Topic: Sylvester Weaver Lyrics

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I've been listening a lot to Sylvester Weaver lately.  He was an interesting musician and quite different from most of the Bluesmen recording in the period he recorded (his last session was in 1927).  He was from Louisville, Kentucky, and his sound, both instrumentally and vocally, is pretty urbane.  His enunciation is notably "careful" sounding.  He favored much slower tempos than most of his contemporaries.  On a good percentage of his titles, he was joined by the slide guitarist Walter Beasley, and their duet sound is an exceptionally well worked-out one, with the slick Beasley switching between treble fills and syncopated bass runs with the slide. 
"Railroad Porter Blues", recorded in New York City on November 27, 1927, gives a good example of Weaver's unusual lyrics.  It can be found on "Sylvester Weaver, Vol. 2", Document DOCD-5113  The song sounds almost like it could have been written for inclusion in a musical stage play.  Weaver plays an uncharacteristically simple accompaniment out of C standard tuning, backed by Beasley's tasty slide work.  Here is "Railroad Porter Blues":



   Hear that bell ringin'?  Keeps me 'wake all night long (2)
   Ain't no time for sleepin', something's always goin' on wrong

   Folks keep yellin', "Rastus, pull the window down , please."  (2)
   "With that snow a-fallin', somebody's surely going to freeze."

   Mmmmmmm.  Hear how that whistle blows (2)
   It's blowing like it don't have to blow no more

   Shinin' shoes 'til morning, got no place to lay my head (2)
   When I get through slavin', Lord, I'm almost dead

   Babies start cryin', then they take me to be a nurse (2)
   I gets almost drownded, then what could be worse?

   Poor railroad porter hates to leave his wife at home (2)
   'Cause she starts to cheatin' just as soon as he is gone

All best,
Johnm
   

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver and Walter Beasley recorded "Me And My Tapeworm" at the same session in which they recorded "Railroad Porter Blues", but it was never issued until 1976.  The take has no performance problems.  Is it possible the record company had scruples about releasing a gross record?  That's really a stretch. 
Weaver and Beasley are working at a lively tempo here, and Weaver does some really nifty picking in G, standard tuning, pitched at about G#.  I like these lyrics, especially the tagline to the next-to-last verse, but they employ a lot of terms and expressions I would venture to say you don't encounter in blues lyrics very often.  See for yourself.  This could make a good Jugband number.  Here is "Me And My Tapeworm Blues":



   Gee, I'm always hungry, can't get enough to eat
   Gee, I'm hungry, can't get enough to eat
   I'm just like a savage, I could eat a barrel of meat

   Set down to the table, ate up everything I could found
   Set down to the table, ate up everything I found
   Would have ate the dishes if someone hadn't been around

   Pot of ham and cabbage, ain't enough to fill mine (2)
   That just makes me peckish, I could eat a dozen fine

   Saw my family doctor, said I had a big tapeworm
   I saw my family doctor, said I had a big tapeworm
   Said I had ate a cow, made me good and firm

   Went to the country, broke into a chicken coop
   I went to the country, broke into a chicken coop
   Stole a dozen chickens, put 'em in a pot of soup

   I'm a greedy glutton, eat fifty times a day (2)
   When I'm around a pigpen, they hide the slop away

   Guess me and my tapeworm must go further down the road (2)
   'Cause we eat so much, won't nobody give us no board

Edited, 11/13 to pick up correction from banjochris
Edited 11/13 to pick up clarification from Bunker Hill

All best,
Johnm

   

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver and Walter Beasley recorded "Chittlin Rag Blues" in New York City on November 26, 1927.  Weaver is playing out of C position in standard tuning, and I believe Beasley is playing Vestapol, with a slide, tuned quite low. 
"Chittlin' Rag Blues" is a narrative blues, something encountered rarely during the 1920s and much less frequently after that.  Weaver's lyrics are clever and original, as seems most often to have been the case with his songs.  He pronounces "nitroglycerine" "nitroglycerin".  Here is "Chittlin' Rag Blues":

