Topic: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics

[banjochris]

I don't think we have the "lyrics" of "Georgia Stomp" transcribed here, so I went ahead and did it. Like "Forty Drops," another F tune – how many old-time records had F tunes on both sides?! This is absolutely some of the best guitar backup ever recorded and it's just a beautiful number. I wish they had recorded so much more, especially fiddle tunes.




Now this is the old Georgia Stomp. Now, honor your object. Also your partner. Now hands up eight and circle. Now, break-a-loose and walk back. Now, take your time. Swing your corners. Now, swing your partner. Join your partner's right hand. Now, right to the left, all the way through. Turn your corners, now.

[altaltcountry]

Many thanks for your insights, Chris and John.
1. I'm still not sure about "Georgia" (see my argument below).
2. After some more listening, I think you and John are right about "you don't want me" on the second line.
3. Don't know about the A&R guys (I also think "Moore Girl" was intended to be "Mogul" or a pun; not sure what the label guys were thinking). Also, there's not a definite "g" on Bamalong, and the consonants "m" and "b" are sometimes interchanged.
4. A brief preview of  my theory (and it's just a conjecture at this point): There's no reason to think that Jim referred to Alabama or the military in any other of his other lyrics. "Been to the nation" and "nation sack" definitely refer to the Oklahoma resettlement of the Cherokees. In the Bible, there are two Babylon captivities: the original captivity of the Israelites and the second captivity of people by the whore of Babylon (greed, lust) in Revelations 17-18. I think that Jim describes two captivities as well: the enslavement of Africans and the forced resettlement of the Cherokees (remember the Baxters were part Cherokee). The line "Been to the nation" etc. suggest that the speaker has been to the Cherokee nation (Oklahoma) and returned not with money but with a sack perhaps filled with some sort of valuables.
https://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20The%20Red%20Man%20and%20The%20Blues%20-%20Chapter%204.htm
The overall theme in my conjecture then is that that the singer had chosen to return to Georgia where s/he can be with his/her beloved rather than to live in the second Babylon in Oklahoma. I know this is a stretch, but I believe it's a clearer line than to anything about Alabama or the second Alabama regiment. Why would Jim Baxter be content not to be a member of a military group? Given that the Baxters might have played this song to a white audience, he would have a reason for being somewhat indirect in his symbolism. My conjecture ties together the various stanzas of the song, if only tentatively.

[Johnm]

Hi altaltcountry,
Lots of blues lyrics refer to "going to the Nation". Blues lyrics were so promiscuously shared, stolen, passed around, that unless you have hard historical evidence that a singer who speaks of "going to the Nation" or "having been to the Nation" had actually made such a trip, I think you're inferring way too much. Blues lyrics are very rarely personal to the person singing them, describing life events. In this respect they very much differ from post '60s singer/songwriter lyrics where one often assumes that the lyrics are autobiographical. So I think it's an overstatement to say that "been to the Nation" definitely refers to the resettlement of of the Cherokees.

That having been said, I don't think that the sound and the words that were sung by Jim Baxter in this instance support your interpretation. It seems more that you're interpreting the words differently than they were sung to support a pre-existing theory of their meaning. If you look at the lyrics to "Bamalong Blues" as a unit, there is not even a through line in terms of a plot or story line; rather, they're an agglomeration of free-floating verses, like a very high percentage of blues song lyrics from that period.

[banjochris]

Going back to "The Moore Girl" for a moment, and I had mentioned a long time ago that it pops up in Willie McTell's "Will Fox" – I realized today that I had heard it one other places, which is Fiddlin' John Carson's "Engineer on the Mogull." From the title it's clear he knew the mogul/Moore girl connection but he sings "Moore girl" throughout, to my ears.

Interesting that all these artists are from Georgia (North Georgia specifically – McTell and Carson being Atlanta-based by the time they recorded), so maybe it was a local nickname. BTW, I think it's likely that it's Andrew, not Jim, singing on "Moore Girl."

The only recording of Carson's track I could find on YouTube (that wasn't played back at a ridiculously incorrect speed) was on a full album, so if it doesn't take you directly to the track, it starts about 43:55.

https://youtu.be/r5kEDtS-QGs?si=-Z6nqc324XrSyQGf&t=2635

[altaltcountry]

Again, I'm deeply to the wisdom of the residents and moderators here.

I've come to see that there are often disconnects between Jim Baxter's verses, but I think it's possible the link is metaphoric rather than narrative. For example, the ecstasy of the churchgoer in The Moore Girl parallels the energy of the train engine. In verse 3 of Bamalong Blues, the singer seems to tell his romantic partner that she shouldn't drag him around, and in verse 4, he seems content to be with the one he loves. The explanation (in my view) is that the theme isn't romance but freedom vs. oppression.

Here's my tentative understanding of a throughline in Bamalong (I'm using my interpretation of the words from the recording):

Ain't gonna be in the 2nd 'Bama long
Ain't gonna be in the 2nd 'Bama long
Ain't gonna be in the 2nd 'Bama long

Theme: the narrator will not be / stay in the second Babylon--the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma.

Been to the Nation, and I just got back
Been to the Nation, and I just got back
Didn't get no money, but I brought the sack

Theme: the narrator went to the Oklahoma reservation, found no money, but managed to leave with a nation sack of some sort of valuable--not sure what. Returning home with a nation sack reveals some sort of triumph over the subjugation of the Cherokee by the government.

You didn't want me, don't you dog me 'round
You didn't want me, don't you dog me 'round
I didn't come here to be nobody's dog

Theme: In the Jim Crow era, Blacks were still subjected to racial prejudice / rejection, but they can refuse to be dogged around; i.e. they can maintain some degree of autonomy. "If you dislike me, why are you keeping me here? Because you want to use me like a dog. But I refuse to be subservient to your abuse."

Just sure as the sun sets in the golden West
Just sure as the sun sets in the golden West
I've got the one that I love the best.

I think "The Georgia sun" strengthens my throughline a bit--the narrator has returned home to Georgia--but either way, the re-uniting with his lover signifies his autonomy / freedom / fulfillment over oppression.

I appreciate the points of you and banjojim that blues  lyrics are often patched together from a variety of songs, but that allows for a  particular author to use the metaphors and symbols of other composers for his or her own purpose. I doubt that either of the Baxters actually travelled to Oklahoma, but they may have "borrowed" the metaphor from other blues musicians.

In the same way that Black spirituals used religious symbolism to portray the struggles against racism, because to do so more directly might incur repression by a racist autocracy, so might Jim Baxter  have conveyed his response to Jim Crow oppression via symbols from Revelation and the expulsion of the Cherokees from Georgia.

[altaltcountry]

Thanks! Your wisdom and expertise are always appreciated.
Here's where I hear the "the":
[muffled] Georgia sun...west
The Georgia sun...

As for "Bamalong," there's not much like a "g" at the end of the word (though it could be swallowed); sounds more like "Bamalon." Also, for most speakers, the o is different in a word like "long" as opposed to "Lon" (e.g. Chaney), and the o here sounds a bit more like "lon"