Topic: Herman E. Johnson Lyrics

[Mr.OMuck]

Definitely keep a knockin or busy bootin, but what a difference in mood here. Taking an up tempo hokum number and recasting it as a slower, pensive window on an internal dialogue is a brilliant repurposing of the tune.

[uncle bud]

I was looking through this thread after listening to some Herman E. Johnson and noticed that his version of Motherless Children is missing here, though everything else from the Arhoolie disc has been transcribed. It's a strong version, IMO, like most of his stuff, with really relaxed and subtle slide playing and an approach to the tune that's just different enough to make what can occasionally be a tired song (IMO again) into something special.

I haven't checked carefully, but it sounds like he's playing in Spanish tuning, pitched around A or B-flat.  Here is "Motherless Children":



Motherless Children - Herman E. Johnson

Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead, oh Lord
Father may do the best he can
So many things he don't understand
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead

(instrumental line)
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead
Sometime pleasures and sometime fun
Sometime food and sometime none
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead

(Yeah)

Yes, mother told her child, "Someday, I'll meet you after we are dead"
Mother told her child, "Someday, I'll meet you after we are dead, oh Lord
Come and shake my hand goodbye
Some days you will laugh and some days you will --- "
You know a motherless child have a hard --- when the mother's dead

Yes, motherless --- when the mother's dead
Motherless children has a hard time when mother is dead, oh Lord
Sometime pleasures and sometime ---
Sometime food and sometime ---
Motherless children has a ---  when the mother is dead

(You know)

Oh, Lord

Yes, motherless children has a hard time when ---
You know, motherless children has a --- when mother is dead
Father he will do the best he can
So many things he don't under---
You know a motherless child has a --- when mother is --

[uncle bud]

Going and looking at Harry Oster's notes to this song, I see that he writes that Johnson played this lap style with a knife, and that confirms what I was thinking while listening, though I had not tried it yet myself. Johnson has such great control that it really points to lap playing to my ear. Oster writes that this version is a variant of Blind Willie Johnson's (another not-so-ho-hum version). He describes the technique:

"Herman, who holds the guitar flat on his lap, uses an open tuning and slides the back of a small pocket knife (with the blade closed) on the strings to stop them, with frequent glissandi from note to note and much tremolo, the same general technique as Blind Willie."

So here's a tangential question. Do you think Oster is referring specifically to Blind Willie's glissandi and tremolo, and only that, or suggesting that Blind Willie played lap style? Frankly, I have long wondered if this was the case, as it would make a lot of sense from a technical standpoint, but I have rarely seen it discussed (I think it was Peter Keane who mentioned his own suspicion that this was the case on Weenie recently).

Another aside: Hard to tell for certain, but in the photo of Herman inside the booklet, the capoed guitar looks like it has brutal action. Good for lap.

Discussion of Blind Willie Johnson technique continues over here:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=8585.msg70547#msg70547

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I was able to find links for all of the songs transcribed in this thread (which were all that Herman E. Johnson ever had released).  It really felt good to return to his music and hear him again.  He was a particularly good writer of blues.
All best,
Johnm

[JoeCigueno]

I have been enjoying Herman E. Johnson’s understated but captivating playing lately. There appear to additional recordings by Harry Oster, like this version of She Had Been Drinking from 1960. (The version that was issued on LP and CD was recorded the following year, per the Arhoolie jacket notes.)

The 1960 recording of She Had Been Drinking can be heard here:

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/04/folklorist-harry-osters-collection-of-1950s-60s-folk-music-ranges-from-english-folksongs-in-iowa-to-delta-country-bluesmen/

Not much to distinguish the 2 versions, but there are more 1960 recordings of other tunes that he did not record later.  Color me intrigued… From Wirz:    

- Crawlin' Baby Blues
- C. C. Rider
- Happy Days
- What Is Wrong With You
- The Bachelor's Blues
- The Deceitful Brownskin
- Esso Refinery Blues
- I Just Keep On Waiting
- Depression In '61

rec. November 3, 1960, March 26, 1961, April 5, 1961, April 27, 1961 & May 12, 1961 in Baton Rouge, LA by Harry Oster; Herman E. Johnson, voc, g
unissued

[Johnm]

Thanks for the information on the unreleased Herman E. Johnson cuts, JoeCigueno. It seems reasonably likely that "Depression in '61" and "I Just Keep On Waiting" are alternate versions of his "Depression Blues" and "I Just Keeps on Wanting You", with "waiting" a typo in the title. I'm tantalized by all of them, but particularly curious about the two Lemon Jefferson titles, "Crawlin' Baby Blues" and "The Deceitful Brownskin". It's really hard to imagine what Herman E. Johnson would have done with them--his style of playing and singing being so different from Lemon's. Harry Oster sure had some great finds--Herman E. Johnson, Smoky Babe, Robert Pete Williams, Guitar Welch, Hogman Maxey among them.
All best,
Johnm 

[JoeCigueno]

I am wondering what Herman had to say about the Esso Refinery… if he worked there, he probably had a story to tell. I love blues songs that tell a story.   How do curious, non-professional people pry music out of archives?

I assume this is the place Herman was referring to:

ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the fifth-largest oil refinery in the United States and thirteenth-largest in the world, with an input capacity of 540,000 barrels (86,000 m3) per day as of January 1, 2020. The refinery is the site of the first commercial fluid catalytic cracking plant that began processing at the refinery on May 25, 1942.

John, I will have to look up Hogman Maxey. I hope the nickname was related to his vocation, rather than his appearance. Maybe we should have a thread with memorable nicknames. Honeyboy is obviously classic, but he is well known.  Bogus Ben is another great one.

PS:  Thanks for the tip, I just bought Angola Prisoners Blues… wonderful stuff!