 

   Had a chittlin' supper, last Saturday night
   I had a chittlin' supper at home last Saturday night
   Some house rent party, it was a low-down sight

   Old sister pulled hips and brother shaked them off
   Old sister pulled hips and old brother shaked them off
   Was belly-rubbin' 'til the dewdrops start to fall

   It cost a quarter to enter at the door (2)
   Before you got out it cost about ten times more

   They served you whiskey, strong as nitroglycerine
   They served you whiskey just as strong as nitroglycerine
   And when you drink it, made you feel so doggone mean

   Old Ragtime Booker played the piano so mean and blue, Lord, Lord,
   Old Ragtime Booker played the piano so mean and blue
   Everybody was shakin' tryin' to break their backs in two

   Blew the police whistle, it sound like a wild cat's wail
   Blew the police whistle, sound like a wild cat's wail
   Coppers brought the wagon and took the stranglers (sic) all to jail

All best,
Johnm

[banjochris]

Thanks for posting these John. I think transcribing lyrics is really a good idea -- reading them makes me want to go back and listen to songs that might have gotten sort of "lost" to my ears as I listen to a whole CD worth of someone.

I've got two little corrections in one verse of "Tapeworm" though --

Pot of ham and cabbage, ain't enough to fill mine
That just makes me peckish, I could eat a dozen fine

Chris

[Bunker Hill]

Sylvester Weaver and Walter Beasley recorded "Me And My Tapeworm" at the same session in which they recorded "Railroad Porter Blues", but it was never issued until the 1960s or '70s.  The take has no performance problems.  Is it possible the record company had scruples about releasing a gross record? 

FWIW this was first issued on the LP Songs of Humor & Hilarity (vol.11) in the 15 LP LoC series to celebrate the Becentennial in 1976. Here's what Dick Spottswood has to say about it:

"This gourmand's confession is one of several intriguing and previously undocumented recordings which have emerged from the CBS archives. No information in their extensive files revealed its existence; a sample pressing was made to determine what the music was. Though we are certain about the performers' identities, the title of the song is taken from song's words.

Two instrumental pieces featuring Sylvester Weaver may be heard in volume 14 of this series."

In other words he supplied the name. The same is also true of one of the two instrumentals, Six String Banjo Piece which appear on vol 14, This was retitled by Document as Weaver Stomp!

 

[Bunker Hill]

I've got two little corrections in one verse of "Tapeworm" though --

Pot of ham and cabbage, ain't enough to fill mine
That just makes me peckish, I could eat a dozen fine
Chris

Spottswood transcribes the lyric thus:

Bought a ham and cabbage, ain't enough to fill my eye (2)
That just makes me peckish, I could eat a dozen pies

Which is what I'm hearing. About a decade ago it was the topic of discussion on a blues internet group (blues-l, most like) to which somebody supplied an etymological background to the expression "to fill my eye".

Spottswood also hears:

I'm a greedy glutton, eat fifty times a day (2)
When I'm around a pigpen, then I just slop away

[BTW the sound is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I don't know what happened when it was copied from this LP to reissue on The Remaining Titles of Sylvester Weaver (Earl BD-615, 1985) and then the Document CD  - on both it's lost the sparkle!]

[Johnm]

Thanks very much, banjochris and Bunker Hill, for the help with the lyrics and the additional discographical information.  After a good bit of listening, Chris's version:
   Pot of ham and cabbage, ain't enough to fill mine (2)
   That just makes me peckish, I could eat a dozen fine
seems the best suggested version at capturing both the phonetics of what Weaver is saying and making sense.  I can hear the "n" in "mine" very clearly, especially in the repetition and it is one syllable. "Fine" in this context I would take to mean he could eat a dozen pots of ham and cabbage with no problem.
I am sure "they hide the slop away" is what Weaver says in the other verse.  The sound on the Document version I have seems pretty darn good, but your description of the sound on the earlier re-issue really makes me curious to hear it, Bunker Hill.  It is odd that this tune was never issued in the '20s.  The performance is fine.  Sylvester Weaver certainly had a different way with lyrics, didn't he?
All best,
Johnm 
   

[Bunker Hill]

The sound on the Document version I have seems pretty darn good, but your description of the sound on the earlier re-issue really makes me curious to hear it, Bunker Hill. 

