Topic: Hayes McMullan Lyrics

[uncle bud]

Johnm taught this very cool tune at the Port Townsend workshop. It's a short one on the recording, which I believe is only to be found on the disc that comes with the book Chasin' That Devil Music by Gayle Dean Wardlow (a must have if you don't have). It's a little tricky to play, with some pretty active, subtle thumb work. I've got the lyrics close, but am not sure of the start of the last line.  Here is "Look-A Here Woman":



Looka Here Woman - Hayes McMullan
Spanish tuning

Heyyy, looka here woman, you got on your mind
Awwww, looka here woman, you got on your mind
I said, looka here woman, you got on your mind

Ohhh, keep me worried mama and I'm bothered all the time
I said, you keep me worried mama and I'm bothered all the time
Said, you keep me worried and bothered all the time

I--- got no, got no special rider here
I--- got no, got no special rider here
[C'mon/C' I'm gonna*] leave tomorrow, you know you don't bit more care

* 'cause I'm gonna

[lindy]

Nitpicky question, Andrew.

I thought John called this "Looking for a Woman" in class, and when I got home I did a web search and saw it titled "Gonna Get a Woman." I'm just curious if "Looka Here Woman" is the title from the Wardlow CD.

Great tune! As John said, we all could certainly tolerate another 17 verses on this one, it's way too short.

[uncle bud]

Hi Lindy - The notes in the book have it as "Looka Here Woman" (although I misspelled McMullan's name and will correct that). Could it be that you are referring to the title of the Floyd Council tune that Lightnin' did, where there was some confusion over the title being Looking for My Woman, Searching for My Baby, etc. - and it turns out is called Lookin' for My Baby?

[lindy]

UB:

I spent some time this week editing down the recording I made in John's class, and definitely heard "Looking for a Woman." Of course, I'll go with "Looka Here Woman," since it's in the text, probably just a minor oversight.

Thanks for posting the lyrics.

L

[TallahatchieTrot]

It was very short as the tape we used  for the session was old and studio owner didn't tell me. We had cut a longer version of the song earlier in the night  but it had a lot of background noise when I finally heard the session. So I got Hayes who also had been staying and practicing at Johnnie Temple's house in Jackson to do another quick take of the song. He had gotten high before the session and also hit a few bad notes. That's why he did such a short version and he just stopped when he felt like it. He called it "Looka Here Woman."
 I put it on the CD as an example of his playing. The studio cuts-about 10-12 songs-- were mostly ruined by the studio owner using non-virgin tape that had background noise that bled over on most tracks. Most unusal is that we didn't have access--believe it or not--to a good 6 string guitar and had to borrow a friend's 12 string for the session.
     It's the only time I ever heard a Delta bluesman play a 12 string. Since Hayes was not a pre-war recorded artist, I could never get anyone to record him and he was in both the church and in civil rights voter registration and did not wish to pursue any coiffee house work. We are trying to clean up the studio tapes with the bad background noise and put it together with home recordings made with a D-18 type guitar and good mikes. If we are successful, Randy and I may try to do a limited vinyl pressing of a few hundred copies. if there is any demand from WC followers. He had a great repertoire and style of playing from a folk style like Hurt to hard driving Delta like Willie Brown but learned his style from his older brother and not Brown or Patton. He was born in 1903 and was actively playing by 1920 for house parties in Tallahatchie County. The CD cut was done in 1968 in Jackson in a studio I hoped was professional but learned the hard way.

[Rivers]

Thanks for that Gayle, and yes, I can assure you there is demand. John Miller told me about the existence of this stuff two weeks ago after a class where we were raving about the one track on the CD that came with your book.

PM me if I can help in any way to get this stuff out there. Not sure why you'd want to put it on vinyl though? I ain't had me no 33.333 rpm player for more than 20 years...

[uncle bud]

Vinyl's back, baby... Lots of stuff being released on LP. Mississippi Records do vinyl releases. I have two vinyl stores in my neighbourhood stocking more vinyl than CDs.

Thanks for that information, Gayle Dean. Count me in as one who would buy a Hayes McMullan release in whatever format. I am very curious to hear more.

[GhostRider]

Me too, and I have a record player all ready to go.

[lindy]

Me too, love that vinyl.

