Country Blues > Country Blues Lyrics
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.
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