Like its 14 companions it is very eclectic too:

MADDOX BROS. AND ROSE
1. I'll make sweet love to you
TED JOHNSON AND HIS SCANDINAVIAN ORCHESTRA
2. Nikolina
THE OZARKERS
3. The Arkansas hotel
SYLVESTER WEAVER
4. Me and my tapeworm
SMITH, FAIRLEY, THOMAS AND SMITH
5. Old cold 'tater
ATILLA AND THE LION
6. Mamaguille
W. A. LINDSEY AND ALVIN CONDER
7. I surely am living a ragtime life
CLAUDE BOONE
8. Down where the watermelons grow
"BEANS" HAMBONE-EL MORROW
9. "Beans"
AMOS EASTON (BUMBLE BEE SLIM)
1. Everybody's fishin'
THE CLOVERS
2. Derbytown
BRUNO RUDZINSKI
3. Przyszedl chlop do karczmy
GAIL GARDNER
4. The moonshine steer
NEW ARKANSAS TRAVELERS
5. Handy man
HARILAOS
6. To Sapounakj
MRS. JUZE DERESKEVICIENE
7. Fordukas
JIMMIE STROTHERS
8. Tennessee dog
FIDDLIN' JOHN CARSON
9 Ain't no bugs on me

[Bill Roggensack]

JohnM - Thanks for starting this thread - Weaver provided some rather unique lyrics, especially the aperitif "Me and My Tapeworm"! I'm going to have to track that CD down and get this number worked up as a prelude to Christmas dinner. 


Bunker Hill - the LofC Bicentennial LP - "Songs of Hilarity and Humor" sounds like a surefire winner too.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver recorded "Can't Be Trusted Blues" at a session in New York City on August 31, 1927.  It is a solo number and Weaver played it out of E, standard tuning with a number of nifty chordal touches, some of which were pretty new at the time he made the recording.

   |      E      |   A  / Bflat dim7 |       E        |       E      |
   |      A      |   A  / Bflat dim7 |       E        |       E      |
   |     B7     |          B7           |       E        |       E      |
Many years after this session, Snooks Eaglin was the using the Bflat dim7 chord in exactly the same way for many of the E blues on his "New Orleans Streetsinger" album.  Weaver's solo is excellent and goes some way toward explaining the high esteem in which Lonnie Johnson was supposed to hold his musicianship.
Sylvester Weaver's lyrics are more menacing sounding than his delivery.  His third verse was picked up, with modifications, by Curley Weaver for his '50s recording, "Ticket Agent Blues", which got most of its other verses from Buddy Moss's "New Lovin' Blues".  Here is "Can't Be Trusted Blues":



   I don't love nobody, that's my policy (2)
   I'll tell the world that nobody can get along with me

   I can't be trusted, can't be satisfied (2)
   The men all know it and pin their women to their side

   I will sure back-bite you, gnaw you to the bone (2)
   I don't mean maybe, I can't let women alone

   SOLO:

   Pull down your windows and lock up all your doors
   Pull down your windows, lock up all your doors
   Got ways like the devil, papa's creeping on all fours

All best,
Johnm
   

[Johnm]

Hi all,
"Penitentiary Bound Blues" was recorded by Sylvester Weaver at the same session as "Can't Be Trusted Blues", immediately following it.  Like "Can't Be Trusted", it is a solo number, in this instance played in A position in standard tuning.  Weaver opens the song with a nifty move from A to F, employing a move to the flat VI chord that Ghost Rider mentioned in an earlier thread (anybody remember which one?).
Weaver's lyrics show their unusual quality of blending formal-sounding words seldom encountered in blues lyrics (strife?) with more vernacular phrases like "triflin' woman".  Papa Charlie Jackson has a song with the same title as Weaver's number as an inmate, which makes you think it had some significance in playing policy.  Here is "Penitentiary Bound Blues":



