Topic: Memphis Minnie Lyrics

[Pan]

I'm hearing something like this:
   
-----------5---------5-----|-----5----------5-------------
---------------------------|-------------------------------
----3---4-----3---4--------|--4------3---4----------------
---------------------------|-------------------------------
--0-----0-----0------0-----|--0------0------0-------0-----
---------------------------|-------------------------------

played twice. The 1st melody note of the 2nd bar is a bit unclear on the 1st time. Tell me what you think?

Cheers

Pan

P.S. what a cool lick!

Edit: typos.

Re-edited as Ghostrider suggests.

[GhostRider]

Pan:

Hmm. This is what I came up with last night (with an alternating base, not a monotonic one), with the slight variation that I got the B note, not on the open 2nd string as you did, but by hammering the 4th fret of the third string. It didn't sound right, maybe the timing really screwed me up.

I'm going to try it tonight your way and let you know (I'm at work right now).

Thanks a lot,
Alex

[GhostRider]

Pan:

I tried your sequence and I'm sure you've got it right. The hammer of the B note is the way she plays it I think. The way she sets up the timing with the start of the 2nd/4th bar is what had me buffaloed.

Thanks again,
Alex

[Pan]

Hi Alex.

You must be right about the hammer on. I'll edit the tab accordingly.
Maybe she also hits more than just one bass string with her thumb occasionally.

Pan

[Mr.OMuck]

Hi anyone have the lyrics to "Drunken Barrelhouse Blues" by Memphis Minnie?

[Rivers]

What you got so far? 

[uncle bud]

Here's what I have.

Drunken Barrel House Blues

If you listen to me good people, I'll tell you what it's all about
If you listen to me good people, I'll tell you what it's all about
Well that good stuff is here and it?s just pouring out

Catch me drunk in the morning, don't say one/what? mumbling word
Catch me drunk in the morning, don't say one/what? mumbling word
I can?t tell you all about it and I ain't gonna tell you nothin' that hurts

Yeah I believe I'll get drunk, tear this old barrelhouse down
Yeah I believe I'll get drunk, tear this old barrelhouse down
'Cause I ain't got no money, but I can hobo on out of town

Give me one more drink, drink of that bottle in bond
Give me one more drink, drink of that bottle in bond
And I will tell everything just as soon as I get back home

Give me a stein of beer if not a drink of gin
Give me a stein of beer if not a drink of gin
I feel myself gettin' sober, I wanna get back drunk again

[Mr.OMuck]

Thanks Andrew. Sounds about right!

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I noticed that there were five different Memphis Minnie lyric threads, so she seemed a good candidate for a merged thread.  The five songs currently in the thread are "Nothing In Rambling", "That'll Be All Right", "Ice Man (Come On Up)", "Call the Fire Wagon" and "Drunken Barrelhouse".  Titles of the original threads have been maintained on the posts for ease in following the lyric discussions on the different songs.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Memphis Minnie recorded "Reachin' Pete" as a solo, accompanying herself out of G position in standard tuning.  It is an exceptionally strong performance instrumentally, even by her standards, and features a driving monotonic bass.  The song employs an unusual "doubled up" form--it would be 24 bars long, except that Minnie liked to "go long" in her I chord at the end of the first and third phrases, so it ends up being 26 bars long on most of the passes through the form.  Another musician who liked the doubled up form of three 8-bar phrases rather than three four-bar phrases was Bo Carter, who utilized such a form for "Cigarette Blues" "Arrangement For Me Blues", and "Dinner Blues", among others.
"Reachin' Pete" works a lot of the same riff territory as Minnie's "Drunken Barrelhouse", which she played out of the same position.  I like hearing her in a solo context, where any doubt as to what she was playing and what her duet partners were playing is removed.  I'd appreciate help with the bent bracketed phrase in the opening line of the last verse.



