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Here she comes! The Black Diamond Express to Hell with Sin the Engineer holding the throttle wide open; Pleasure is the headlight, and the devil is the conductor. You can feel the roaring of the express and the moanin' of the drunkards, liars, gamblers and other folk who have got aboard. They are hell-bound and they don't want to go. The train makes eleven stops but nobody can get off - Vocalion advertisement for Rev. A.W. Nix's 1927 recording Black Diamond Express to Hell

Author Topic: Leadbelly lyrics  (Read 55123 times)

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Offline Lyndvs

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Re: Leadbelly lyrics
« Reply #165 on: October 30, 2020, 05:19:43 AM »
Leadbelly`s Last sessions were recorded over 3 nights,in New York,by Fred Ramsey Jr..
27 September 1948
15 October 1948
5 November 1948

"Well,you know I had to do it" was recorded on the second night 15 october 1948.
All details can be seen on PDF of liner notes here
https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40068.pdf
« Last Edit: October 30, 2020, 05:21:48 AM by Lyndvs »

Offline Blues Vintage

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Re: Leadbelly lyrics
« Reply #166 on: October 30, 2020, 08:31:04 AM »
Thanks.

Offline dj

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Re: Leadbelly lyrics
« Reply #167 on: October 30, 2020, 09:32:14 AM »
Quote
15 October 1948

Interesting.  The Fancourt/McGrath Post-War discography has the series of masters that include Well, You Know I Had To Do It with an unlisted date, signifying that they're from the same date as the September 27th masters listed immediately before them.  Must be a typo on their part.

Offline Johnm

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Re: Leadbelly lyrics
« Reply #168 on: May 17, 2021, 10:38:01 AM »
Hi all,
Leadbelly is playing "Mother's Blues" here out of Spanish tuning, fretting it conventionally, with no slide. Here is his performance of the song:



INTRO (Spoken: These blues, the little chillun made about somebody that's goin' away. And that's sad. And that gives you the blues.)

I went down to the freight depot,
When that train comes a-rollin' by
I wave my hand, at my mama, and then I looked
Goin' down that railroad track

She's gone, she's gone, she's gone, she's gone
And no cryin', won't bring her back
She's the onliest mother that I ever did love
Goin' down the railroad track

It's, I went down to the freight depot
And I looked up on the sign
Thinkin' about the onliest mother that I had in this world
And I couldn't help from, hangin' my head and cryin'

SOLO (Spoken: Uh-huh)

It was "Fare you well.", It was "Fare you well."
And she's gone, she's gone, she's gone
She's gone, went down that lonesome railroad track
And she left me, here to sing this song

SOLO

All best,
Johnm


Offline Johnm

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Re: Leadbelly lyrics
« Reply #169 on: May 22, 2023, 05:18:00 PM »
Hi all,
This rendition of "Ain't Going Down to the Well No More" comes from Leadbelly's Last Sessions, the first volume of which (before the current CD reissue) was almost all unaccompanied vocals. This singing seems so deep to me, like music from a long-forgotten past. Trying to transcribe the lyrics and indicate where Leadbelly sang discrete pitches over a repeated vowel sound makes me respect all the more the work that John Work did in transcribing vocal renditions from his field recordings that appear in the book "Lost Delta Found"--and he was transcribing the pitches too, with rhythmic notation, as well; really a Herculean task. Here is Leadbelly's rendition:



Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't going down, I ain't going down, oh-oh baby, to the well no more
Oh-oh-oh-oh
If I ever gets able, if I ever gets able, able, to pay the debt I owe-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't going down, I ain't going down, uh-uh sweet mama, to the well no more-ore
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I'm's a true believer, I'm's a true believer
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't going down, I ain't going down, oh-oh mama, to the well no more-ore
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
It was soon one mornin', when the sun did rise
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ain't going down, I ain't going down, oh, to the well no more-ore
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I'm goin' away-ay-ay, And I'll be back some day-ay-ay
Oh-oh-oh-oh
And I ain't going down to the well no more-ore
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
And it's soon one mornin', soon one mornin', mornin'
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't going down, I ain't going down, oh baby, to the well no more-ore
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Then the sun do rise, and the sun do ri-i-ise
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
And I ain't going dow-ow-own
Oh-oh-oh-oh
And I ain't going down to the well no more
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

All best,
Johnm

Offline Johnm

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Re: Leadbelly lyrics
« Reply #170 on: January 24, 2024, 09:08:46 AM »
Hi all,
Here is Leadbelly singing and playing "De Kalb Blues". He played it out of E position in standard tuning here, pitched at abut B, so tuned a fourth low. I think his blues playing and singing is terribly under-rated. He just sounds great to me.



INTRO

De Kalb Blues, Lord, make me feel so bad
De Kalb Blues, Lord, make me feel so bad
Just to think about the times, once have had

Wasn't for the powder, and the straightening comb
Wasn't for the powder, and the straightening comb
Lord, the De Kalb women, would not, have no home

Blues was whiskey I would, stay drunk all the time
Blues was whiskey I would, stay drunk all the time
Lord, I stay drunk, baby, to wear you, off my mind

De Kalb blues, Lord, make me feel so bad
De Kalb blues, babe, make me feel so bad
Just to think about the times I, once have had

SOLO

Feel like walkin', feel like stoppin' here
Feel like walkin', feel like stoppin' here
I gotta find some woman, babe, that'll feel my care

Look here, baby, see what you done done
Look here, woman, see what you done done
Lord, you made me love you, now your, man done come

CODA

All best,
Johnm


 


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