   Thought I was goin' to the workhouse, my heart was filled with strife (2)
   But I'm goin' to the penitentiary, judge sentenced me for life

   There'll be rock walls around me, burnin' land below
   There'll be rock walls around me, burnin' land below
   There forever, got no other place to go

   Goodbye, here's the jailer with the key (2)
   Farewell to freedom, tain't no use to pity me

   Gonna get my number, four-eleven forty-four (2)
   Soon be an inmate, steel upon my door

   Killed my triflin' woman, folks, I done commit a crime (2)
   Nothin' will release me but old Father Time

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver recorded "Polecat Blues" with Walter Beasley, in New York City on November 27, 1927.  Weaver was playing out of D in standard tuning and Beasley played slide in Vestapol.  The duet is exceptionally well worked out; the solo is excellent for both players and Beasley's fills behind Weaver's vocal are particularly impressive.  Very few slide players I have heard utilized the slide so effectively for bass runs as did Beasley.
Sylvester Weaver ended up recording a lot of songs with animals in the title.  In addition to this one, he played on "Alligator Blues" and "Race Horse Blues", backing Helen Humes, and "Toad Frog Blues" and "Black Spider Blues".  Here is "Polecat Blues":

 

   I went a-huntin', took my gun and dog along
   I went a-huntin', took my dog and gun along
   I smelled a curious odor, knowed there was something wrong

   My dog seen something pretty and run it up a dogwood tree
   My dog seen something pretty, run it up a dogwood tree
   But something told me, "Go 'way and let that rascal be."

   SOLO:

   I called him, "Kitty, kitty, come down from where you are at." (2)
   But when he got down, I knowed that thing wasn't no cat

   I went to see the gypsy, saw the hoodoo doctor too (2)
   They said that polecat's on you and there is nothing I can do

All best,
Johnm
   

[banjochris]

A digression, if I may, on those Library of Congress Bicentennial albums. My local public library had all but one volume of this set, and I checked them out and made some tapes of a few of them. About 5 years ago, I got a better tape deck and went back to the library to check them out again. They had sold or thrown out all but one shelf of LPs; they had had about 15 7-foot-tall shelves. We looked on the one remaining shelf and the set was miraculously still there. The librarian told me "Oh, you can just have those." So now they're in a good home, but I'm sure they threw out a lot of good stuff.
Chris

[Bunker Hill]

A digression, if I may, on those Library of Congress Bicentennial albums. My local public library had all but one volume of this set, and I checked them out and made some tapes of a few of them. About 5 years ago, I got a better tape deck and went back to the library to check them out again. They had sold or thrown out all but one shelf of LPs; they had had about 15 7-foot-tall shelves. We looked on the one remaining shelf and the set was miraculously still there. The librarian told me "Oh, you can just have those." So now they're in a good home, but I'm sure they threw out a lot of good stuff.

Wow. Ironically Spottswood reported at the time that libraries and special collections (for obvious reasons) were the target for these so that they would be preserved for future generations. The pressing run was finite, but in 1980 the LoC made the unplaced stock available to the commercial market. Spottswood at the time commented, "LC redesigned at least two covers--I never learned of it until I saw one.  The contents should be the same as earlier editions."

[Bunker Hill]

I've just unearthed the LoC catalogue I was sent. The complete set was $85 plus $15 for sea mail to UK. For the U.S. single volumes were $6.50 plus a "shipping fee" of $0.50 if orders were under $13.50.

I don't know what the dollar/sterling exchange rates were 30 years ago so can't judge how expensive, or not, they were. That said I think they were a wise "investment".

