Topic: How Long, How Long

[Cooljack]

I was reading the wikipedia article about leroy Carr which says:

He first became famous for "How Long, How Long Blues" on Vocalion Records in 1928 for which he wrote the music.[1]

and it cites the source from a book written by Arnold Shaw, this confused me a little as from what I've heard and read Papa Charlie Jackson recorded his version of the song with a female singer two years before this, as for lemon's version im not quite sure of the recording date though Im pretty sure it was in the same year as Leroy Carr's original recording. This leads me to believe that the song was either a traditional/known pop song or Charlie Jackson either assembled it or was doing an adaption from Carr? though this seems unlikely to me. (There is always of course the role of the music industry which may have had some hand in its production)



Is this a wikipedia innacuracy? or have I missed somthing?

[Rivers]

Good question. The female vocalist you mention was Ida Cox, Papa Charlie J was the accompanist, year was 1925. I daresay Ida would have thrashed you with her umbrella for ascribing her record to the banjo player (you know what these big stars are like  )

There's an Alberta Hunter song listed in B&GR entitled How Long Sweet Daddy How Long dated 1921. Anyone know if it's the same song?

[Cooljack]

There's an Alberta Hunter song listed in B&GR entitled How Long Sweet Daddy How Long dated 1921. Anyone know if it's the same song?

Well i decided to look into it and downloaded the song off emusic and noticed that it does in fact show little resemblance to the standard How Long, How Long which was recorded by Cox & Jackson, Lemon and Carr. BUT it does sound alot like The Chatmons/Charlie McCoys recordings of Sweet Alberta & Corrina Corrina! which is unrelated but extremely interesting to say the least. It makes me wonder whether or not they were actually refering to Alberta Hunter in the recording of "Sweet Alberta". It seems like they have taken various bits of this song and reused it, including lyrics and music, What made me notice this was the lyrics "The days so lonesome and the nights so long, I've had no loving since hes been gone" but the more I listen to it the more I can hear the chatmons & McCoys versions.

[uncle bud]

The Ida Cox/Papa Charlie version from 1925 certainly shares the structure and at least the first verse with the Leroy Carr song. Haven't checked other verses. But it's pretty much the same song. Leroy's is much better.  From where it originates, I don't know.

Ida sings:

How long, how long
Has that southbound train been gone
How long, how long, baby how long

Leroy sings "evening train".

[uncle bud]

How Long, How Long was of course subsequently covered by hordes of blues singers. A search in my iTunes library shows Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Jesse Fuller, Kokomo Arnold, Bill Gaither, Skip James, Jed Davenport and Tampa Red. I'm sure there's dozens more. And there's what may be my favourite cover of it: Dan Pickett's slide guitar version. What a great direction to go in. Kokomo Arnold did a slide version much earlier, but Pickett's is truly great. Skip's piano versions from both 1930 and the 1960s are pretty cool too, in that quirky Skip James piano kind of way. Jesse Fuller's version is quite memorable too.

I've attached one of the more unusual versions here for purely scholarly purposes.  I'll wager not many have heard this version performed by "Seven Boys with Home-Made Instruments", a field recording from 1934 in Louisiana. It's on Document DOCD-5675, Boll Weevil Here, Boll Weevil Everywhere - Field Recordings Volume 16 Alabama - Louisiana - Arkansas - Texas 1934-1940.



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[dingwall]

Ida Cox, acc. Papa Charlie Jackson, recorded 'How Long, Daddy, How Long'  on September 1925.   The composer credit for this is W H Jackson.   I don't know whether or not W H is Papa Charlie.