Topic: Blind Willie McTell lyrics

[Rivers]

Wow!!

[Richard]

Now Prof,

I must've been drinking too much snake oil and smoking too much sassafras......!

As a mere sassenach I welcome you to this amazing forum and can't help but wonder just where did get those treasured ingrediants up there in the highlands, would they be part of a haggis recipe?

[Prof Scratchy]

Dinnae be glaekit, man - a'body kens haggis is no a thing ye hae receipts fae - it's a thing ye shoot in season! And dinnae fergit that McTeel wiz a Scot whae played a braw bagpipe afore he took tae the deil's music...

[Richard]

Aye, it's all MacBollocks...

[uncle bud]

Was playing the 12-string and started working on this one. It's a duet with Curly Weaver. Pretty straightforward guitar for McTell's part: I - I7 IV - I - V7 - I, with a quick tag/turnaround that's basically I7 - IV - I.? I haven't figured out Curly Weaver's accompaniment which would take longer. Some of the lyrics, including the chorus, are a mystery to me. File attached. All help appreciated.

If someone who's going to Port Townsend wants to learn the Weaver part and we can find a twelve-string to use, we can play a duet...




?Warm It Up to Me - Blind Willie McTell

Take a little trip up on a mountain top
Show these southern womens how to eagle rock

chorus:
You got to warm it up to me
You got to warm it up to me
Papa running hot, mama got to get him cold

Tell you like the bana?? told the kin/kid?? upstairs
Get another man I got another gal

Now if you don't believe I can warm you right
Take me to your house and let me stay all night

When you see my mama standing in the door
Papa wound up saying mama won't go

Don't be no restin' and don't be no layin'
Don't let these women leave your heart in pain

Now look here boy don't get rough
These here women they really knows their stuff

I want you to strut in a Cadillac so/sew? on a Ford
You do a little strutting on the running board

Don't be no rat and don't be no fool
Don't let these here women break your rule

Now look here boy if you going to be my friend
Let's go drink moonshine again

Now take it easy late at night
Or these here womens ain't going to treat you right

[attachment deleted by admin]

[frankie]

I've been playing this around the house for the last couple of days and haven't sussed out Curley Weaver's part, either.

I always heard the last line of the chorus as:

Papa's running hot, Mama's got to get him cold

Never been able to make out the 2nd verse - seems like it almost might be a Biblical reference (there's nothing like blasphemy to liven up a song), but I can't quite make it out.

[uncle bud]

Thanks Frank. I made the correction to the chorus. That second verse is mysterious.

[frankie]

Don't be no rat and don't be no lane/lame
Don't let these women leave your heart in pain

I think I hear:

Don't be no [resting] and don't be no [laying]
Don't let these women leave your heart in pain

Sounds like he pronounces "resting" like "rastin'" and "laying" like "lain" - pretty strange usage in any case.

I want you to strut in a Cadillac so/sew? on a Ford
You do a little strutting on the running board

That's basically what I hear...  equally puzzled about sew/so.

One thing I dig about this song is the 'old-time-ness' of the duet.  There's no division of labor, really - it's not like one guy is backing while the other solos...  just two guys playing instruments with two different voices playing the same tune and creating a crazy-quilt of harmonies, dissonances and rhythm.

It done got good to me!

Incidentally, I think that what Weaver is playing is very similar in some respects to what McTell plays as accompaniment for 'Your Time To Worry', where he's playing in G.  It's much slower and has some really nice moments in it.

[uncle bud]

I think I hear:

Don't be no [resting] and don't be no [laying]
Don't let these women leave your heart in pain

Sounds like he pronounces "resting" like "rastin'" and "laying" like "lain" - pretty strange usage in any case.

Yup, looks/sounds good to me.

I want you to strut in a Cadillac so/sew? on a Ford
You do a little strutting on the running board

That's basically what I hear...? equally puzzled about sew/so.