[GhostRider]

  Weaver opens the song with a nifty move from A to F, employing a move to the flat VI chord that Ghost Rider mentioned in an earlier thread (anybody remember which one?). 

John:

Our discussion of the flat VI chord was in the lyrics to Two Time  Blues by Arthur Pettis thread.

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=100&topic=1018.0

Alex

[Johnm]

Thanks for that Site reference, Alex.  I remembered the discussion but not where it happened!
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver and Walter Beasley recorded "Rock Pile Blues" on November 27, 1927.  The session that day was an exceptionally productive one, for it yielded five tunes by the duo and an additional three in which they backed the singer Helen Humes.  "Rock Pile" is performed with Weaver playing out of C in standard tuning and Beasley playing in low-tuned Vestapol.  The song has an odd form that hearkens back to the Classic Blues era.  It opens with a 20-bar verse or introduction, and then reverts to a 12-bar form starting at the line, "I'm goin' to say my prayers, just like Jonah in the whale".  The progression of the verse is indicated below.  The way the duo outlines the chord progression is really nifty, with Walter Beasley implying many of the chord changes with his bass line.  The bass lines Beasley uses here are very similar to those employed by Josh White in Vestapol just a few years later.  Here is "Rockville Blues":

 

   VERSE:
   |      C      |   C over B flat |  D7 over A /  G7    |         C        |
   |      C      |   C over B flat |      D7 over A        |        G7       |
   |      C7    |         C7         | F over A/ F over Aflat | F over G / C  |
   |      C       | C over Bflat    | F over A/F over Aflat/G7/G7 over E|  C  |
   |      D7     |        D7         |            D7            |        G7        |

   VERSE:
   
   I'm blue, yes blue, 'cause they sent me far away
   I mean, yes mean, the judge said ninety years I'd stay
   I don't mind workin' but I never get no pay
   'Cause I'm on the rock pile from day to day
   I have a ball and chain, away down below my knees
   A guard, a pick, a rifle, to keep me compony (sic)

   BLUES:
   I'm goin' to say my prayers, just like Jonah in the whale
   I'm goin' to say my prayers like Jonah in the whale
   If he prayed out of his belly, I'm gonna pray out of this rock jail

   I'm gonna ask the Lord, "What on earth have I done?" (2)
   To get all of these years, working in the red hot sun

   I'm eatin' bread and water, can't live this way
   I'm eatin' bread and water, I can't live this way
   But it looks like I must eat it until Judgement Day

   Way out on the rock pile, the men don't wear no shoes, Lord,
   Onnn the rock pile, men don't wear no shoes
   With nothin' on their mind but those low-down rock pile blues.

All best,
Johnm

   

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver and Walter Beasley recorded "Devil Blues" at the productive session on November 27, 1927.  It was played by Weaver in E position in standard tuning and Beasley in Vestapol.  Looking at the songs the duo played in the studio that day, it is surprising to see the extent to which they changed position or absolute key from song to song.  "Railroad Porter Blues" has Weaver playing out of C position, but high, "Me And My Tapeworm" has Weaver in G position, "Rock Pile Blues" has Weaver back in C position, but at concert pitch, "Devil Blues" finds Weaver in E position, "Polecat Blues" has him in D position, and the three songs backing Helen Humes, "Alligator Blues", "Nappy Headed Blues" and "Race Horse Blues", find Weaver in E position, C position at concert pitch, and C position capoed high, respectively.  It looks as though the duo was purposefully varying its sound and demonstrating its versatility. 
"Devil Blues" is yet another instance of Sylvester Weaver's fanciful approach to blues lyrics.  I am going to try to transcribe a Blues by Curtis Jones that similarly takes place in Hell to contrast the two musicians' impressions of that place.  Here is "Devil Blues":



   Had a dream while sleeping, found myself way down below, my Lord,
   I had a dream while sleeping, found myself way down below
   Couldn't get to Heaven, Hell's the place I had to go