I'm really into this song, been working on it for the past few days. In the spirit of John's comment that this song could use 17 more verses, I'm searching for new verses that have a similar structure to the ones that Hayes sang--couplets that start with a single word or syllable that's a vowel so you can streeeeeeeeeeeetch it out over the vamp.

If you've got ideas for floating blues verses that fit, please share. I'll be looking over the stock of lyrics on Weeniepedia when my workload allows.

Lindy

[TallahatchieTrot]

Go  to main WC forum and look under the interview Randy did with me. He posted a photo of Hayes from my book and a 3 minutes of "Leave Here Walking" with Hayes just making up or using verses he had heard or sung himself  The  cut ran about 7 minutes but we put up about half of the song done at his sharecropper house in the Delta in the summer of 1967 before I took him inot the studio in 1968 when the bad  non-virgin tape was used.  He often tuned in Spanish G but dropped the strings THREE frets to a pitch of E to sing from as that fit his voice. He never wanted to be a professional bluesman but was a local musician on weekends and a sharecropper who raised 10 children, but one helluva guitar player..
    I called it "Leave Here Walkin" which was one of his favorites verses he always sang in many songs when he was tuned in Spanish.

[lindy]

Good (and obvious) suggestion, "Leave Here Walking" has all the guitar elements of "Looka Here Woman," I can just use the lyrics from both. Thanks.

Lindy

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I'm sorry for any confusion I may have caused by inadvertently blowing the title of "Look-a Here Woman" when I mis-named it in class.  What a great tune, and it's very exciting to have more of Hayes McMullan's music made available.
All best,
Johnm

[lindy]

Here's my first stab at this one.

Note that in the first verse he skips the "B" part of the "A-A-B" lyric form.

In the second verse it seems logical to insert "leave in the morning" in the first line, but it's not nearly as clear as in the other two lines.

Likewise, in the fourth verse it seems logical to insert "Gonna get up this morning" in the first line, but it's not as clear as in the second line.

-------------------

I ain?t got nobody, baby, in this world but you.
I ain?t got nobody in this world but you.

I?m gonna leave [ ?? in the morning ?? ], talking to myself.
I?m gonna leave here walking, mama, talking to myself.
I?m gonna leave here walking, talking to myself.

I had a good woman, I wouldn?t [ ?? let that do ?? ]
I had a woman, I wouldn?t [ ?? let it ?? ] do.


[ ?? Gonna get up this morning, ?? ]  I?m gonna walk away,
I?m gonna get up this morning, mama, sure gonna walk away.
[ ?? Babe, the way you got me, ?? ] I can hardly stay.

I know this sun is gonna shine in my back door someday.
I know the sun will shine in my back door someday.
Ah, the sun will shine in my back door someday.

[Randy Meadows]

Gonna leave here worried, talking to myself

Had a good woman, but I wouldn't let her do,
when she left me, she broke my heart in two.

Gonna get up in the morning, sure gonna pack my clothes,
Gonna get up in the morning, sure gonna pack my clothes,
The way I love you, your man will never know.

[lindy]

Thanks a lot for those changes, Randy, I inserted most of them but not all -- perhaps you got some of those lyrics from another rendition of the tune, either by Hayes or someone else?

For example, the line "When she left me, she broke my heart in two" in the third verse. I don't hear that at all, but it's a keeper. Listening to the youtube version you posted made me think of Mr. Wardlow's comment that Hayes had gotten high before the recording session--he slurs the entire line.

Also, I'm gonna stick with my version of the fourth verse, I hear those lines pretty clearly. If someone could listen to it (especially the "Babe, the way you got me" line) and give some feedback, I'd appreciate it.

Leave Here Walkin' -- Hayes McMullan

I ain?t got nobody, baby, in this world but you.
I ain?t got nobody in this world but you.

I?m gonna leave here worried, talking to myself.
I?m gonna leave here worried, mama, talking to myself.
I?m gonna leave here worried, talking to myself.

I had a good woman, I wouldn?t let that do.
I had a woman, I wouldn?t let her do.
[When she left me, she broke my heart in two.]

Gonna get up this morning, I?m gonna walk away,
I?m gonna get up this morning, mama, sure gonna walk away.
[ ?? Babe, the way you got me, ?? ] I can hardly stay.

I know this sun is gonna shine in my back door someday.
I know the sun will shine in my back door someday.
Ah, the sun will shine in my back door someday.