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You got Jordan River in your hips, mama, Daddy's screaming to be baptized - Clifford Gibson

Author Topic: Tommy Johnson Lyrics  (Read 24750 times)

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dingwall

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #15 on: September 19, 2007, 07:03:43 AM »
I'd better declare an interest, since my name has come up here and a few times previously.   I wrote Bob Macleod's books!   Yazoo1-20 was so bad, a 2nd edition followed many years later.   However, many difficult transcriptions never seem final, and I've taken on board quite a lot of the suggestions (especially Blind Lemon) on Weenie.   Below, I give the current version of 'Lonesome Home Blues' with capitals showing changes from Waxwing's edited account, plus notes where it seems necessary.   (Also, I only have it on Yazoo LP 1007.)       

Lonesome place, don't seem like IT'S home to me.(clearly something between 'like' and 'home')
Now, this old lonesome place DON'T EVER, mama, seem like home to me.

LORD, I WOKE UP this mornin', blues all around my bed. (There is no 's' for 'rose' ???)
Mmmmm, WOKE this mornin', the blues all around my bed.
Had them blues so bad, mama, 'til I couldn't raise up my head.

If you wanna live easy, pack your clothes with mine.
Mmmmm, wanna live easy, pack your clothes with mine.
If you wanna live easy, JUST pack your clothes with mine.

Mmmm, soon one mornin' blues come fallin' down.
Mmmm, soon one mornin' the blues come fallin' down.
SAID, they fell so heavy ON POOR LITTLE TOMMY, caused my heart to moan.(I do have a sense of humour, but I really hear this.)

Well, I'm goin' back home, gon' fall down on my KNEE.(Singular.)
Mmmm, goin' back home, gon' fall down on my KNEE.
Says I'LL acknowledge now NEARLY EVERYTHING THAT YOU TOLD ME, that I TREATED you mean.(Oddly, 'told me' can sound like 'told little Tommy' now and again!   Try it.   'Treated' is very doubtful, sort of faintly 'treat d'you' ? I wouldn't argue with anyone rejecting it.)
 
Bob.


Offline uncle bud

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #16 on: September 19, 2007, 07:13:49 AM »
OK, I dug out my CD of Jackson Blues (a great compilation, BTW, out-of-print but available for download through emusic). It does feature a better version of Lonesome Home, though not by much! I post it here for educational purposes...



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Offline CF

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #17 on: November 25, 2007, 06:30:13 AM »
For what its worth I definately hear 'acknowledge' in that last verse . . .
Stand By If You Wanna Hear It Again . . .

Offline dj

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #18 on: November 26, 2007, 05:06:51 PM »
That's definitely "acknowledge" in the last line.

It's not that strange a word to find in a song like this - Peg Leg Howell used "acknowledge" repeatedly in "Please Ma'am", recorded 20 months before "Lonesome Home Blues".  Sure Howell was in Atlanta and Johnson was in Jackson, Mississippi, but the word is common enough.  And it fits perfectly in the iambic rhythm of a blues verse.
 

Offline Slack

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #19 on: November 26, 2007, 06:07:47 PM »
Quote
personally don't think any of this slowing down technology aids at all in hearing words more clearly, it just breaks words down into consonant & vowel fragments that make sentences & sense more confusing.

Ya, I agree with you on this one CP, slowing stuff down/filtering is fun to do - but ultimately not that much help.  In fact I think speeding up some of this stuff is more help than slowing it down.

Offline Rivers

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #20 on: November 26, 2007, 06:17:25 PM »
I'm a great believer in trying anything, standing on your head in a bucket of all-bran may well give you a new perspective on these things, you don't know until you try.

I spun the two recordings of this I own and was very confused for a few minutes, of course it was the earlier test pressing which is a different tune entirely, very much a prototype which is interesting in itself.

Finally listened to andrew's mp3 and I agree with the general drift of this thread, certainly I hear 'acknowledge'. Must be the only time 'acknowledge' has ever been used in country blues.

Offline Slack

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #21 on: November 26, 2007, 06:28:45 PM »
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Must be the only time 'acknowledge' has ever been used in country blues.

Except for the examples DJ gave.  :P

FWIW, I hear "acknowledge" also.

Offline Rivers

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #22 on: November 26, 2007, 06:30:18 PM »
Right, exactly, except for those!  :)

Offline banjochris

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #23 on: November 26, 2007, 11:16:28 PM »
"Acknowledge" also pops up in the Bible.

Also, three more musical uses -- Robert Wilkins says it in the introduction to "Prodigal Son" on "Blues at Newport 1964 - Part 2" and Dock Boggs' version of "Prodigal Son" uses it repeatedly in the chorus. Both say "acknowledge I've done wrong" or words close to that.