   Devil had me cornered, stuck me with his old pitchfork (2)
   And he put me in an oven, thought he had me for roast pork

   Hellhounds start to chasin' me and I was a runnin' fool
   Hellhounds start to chase me and I was a runnin' fool
   My ankles caught on fire, couldn't keep my puppies cool

   Four thousand devils with big tails and sharp horns, my Lordy,
   Saw a thousand devils with tails and sharp horns
   Everyone wandred (sic), tried to step on my corns

   For miles around I heard men scream and yell, my Lord,
   For miles around, heard men scream and yell
   Couldn't see a woman, I said, "Lord, ain't this Hell?"

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver recorded "Black Spider Blues" on November 30, 1927, in New York City.  The discographical information that accompanies "Sylvester Weaver, Vol. 2" on Document lists the song as a duet, pairing Weaver with Walter Beasley, but it is mistaken--"Black Spider Blues" is a solo number all the way.  Weaver plays it out of E position in standard tuning at the relaxed tempo he so often favored.  The lyrics are much as we have come to expect from Sylvester Weaver, original and quirky.  Here is "Black Spider Blues":



   Saw a big black spider, creepin' up my bedroom wall
   I saw a black spider, creepin' up my bedroom wall
   Finds out he was only goin' to get his ashes hauled

   Say, if that black spider bit you, it would be "Too bad, Jim" (2)
   Give your heart to the devil and your hips would belong to him

   I'm gonna get a black spider, put him in the bottom of your shoe, my Lord,
   I'm gonna get a black spider, put him in the bottom of your shoe
   That's the only way I can get rid of a jade like you

   A rattlesnake is dangerous, a black spider is worser still
   A rattlesnake is dangerous and a black spider's worser still
   A razor gun, a pistol, will kill you like a black spider will

   I been workin' like a work ox, on Saturday night you got my pay (2)
   While you're in the black bottom dance hall, black bottomin' your time away.

   Black spider, black horses, black horses with the curtains down
   Black spiders, black horses, black wagon with the curtains down
   Black gal, you and your black bottom be six feet in the ground

All best,
Johnm 

[uncle bud]

Six String Banjo Piece which appear on vol 14, This was retitled by Document as Weaver Stomp!

Was this on an earlier (LP?) version from Document? My Document vol 1 CD has the title as Six-String Banjo Piece, though the notes do refer to Weaver's Stomp. A fine piece it is, too. As is the next track, Dumfino Stump, rather sophisticated ragtime harmonies going on in that one.

I agree with Chris earlier in the thread. These lyric threads can make one go back to songs that might fly by unnoticed while listening to an entire album's worth. (Though I notice on my ever-expanding list of songs-to-figure-out-on-guitar-before-I-die, I already had Six-String Banjo Piece and Dumfino Stump noted .)

[banjochris]

I always call "Six String Banjo Piece" Sylvester's Stomp instead of Weaver's Stomp. Never underestimate the power of alliteration. It ain't that hard to play, neither.

[Bunker Hill]

Six String Banjo Piece which appear on vol 14, This was retitled by Document as Weaver Stomp!

Was this on an earlier (LP?) version from Document? My Document vol 1 CD has the title as Six-String Banjo Piece, though the notes do refer to Weaver's Stomp. A fine piece it is, too. As is the next track, Dumfino Stump, rather sophisticated ragtime harmonies going on in that one.

When I said Document I was being generic, it was actually Parth's 1980s enterprise Earl Archives "The Remaining Titles of Sylvester Weaver 1924-1927" (BD-615). When in the mid-70s it was announced that a copy of "Dumfino Stump" had finally surfaced one who had heard it suggested a mishearing of Damn Fine Stomp!

