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 |
Hey Lordy Mama / Meet Me In The BottomHere's some extra data up to 1952
We can add more titles as they come up.
Session Date Y-M-D | Artist | Title | Accompanists | Comment | B&GR page# |
1936-07-08 | Bumble Bee Slim | Meet Me At The Bottom (Hey Lawdy Mama) | Peetie Wheatstraw Unknown pno | De 7170 | 23 |
1938-09-11 | Count Basie | Hey Lawdy Mama | ?Walter Page ?Freddy Green | De 2722 | Fancourt & McGrath page # |
1944-07-06 | Miss Rhapsody | Hey Lawdy Mama | June Cole's Orchestra | Sav 5511 | 397 |
1937-06-21 | Gene Philips | Hey Lawdy Mama | His Rhythm Aces | Mod 20-572 Mod 20-527 | 440 |
1951- | Ralph Willis | Tell Me Pretty Baby | Brownie McGhee | Signal 1006 | 594 |
1952-03-03 | Brownie McGhee | Bottom Blues | Sonny Terry | Sav 844 | 370 |
Meet me down at the river, you can bring me my shoes and clothes, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Said, meet me down at the river, bring me my shoes and clothes
Says, I ain't got so many but I got so far to go
Woman I love, she done caught that Southern train, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Said, the woman I love, she caught that Southern train
Now, she left me here, heart just an aching pain
Goin' away to leave you 'cause you' cryin' ain't gonna make me stay, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Said, I'm goin' and leave you 'cause your cryin' won't make me stay
I may be back in June, may be the first of May
Woman I love, says, she right down on the ground, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Said now, the woman I love, right down on the ground
Now, she's a tailor-made woman, ain't no hand-me-down
Tell me what time do that train leave your town, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Said now, tell me what time do that train leave your town
Said now, "One leave at 8:00, one leave at quarter past 9:00."
Seaboard goes south at 8:00, babe, Southern goes north at 9:00, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Said now, Seaboard goes south at 8:00, babe, Southern goes north at 9:00
Says, I just got one hour, talk with that gal of mine
Woman I love, woman I crave to see, Lordy mama, great God almighty
She's in Cincinnati, won't write to me
Woman I love got a mouth chock full of good gold, Lordy mama, great God almighty
Every time she hug and kiss me, make my boogyin' blood rune cold
Woman I love, she's right down on the ground, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Now, she's a tailor-made woman, not no hand-me-down
Goin' away to leave you, cryin' won't make me stay, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
I may be back in June, may be back in the first of May
Woman I love, dead and I her grave, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
And the woman I hate, Isee her every day
If I would have listened, what my mama said, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
I would have been at home, sleepin' in my mama's bed
Woman I love she got a mole just below her nose, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Every time she hug and kiss me, make my love run cold
Woman I love, woman I crave to see, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Now she lives in Atlanta, and she won't write to me
Woman I love, mouth chock full of gold, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Now she got something to satisfy my soul
She twists and turns, she rolls all over the bed, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
She got something make me talk out of my head
Meet me round the corner, bring my shoes and clothes, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Well the woman I love done put me out of doors
I've got to go now, can't come back no more oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Well I don't mind leavin', but I got so far to go
If I would have listened, what my mama said, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
I would have been at home sleepin' in my mama's bed
Mama told me, Papa told me too, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Son you stay at home, let your women come here to you
Woman I love, right down on the ground, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Every time she kiss me, makes my love come down
Woman I love woman I crave to see, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Well she livin in California, but she won't write to me
She wears a number four shoe, she's twenty-five in the waist, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
I can't find nobody to take that woman's place
Meet me in the bottom, bring my boots and shoes, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
I've got to leave this town I ain't got no time to lose
Woman I love she done gone back home, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Every time she leaves me, she makes my blood run warm
She caught that seven-o-eleven, I stood looking down, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
I couldn't stand to see my woman leave this town
She got coal black eyes, long black curly hair, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
Well she got something feed me anywhere
White folks please don't give that girl no job, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
She's a married woman, I don't wan her to work too hard
She got dimples in her jaw, right down on the ground, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
She got a way of loving make a rabbit hug a hound
I think what really made "Hey Lordy Mama/Meet Me In The Bottom" catch on and become a blues standard was not a function of the lyrics, per se, or their meaning, but rather the rhythm of the phrasing in which they were sung.
It's like a ritualized response in a church litany.
a very punchy rhythmic feel that is pretty irresistible
it just seems to me to be more mature musically and artistically.
I posted not so long ago on Sam (Samuel) Gary in another topicCan you give a link to your post, alyoung? I've found some more information, but don't want to duplicate.
I posted not so long ago on Sam (Samuel) Gary in another topicCan you give a link to your post, alyoung? I've found some more information, but don't want to duplicate.
Here you go. I posted it to the How did that get recorded? thread in November after it turned up while doing my homework on the song: https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=708.msg105475#msg105475
Way down in the Bottom
All the cotton so rotten
You won't get your hundred here today
...it is likely that the various versions of 'Meet Me In The Bottom/Lawdy Mama' were learnt from records, although the oral tradition would have helped the spread of this song from Georgia to North Carolina to Mississippi. Indeed, the M&O Bottoms would have seen sea-going commerce, as the Warrior River is navigable as high as Tuscaloosa, thereby stimulating an international cultural exchange, in much the same way as Mobile, New Orleans and other ports on the Eastern Seaboard. The Tuscaloosa branch of the M&O itself continued on to Montgomery, Ala., where its tracks shared the Union Station with the L&N, the Western Railway of Alabama, the ACL and the Central of Georgia. All these railroads fanned out over the South, acting as a conduit for the oral transmission of the blues
Take me out of these Bottoms before the high water rise
Take me out of these Bottom, people, before the high water rise
You know I ain't no Christian man, and I don't want to be baptised
Mississippi Bottom, where the water rises high
Them women they got something, hold you till the day you die
Mississippi Bottom, filled with mud and clay
Mississippi woman, she stole my heart away
I think it's a very old joke among ex cons, set to music. Moss actually recorded his before getting seriously sent to prison though, looking at the dates.Yes, I used to think it was a joke. What changed my mind was the realisation that so many verses in so many versions were about leaving a lover by rail.
As Jeff Taft has shown, even original Blues verses may resemble the product of oral transmission in that they're often constructed with formulas, typically half-lines sung to a two-bar musical phrase, which are widely shared in the tradition.