   When you go to Helena, stop on Cherry Street
   When you go to Helena, stop on Cherry Street
   And just ast anybody to show you Reachin' Pete

   It's the tallest man, walks on Cherry Street
   It's the tallest man, walks on Cherry Street
   And the baddest copper, ever walked that beat

   SPOKEN, DURING SOLO:  Yeah, let's go to town now. . . That's what I'm talkin' about

   He met me one Sunday mornin', just about the break o' day
   He met me one Sunday mornin', just about the break o' day
   I was drinkin' my moonshine, he made me throw my knife away

   Well, he taken my partner down to the jail
   Yes, he taken my partner down to the jail
   After he locked her up, he turned and went her bail

   Reachin' Pete's all right, but his buddy old Buzzell
   Reachin' Pete's all right, but his buddy old Buzzell
   Every time he meet you, he ready for plenty hell

   SPOKEN, DURING OUTRO:  Look out, now, here come Reachin' Pete and Ezell, don't let 'em catch you.  Reachin' Pete is bad, I'll tell you.  Ah, shake it!  That's what I'm talkin' about.  Boy, is you tired?  Sugar, I'll go a long time!

Edited to pick up correction from Bunker Hill, 4/16

All best,
Johnm   

[Stuart]

John:

The JSP set has a "Reachin' Pete - Take A" and a "Reachin' Pete - Take B." It sounds like your transcription is of Take B, which appears to be the released version. Take A is a little different and is worth a listen.

[Bunker Hill]

Hi all,
Memphis Minnie recorded "Reachin' Pete" as a solo, accompanying herself out of G position in standard tuning. 

I can see in my mind's eye a book chapter entitled "Reachin' Pete And Johnny Nab". Where published I can't say but it was about 10 years ago and did feature a discussion of this song. I'll see if I can root it out it might give a clue to the bracketed lyric.

[Stuart]

I can see in my mind's eye a book chapter entitled "Reachin' Pete And Johnny Nab". Where published I can't say but it was about 10 years ago and did feature a discussion of this song. I'll see if I can root it out it might give a clue to the bracketed lyric.

Maybe in this one?

The Lyrics In African American Popular Music: Proceedings Of Metz, September, 29th-30th 2000, edited by Robert Springer.

Worldcat: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47023370&referer=brief_results

Looks like the UW has it, so the next time that I get down there, I'll eyeball it in the flesh.

Edited to add following info:

Springer, R., ed.: The Lyrics In African American Popular Music / Le texte
dans la musique populaire afro-americaine. Proceedings of Metz, September
29th-30th 2000-2001 ? xvi + 214 pp., fig., tabl.  49,50 [GBP]
INDICE: R. Springer: Text, context and subtext in the blues ? D. Evans: Traditional blues lyrics and myth: some correspondences ? P. Oliver: ?You have another thought coming to you?: Vaudeville duets and the blues ? C. Smith: Reachin? Pete and Johnny Nab: The police in commercial blues  recordings to 1943 ? G. Van Rijn: The dollar has the blues: Deflation and inflation in african-american blues songs ?L. Monge: Blindness blues: Visual references in the lyrics of blind pre-war blues and gospel musicians? R. Sacr?: O mother, where art thou? ?Mother? in the lyrics of african-american religious and secular music ? E. Lamb: From coon to gangsta: The african american identity crisis represented in popular music? A. J. M. Pr?vos: La langue des rappeurs: paroles et argot noir am?ricain ? E. Gonzalez: Intertextualit?, paratextualit? et sampling: morceaux choisis de Public enemy ? N. Karanfilovic: L?ambig?it? du discours ?gangsta?.

[Bunker Hill]

I can see in my mind's eye a book chapter entitled "Reachin' Pete And Johnny Nab". Where published I can't say but it was about 10 years ago and did feature a discussion of this song. I'll see if I can root it out it might give a clue to the bracketed lyric.

Maybe in this one?

The Lyrics In African American Popular Music: Proceedings Of Metz, September, 29th-30th 2000, edited by Robert Springer.

Worldcat: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47023370&referer=brief_results

Looks like the UW has it, so the next time that I get down there, I'll eyeball it in the flesh.

Thanks Stuart, that little book I own so will go have a looksee and report back in a while.

[Bunker Hill]

The name is pretty much what John has - Old Buzzell.

Old Buzzell, a reference to Reachin Pete, as well as t Cherry Street can be found in part two of Jim "Mooche" Richardson's 1928 'Lowdown Barrelhouse Blues Pt.2'