[Johnm]

Hi all,
The music on "Sylvester Weaver, Volume 1", on Document, which is currently out of print, has been kindly made available to me by a fellow Weenie, so I'm able to get going on these transcriptions again.  Thanks!
Sylvester Weaver recorded "Dad's Blues" at a session in New York City on August 31, 1927.  "Dad's Blues" is a solo number, played out of C in standard tuning, and has a number of really interesting and innovative moves by Weaver.  Behind his C chord, rather than maintaining a steady alternating bass, he most often plays a line that walks from the third fret of the fifth string to the open fifth string, then to the third fret of the sixth string back to the open fifth string, thus achieving a four-to-the-bar walking bass line that sits right under the hand and is extremely player-friendly.  It is very clever playing.  In his solo, Weaver plays a call-and-response in which he continues chords behind the portion of the form in which he would be singing and then plays single-note lines, picked very forcefully, in the spaces where fills would fall.  It's an interesting approach in that he's more or less playing a dialogue with himself, sort of an instrumental equivalent of what Charlie Patton did with his sung vocal lines followed by spoken asides.
"Dad's Blues" takes the form of a father speaking to or about his son.  There has been a lot written about how the Blues are "intensely personal", but I think most often the lyrics of Blues are the least personal aspect of what the Blues musician does; the personality is expressed more in how things are said rather than what is said.  Sylvester Weaver, like a few other Blues musicians (J.T. Smith, Clifford Gibson, Walter Davis, Sleepy John Estes) flies in the face of this generalization.  It is hard to imagine any other blues musician singing or coming up with many of the lyrics he sang, like the tag-line to verse one of this song.  As for the content of Blues necessarily being "intensely personal", re verse 3, Weaver was thirty years old at the time he recorded this song.  I have always found verses like verse two curious; threatening to sing the Blues is like threatening to eat, as far as I can see.  What are the dire consequences if you don't do it, and who's trying to stop you?  Here is "Dad's Blues":



   Come up close and listen to my song (2)
   I've almost cursed the day that my baby boy was born

   I'm gonna sing these blues, sing 'em like I've never sang before (2)
   I'm going to sing these blues, sing 'em if I never sing no more

   Haah, son, I'm getting old and gray
   Aah, son, I'm getting old and gray
   And I hate to see you runnin' around this-a-way

   SOLO
   
   Old folks said, "Rolling stone gathers no moss"
   Old folks says, "Rolling stone gathers no moss"
   But let me tell you, my boy, never let a woman be your boss

All best,
Johnm
 

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver recorded "What Makes A Man Blue" at the same August 31, 1927 session at which he recorded "Dad's Blues".  It is another solo number in C, and includes an introduction in A minor that bears some chordal similarity (though no melodic similarity) to Blind Blake's "Rope Stretchin' Blues" or Rev. Davis's "Hesitation Blues".  It phrase out as follows:

   |    Am    |     E7    |    Am    |    E7     |

   |    Am    |     E7    | Am/ E7  |  Am/ G7|

Weaver's playing on "What Makes A Man Blue" shares much of the approach of his accompaniment and solo on "Dad's Blues".  They really are companion pieces, without being musically identical.  While references to "monkey-men" are a relative commonplace in Country Blues lyrics, Weaver's reference to a "monkey-woman" in verse 3 is the only one I can recall having encountered.  I should be getting used to Weaver's lyrical ingenuity, but lines like the tag-line to the final verse still surprise me.  Wow!  Here is "What Makes A Man Blues":



INTRO:
   Folks, you want to know what makes a man blue?
   To have a woman that's not true
   I mean one that you can not trust
   Tries to make a fool of you

VERSES:
   No, no, nobody knows (2)
   Woman changes her mind, which-a-way it's going to go

   Last night, had my baby on my knee (2)
   Woke up this mornin', she done slipped away from me

   I'd rather be dead, laid in my lonesome grave (2)
   Have a monkey-woman, takin' me to be her slave

   SOLO

   If I could holler, just like a mountain lion
   'f I could holler, just like a mountain lion
   I would holler so loud, ask the sun not to shine