Sleepy John sings "acknowledge you've done wrong" repeatedly in the chorus of "Mary Come On Home."

My bet is that this formulation originally came from a spiritual; Johnson changed it slightly, but in all these cases it has the meaning of owning up to wrongdoing.
Chris

Offline dj

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #24 on: November 27, 2007, 02:22:01 PM »
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My bet is that this formulation originally came from a spiritual

Hi, Chris,

There may well be a spiritual source to the uses of "acknowledge I've done wrong" in various blues settings, but the ultimate source is, I think, Psalm 51, verse 3: "For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me".  It's not hard to imagine many preachers, preaching in the local vernacular, repeating the first part of that verse as "I acknowledge I done wrong".

You learn something new every day when trying to answer these thorny blues questions.   ;D

   

Offline dj

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2007, 08:48:59 AM »
I don't know if anyone can stand anything more about the word "acknowledge" but...

When I first heard Peg Leg Howell use the word, I thought "Wow, that's got to be the only blues song ever to use that word".  Well, I looked up "acknowledge" in Michael Taft's Pre-War Blues Lyrics Concordance (here), and it turns out that Taft's sources unearthed seven uses of the word, all with the general sense of "I acknowledge I've done wrong".  The uses:

Peg Leg Howell, "Please Ma'am" - 1928
Clifford Gibson, "Levee Camp Moan" - 1929
Tommy Johnson, "Lonesome Home Blues" - 1929
Kokomo Arnold, "Sissy Man Blues" - 1935
Little Buddy Doyle, "Renewed Love Blues" - 1939
Tommy McClennan, "She's A Good Lookin' Mama" - 1940
Jazz Gillum, "One Letter Home" - 1941

Since Taft draws from a fairly limited set of texts, it's probably safe to say one could double the number of reported uses with a fully searchable database of all pre-war blues lyrics.   

Offline Bunker Hill

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #26 on: November 28, 2007, 09:55:27 AM »
Since Taft draws from a fairly limited set of texts, it's probably safe to say one could double the number of reported uses with a fully searchable database of all pre-war blues lyrics. 
Yep, what he's done is taken his socking great 1984 four volume concordance and turned it into a database so it's limited to whatever had been reissued on LP (up until c. 1980) that were available for listening. Those you've supplied is identical to that in his LP reference list in the final volume!

dingwall

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #27 on: November 29, 2007, 11:51:56 AM »
Seems like this is now irrelevant, but here's a few more instances of 'acknowledge' to add to dj's Taft lot.

TOMMY JOHNSON   BLACK MARE BLUES                       
SLEEPY JOHN ESTES    MARY COME ON HOME                         
MEMPHIS MINNIE/JOE McCOY    SOMEBODY'S GOT TO HELP YOU                 
WILLIAM AND VERSEY SMITH   I BELIEVE I'LL GO BACK HOME
BUDDY MOSS   BACK TO MY USED TO BE (both takes)
BUDDY MOSS   MISERY MAN BLUES
BIG BILL BROONZY  I BELIEVE I'LL GO BACK HOME 
BIG BILL BROONZY  I.C. BLUES
LEROY CARR   LOW DOWN DIRTY BLUES
GEORGE NOBLE  SISSY MAN BLUES
JOSHUA WHITE  SISSY MAN
ELDER OTIS JONES   SO SHALL THE COMING OF MAN BE
GOLDEN EAGLE GOSPEL SINGERS  THE PRODIGAL SON
JACK KELLY   BELIEVE I'LL GO BACK HOME
CURLEY WEAVER   BROWNSKIN WOMEN

Offline dj

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Re: Tommy Johnson's Lonesome Home Blues
« Reply #28 on: November 29, 2007, 01:12:10 PM »
Hi, Dingwall,

Not irrelevant at all!  My point was never to try to refute or support a particular interpretation of Tommy Johnson's lyrics.  I was just interested in the fact that a usage that I had once thought unique was actually not unique at all.  With your list, that makes 21 appearances of a word that I once thought used only once.  And we've tracked it back to its likely origin as a biblical verse.

I realize that among the 6 billion plus humans alive on Earth right now I'm probably not in the majority when I say this, but this is fascinating stuff!

   

Offline Johnm

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Re: Tommy Johnson Lyrics
« Reply #29 on: May 27, 2010, 10:38:31 PM »
Hi all,
With two Tommy Johnson transcriptions and the prospect of more in the future, this seemed like a good candidate for a merged lyric thread.  Apart from the very first post, titles of the individual posts have not been changed for ease in following the original process.
All best,
Johnm

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