Listening to more McTell tonight, I noticed he sings the following verse in Mama Let Me Play with Yo' Yo Yo:

You might throw it in a Cadillac, throw it in a Ford
I throw the string out on the running board

But I don't hear a 'throw' in Warm It Up to Me. I really hear an 's'. Oh well.

One thing I dig about this song is the 'old-time-ness' of the duet.? There's no division of labor, really - it's not like one guy is backing while the other solos...? just two guys playing instruments with two different voices playing the same tune and creating a crazy-quilt of harmonies, dissonances and rhythm.

It done got good to me!

It's one of my favorite of their duets. 'It's a Good Little Thing' is another. Yo Yo as well.

Incidentally, I think that what Weaver is playing is very similar in some respects to what McTell plays as accompaniment for 'Your Time To Worry', where he's playing in G.? It's much slower and has some really nice moments in it.

Will check it out.

[uncle bud]

Hey Frank, what are you doing for the bass in the intro where on the I (C) chord the melody goes up on the 1st string E, F, F#, G, E, C, specifically the F and F#? So far I'm playing an open G or an open D under those two notes, depending on how I feel or screw up...

[frankie]

I just let go of the C chord - as long as the run starts and ends on a C chord, doesn't seem to matter much what happens in between.

[uncle bud]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I end up hitting the D or G strings, or both...

[onewent]

...I've been working on the guitar part the past few weeks and I'm ready to add the vocal, so I thought I'd post the lyrics here for others to use when the time comes, plus, I'd like ideas on the words in [  ? ] ...can't figure those out  ...  words in (  )  are spoke by BWM ... these are some great lyrics, especially verse two



Searching the Desert for the Blues
Blind Willie McTell

You may search the ocean, you might go across the deep blue sea
But mama you?ll never find another hot shot like me

I followed my baby, from the station to the train
And the blues came down like dark night showers of rain

I left her at the station ringin? her hands and cryin?
I told her she had a home just as long as I got mine

I?ve got two women and you can?t tell them apart
I got one in my bosom, the other one in my heart

The one in my bosom she?s in Tennessee
And the one in my heart don?t even give a darn for me

I used to say a married woman was the sweetest woman ever was born
But I changed that thing you better let married women alone

Take my advice let these married women be
?Cause their husband?ll grab you and beat you ragged as a cedar tree

When a woman say she love ya ?bout good as she do herself
I don?t pay her no attention, tell the same lie to somebody else

I really don?t believe no woman in the whole round world do right
Act like an angel in the daytime a [mis pa teach] at night

I?m goin? pretty mama, please don?t break this rule
That?s why I?m searchin? these deserts for the blues

I?m goin? pretty mama, searchin? these deserts now
That?s why I?m walkin? my baby home anyhow

Lord, oh Lord, Lordy Lordy  Lord
Oh Lordy Lord,    Lord Lord Lord

When a woman say she love you, ?bout as good as she do herself
I don?t pay her no attention tell that same lie to somebody else

(Now look here mama, I?m goin? to leave ya)
Lord Lord,  Lord Lord Lord?.

[Bunker Hill]

I really don?t believe no woman in the whole round world do right
Act like an angel in the daytime a [mis pa teach] at night

Sounds to me like

...an' mistreat poor teech at night

FWIW in the booklet to Atlanta Blues (JEMF 106, 1979) there's an interview conducted by David Evans with white Statesboro resident, Olliff Boyd, who described McTell tapping his way around the city with his stick and making a "...funny twitching sound with his mouth..." The informant imitated this for Evans by clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth whist mouthing "tee-tee-tee".
Where does this get us? Nowhere really, but in the years since that booklet was published "teech' (or titch, or whatever is sung) has been assumed to be a nickname McTell might have acquired as a result of the affectation, known to Ruby Glaze and used during their banter. Here endeth the received speculation, anybody hear anything more plausible?

[blueshome]

FWIW I've always taken "mis p' teeche" , or what you will, as being a garbled "mistreat" - it makes sense.