All best,
Johnm
       

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Sylvester Weaver recorded "True Love Blues" in New York City on April 12, 1927.  It was the first number he recorded on which he sang solo. He had recorded two hymns earlier in the same month that he sang with Sara Martin and Hayes B. Withers in a vocal trio.  Weaver played "True Love Blues" out of C in standard tuning, and his approach bears a similarity to his playing on the later "Dad's Blues" and "What Makes A Man Blue".  He accords the guitar a tremendous amount of solo space--four solos in the course of the song versus three verses.  This sort of division between solos and sung verses is so rarely encountered that it makes one wonder whether he was more confident about his guitar playing than he was about his singing.  If this were the case, it would certainly be understandable, for his guitar playing is excellent; the solo after the third verse, which he starts up the neck, is particularly stellar.  About the only song I can think of in which the guitar is given so much space relative to the singing is John Hurt's "Big Leg Blues".  I don't think it is unfair to observe that Weaver doesn't seemed to have found his lyrical voice at this point.  His later recordings have much more unusual and original lyrics.  Here is "True Love Blues":



   SOLO

   Trouble on my mind, trouble all around my door (2)
   I never had such, such trouble before

   SOLO

   Tell me what a woman won't do (2)
   She'll take your money and then make a fool of you

   SOLO

   Just as sure as the stars shines above (2)
   Hard to make a woman give you true love

   SOLO

All best,
Johnm   

[Johnm]

Hi all,
"Poor Boy Blues" was recorded by Sylvester Weaver at the same session as "True Love Blues", immediately following it.  "Poor Boy Blues" is played out of E in standard tuning, and Weaver's accompaniment and solos show a great deal of invention, with lots of dirty bends that really grab the ear.  Like "True Love Blues" it offers solos and sung verses on about a par basis, but its lyrics are more distinguished than those of "True Love Blues", and begin to show signs of the Weaver touch.  Here is "Poor Boy Blues":



   SOLO

   Hey, mama, where did you have it last night? (2)
   Your eyes all gloomy and your stockings ain't pulled up tight

   SOLO

   Made me walk the streets all night long
   Made me walk the streets there all night long
   Keep on messin' 'round, your daddy will be gone

   SOLO

   Oh, if I could read my woman's mind (2)
   I'd feel like a gypsy, happy all the time

   SOLO

All best,
Johnm

     

[fictioneer]

When in the mid-70s it was announced that a copy of "Dumfino Stump" had finally surfaced one who had heard it suggested a mishearing of Damn Fine Stomp!

More likely from "Damn if I know."

[Stuart]

When in the mid-70s it was announced that a copy of "Dumfino Stump" had finally surfaced one who had heard it suggested a mishearing of Damn Fine Stomp!

More likely from "Damn if I know."

"Damfino" was the name of Buster Keaton's boat in his 1921 short "The Boat," so there's evidence that it and its variations were in popular circulation at the time.

[Johnm]

Wow, Stuart, that's an amazing bit of information to have on the tip of your tongue!  I'm going to have to place my hopes in reincarnation for picking up all the information that gets posted around here.  That is really cool.
All best,
Johnm

[Stuart]

Wow, Stuart, that's an amazing bit of information to have on the tip of your tongue! 

Actually, it wasn't on the tip of my tongue, but on the edge of my bookshelf with the other 10 DVDs in the Kino on Video "Art of Buster Keaton" 11 DVD box set. (Which I highly recommend.) A few years back my daughter read virtually everything on Keaton that was available in the King County Library System and Seattle Public Library, so some of it rubbed off on me. He really was a genius.

Re: reincarnation: to loosely (and badly) paraphrase a line from Mississippi John Hurt, "So much info at WC, and I'm just one man."

My Best,

Stuart

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I just added links to videos of Sylvester Weaver's performances of all of the songs in this thread.  He sure doesn't get much play or recognition nowadays, but he was really an interesting and sophisticated guitar player and an inventive lyricist.  Check him out, if you wish.  He's joined by Walter Beasley on many of the numbers.
All best,
Johnm