I have chosen Walking Blues as the Song of The Month for March.
Walking Blues was written by Son House and first recorded by him in 1930 by Paramount. The recording I have included here was from August 1941, recorded by Alan Lomax at Clack's Grocery Store, Lake Cormorant, Mississippi. The clue to this is the railway sound in the background, the store being close to a branch line between Lake Cormorant and Robinsonville. Son House took Lomax there because it had the electricity necessary for the recording machines.
Lomax recalled, ?I don?t know where House took me. Down dirt roads, along a railroad track into the back of an aging country store that smelt of licorice and dill pickles and stuff.?
Sometimes attributed as the author of Walking Blues, Robert Johnson recorded this version on November 27, 1936.
One of my favourite versions is by Johnny Shines titled Ramblin Blues from 1952.
Here is R.L. Burnside, recorded in 1968.
Taj Mahal?s rendition, from his self-titled debut album of 1968.
Here is Muddy Waters recorded at the Newport Folk Festival, 1969. When Son House couldn?t be on stage at his scheduled time, Muddy Waters took the stage and played an acoustic set, including Walking Blues, saying "I'll do it like Son House would do it if he was here."
Thanks very much for your choice of the Song of the Month for March, islandgal, and for the research that went into doing the initial post. I look forward to listening to the versions that are new to me and re-visiting Johnny Shines' "Ramblin'", especially.
Here is a very early "Walking Blues" from Peg Leg Howell, recorded in the mid-late '20s. It really is a different "Walking Blues" than those coming out of Mississippi, but at least it shares the same name. Apologies if the video is not viewable by non-U. S. residents:
Thanks for the post islandgal. The Lomax recording is so atmospheric, with everybody having such a good time! The Johnny Shines version is also one of my favourites.
I got up this morning, feeling 'round for my shoes You know by that, people, I got the walkin' blues
He used it in two different blues. In each case, when asked for a title he said Walkin' Blues. This is the song he gave the title to in 1930:
Nothing like the 1941 song.
Contrary to Lomax's narrative in The Land Where the Blues Began, he made two recording trips to Coahoma County. He went back to Son House the following year in 1942. One of Son's songs was a variant of My Black Mama Part 2 aka Death Letter Blues. Two of the verses were
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Well, I walked up close, I looked down in her face Good old gal, you got to lay here till Judgment Day ...
I fold my arms, Lord, I walked away "That's all right, mama, your trouble will come someday"
That was enough for Son to tell Lomax that this song, too, was called Walkin' Blues.
This link plays the 1942 song, followed by the 1941 song.
Johnson's Walkin' Blues is musically closer to this and to My Black Mama than to House's 1930 and 1941 songs.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2018, 10:33:47 AM by DavidCrosbie »
Max Haymes has found links between the lyrics used by Robert Johnson and Son House and some vaudeville blues lyrics.
The third verse of Frisco Blues by Luella Miller (1928) is partly the same as Johnson's initial verse taken from House:
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Lord, I woke up this mornin?, daddy feelin? for my shoes; I woke up this mornin?, daddy feelin? for my shoes. My man has quit me. He left me with the Frisco Blues.
A later verse of Johnson's
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Leaving this morning : I have to ride the blinds Babe I been mistreated : baby and I don't mind dying
partly echoes Mamie Smith's 1920 Fare Thee Honey Blues
The lyrics are an interesting mixture of Tin Pan Alley, blues floaters and traditional snatches from Fare Thee and Alabama Bound
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Now my baby has left me I don't know what I'll do Now every day I miss him It makes me feel so blue I'm leaving here today And that is why I say
I?m leavin? town to wear you off my mind; I?ve been mistreated an? I don?t mind dyin?. I'll buy me a ticket as long as my right arm; I'll ride so far you?ll think I?m dead an? gone I'm Alabama Bound
I told him way last spring When the bluebirds began to sing That I was goin' away, not to wear no black Nothin' in the world will bring me back
Now I've thrown you down I'm leavin' this lonesome town I'll find me a gun as long as I'm tall Shoot the man that catched the cannonball Fare thee honey, I don't want that song(?)
if you don't want me, why don't you tell me so? I can get a man most anywhere I go There's a change in the ocean, a change in the deep blue sea I don't want nobody that don't want me Don't you leave me here
Partly similar is Ethel Ridley's 1923 Alabama Bound Blues
The last verses are the most relevant:
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Number Seven in the station, Number Eleven in the yard Gonna leave this town if I have to ride the rods
I'm leaving' town to wear you off my mind I've been mistreated and I don't mind dying I'll find me a ticket long as my right arm Ride so far you'll think Im dead and gone I'm Alabama Bound
Johnson is prepared to ride the blinds but Ethel considers the more dangerous riding the rods.
[By the way, Max Haymes has discovered that in the early days of long-distance rail journeys by connections with different railcompanies, tickets really were huge long affairs: a string of tickets, one for each stretch on a different line.
I realise there are probably more guitar pickers out there than vaudeville blues fans. So here' Luke Jordan
with a ticket as long as his arm.]
And here for comparison is Jeff Taft's transcription of Johnson's Walkin' Blues:
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I woke up this morning : feeling around for my shoes Know by that : I got these old walking blues
Lord I feel like blowing : my poor lonesome horn Got up this morning : my little Berniece was gone
Lord I feel like blow : my lonesome horn Well I got up this morning : all I had was gone
Well leaving this morning : if I have to oh ride the blinds I feel mistreated : and I don't mind dying
Leaving this morning : I have to ride the blinds Babe I been mistreated : baby and I don't mind dying
Well some people tell me : that the worried blues ain't bad Worst old feeling : I most ever had
She's got Elgin movements : from her head down to her toes Break in on a dollar : most anywhere she goes