"I got myself a mamma, she's always got me feeling blue. She acts just like the weather, I don't know what she's going to do." Lonnie Johnson, "Fickle Mamma Blues" (1927)
"Yeah, you live so long, when you dead, you're done."--Booker White, from "Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends--Party! At Home", Arcola Records A CD1001.
Gentlemen: whenever you see a great big overgrown buck sitting at the mouth of some holler, or at the forks of some road, with a big slouch hat on, a blue celluloid collar, a celluloid, artificial red rose in his coat lapel, a banjo strung across his breast, and a-pickin' of Sourwood Mountain, fine that man, gentlemen, fine him! For if he hasn't already done something, he's a-going to. - Josiah Combs, quoted in Old-Time Mountain Banjo.
Overseas they want to hear them blues. They don't want to hear all that James Brown stuff. No, they tell you to quit that: "Well, what are you, a shoutin' preacher or somethin' like that?" - John Lee Hooker, from The Voice of the Blues
Blind Lemon Jefferson. That's B.B. King's idol, too. Yeah, I had one of his records, and I loaned it to B.B. King. He said he was gonna bring it back, and he ain't brought it back yet, and that's been 12 years ago. - John Lee Hooker, from The Voice of the Blues
That's a dirty song, I better stop there, that's too dirty, that's a dirty song, that's that Rollin' Stone - Scott Dunbar cracks himself up in Sweet Mama Rollin' Stone
That Scott Dunbar quote is a great one, uncle bud. I'm all for anything that got Scott Dunbar to laugh. He had one of the most infectious laughs. All best, Johnm
Bring me back the wig I bought you let your head go bald ... That wig I bought you let your head go bald When I first met you baby, you had no hair at all
Cannon's Jug Stompers (I don't know the indivual members) Heartbreakin' blues
According to wikipedia, and himself (inteviewed by jaso) Saunders King was the originator of the verse... maybe he didn't remember where he'd heard it
I am an urban person, although I'm a very confused urban person. I was reared in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., but I was reared listening to all this weird, old stuff. - Mike Seeger, notes to True Vine
Old Man Sargent, sitting at the desk, The damned old fool won't give us no rest. He'd take nickels off a dead man's eyes To buy a Coca-Cola and an Eskimo pie.