gentle).  If this little arrangement got you to sit down with the tune and figure it out, I'd love to hear!

Given that this little intro has become so long, I'm going to post the actual arrangement structure in a reply to this thread.

[obrigadotony]

PLEASE SEE NOTES AT BOTTOM AS THEY ARE IMPORTANT
Lyrics are in regular font, all comments are italicized.

?Pay Day? by Mississippi John Hurt ? Structure

0:00 Solo #1

0:26 Verse 1 ?    yeah I did all I can do, and I can?t get along with you
       I?m gonna take you to your mama, pay day
      Pay day, pay day

0:49 Verse 2 -   Well the rabbit in the log, I ain?t got now rabbit dog
      and Lord I?d hate to see that rabbit, get away
      Get away (he only sings ?get away? once ? here the guitar acts as the voice the 2nd time)

1:10 Verse 3 -   Baby did all I could do, and I can?t get along with you
      I?m gonna take you to your mama, pay day

      (here, the guitar acts as the voice i.e. MJH does not sing ?Payday? twice as in Verse 1)

1:32 Extra bar   going into the fourth verse, at the very point where you feel that the guitar line ends
      and he is about to sing, he plays an extra hammer-on lick [2nd string, open hammer on the
      2nd fret to open 1st string) and the he rides the alternating bass for one additional bar
      while peddling the open 1st string.  (This is a small detail but you will get tripped up 
      playing along with the recording if you aren?t expecting this).

1:34 Verse 4 -   Just about a week ago, I stole me a ham of meat
      and I?m gonna keep my skillet greasy if I can (gonna take care of her)
      If I can, If I can

1:55 Extra bar   (You know what happened to her) ? at the point where you feel like launch into
      verse 5, he hangs on to the alternating bass for two extra bars while speaking the line

1:57 Verse 5 -   Well the hounds is on my track, and a knapsack on my back
      I?m gonna make it to my shanty, ?fore day
      ?Fore day, ?fore day?

2:19 Verse 6 -   Baby did all I could do, and I?.(play guitar lick, don?t sing)
      I?m gonna take you to your mama, pay day
      Silence i.e do not sing ?pay day? twice ? let guitar do the singing

2:40  Solo #2

3:01 Verse 7 -   Well?.(don?t sing ?rabbit in the log')
      and I ain?t got not rabbit dog
      Lord I?d hate to see that rabbit, get away
      Get away?.(only sing once)

3:23  Solo #2

3:43 Verse 8 -   Baby I did all I could do, and I can?t get along with you,
      I?m gonna?.(let the guitar ?sing?)
      Here, MJH cuts the verse short, in that he goes right into solo two after he voices (with his guitar) ?I?m
      I?m gonna take your mama, pay day? (i.e. he does not sing or play the part where MJH would sing ?pay day?
      twice while the guitar slides up and down the neck)
      Something else to keep in mind, after he voices the notes for ?take you to your mama, pay? you might think
      that he would hit that hammer on lick on 2nd string to open 2st string as noted above again, but he doesn?t -
      instead he pedals the open 1st string for two beats and then launches right into solo #2 ? this is the hardest
      for me to explain but if you listen to the track you will know what I mean)

3:52 Solo #2    This brings the tune to the end


Notes:
1)    I?m assuming MJH was tuned to Vestapol (Open E) rather than being tuned to D and capoed
2)   Solo #1 means he is playing the G# on the fourth fret once and letting it ring for a bar and half (he only plays this in the intro)
3)   Solo #2 means he is playing that G# (by sliding into it) 3 times (it?s the busier of the two)
4)   When I say ?one bar? I?m assuming that one quarter note = one hit of the alternating bass ? so one bar would consist of hitting the 6th string, 5th String, 6th String again, 5th string again).   This works out to about 185 bpm (I tapped on my metronome along with the tune in just about the middle of the tune as I?m sure it starts slower and gets quicker like most country blues songs).  It could be that the bpm is actually 92.5 bpm and MJH is just playing double time ? maybe someone with more knowledge can answer this
5)   Time stamps should be accurate but some could be off by one second
6)   Lyrics are combination of what I hear with quick internet search, may not be 100% accurate

[Johnm]

Congratulations on engaging with John Hurt's rendition of "Payday" on the "Mississippi John Hurt-Today" record at such a level of detail, Nick.  I think there is an awful lot of learning that happens when one does that.  For one thing, it's interesting to realize that for that player, at that time, performing the song was not a simple matter of going through the form x number of times.  Rather, there are all these decisions made in the moment as to answer a phrase with the guitar, whether to play time in between verse forms for a little while, etc.  And there's no way of knowing how those places where John Hurt stepped outside the form were understood by him--were they "breath catchers"?  Did they allow time to remember the lyrics to the next verse?  We'll never know.  I think you're right when you say that describing what was done doesn't really communicate or capture the coherence of the whole that you feel when listening to it.  And in a way, the whole thing is an illustration of the freedom that a solo performer has in putting together a rendition--a freedom that is much harder to achieve in ensemble performances.  Good work!
All best,
Johnm