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A lot of excitement is generated by their approach, which is just to pile on top of each other, play as loud, hard, and strong as they can, and let the devil take the hindmost - John Miller on Little Buddy Doyle's Renewed Love Blues

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21
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics
« Last post by banjochris on March 15, 2024, 10:09:57 AM »
Going back to "The Moore Girl" for a moment, and I had mentioned a long time ago that it pops up in Willie McTell's "Will Fox" – I realized today that I had heard it one other places, which is Fiddlin' John Carson's "Engineer on the Mogull." From the title it's clear he knew the mogul/Moore girl connection but he sings "Moore girl" throughout, to my ears.

Interesting that all these artists are from Georgia (North Georgia specifically – McTell and Carson being Atlanta-based by the time they recorded), so maybe it was a local nickname. BTW, I think it's likely that it's Andrew, not Jim, singing on "Moore Girl."

The only recording of Carson's track I could find on YouTube (that wasn't played back at a ridiculously incorrect speed) was on a full album, so if it doesn't take you directly to the track, it starts about 43:55.

https://youtu.be/r5kEDtS-QGs?si=-Z6nqc324XrSyQGf&t=2635
22
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics
« Last post by Johnm on March 14, 2024, 09:17:12 PM »
Hi altaltcountry,
Lots of blues lyrics refer to "going to the Nation". Blues lyrics were so promiscuously shared, stolen, passed around, that unless you have hard historical evidence that a singer who speaks of "going to the Nation" or "having been to the Nation" had actually made such a trip, I think you're inferring way too much. Blues lyrics are very rarely personal to the person singing them, describing life events. In this respect they very much differ from post '60s singer/songwriter lyrics where one often assumes that the lyrics are autobiographical. So I think it's an overstatement to say that "been to the Nation" definitely refers to the resettlement of of the Cherokees.

That having been said, I don't think that the sound and the words that were sung by Jim Baxter in this instance support your interpretation. It seems more that you're interpreting the words differently than they were sung to support a pre-existing theory of their meaning. If you look at the lyrics to "Bamalong Blues" as a unit, there is not even a through line in terms of a plot or story line; rather, they're an agglomeration of free-floating verses, like a very high percentage of blues song lyrics from that period.
23
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics
« Last post by altaltcountry on March 14, 2024, 08:20:53 PM »
Many thanks for your insights, Chris and John.
1. I'm still not sure about "Georgia" (see my argument below).
2. After some more listening, I think you and John are right about "you don't want me" on the second line.
3. Don't know about the A&R guys (I also think "Moore Girl" was intended to be "Mogul" or a pun; not sure what the label guys were thinking). Also, there's not a definite "g" on Bamalong, and the consonants "m" and "b" are sometimes interchanged.
4. A brief preview of  my theory (and it's just a conjecture at this point): There's no reason to think that Jim referred to Alabama or the military in any other of his other lyrics. "Been to the nation" and "nation sack" definitely refer to the Oklahoma resettlement of the Cherokees. In the Bible, there are two Babylon captivities: the original captivity of the Israelites and the second captivity of people by the whore of Babylon (greed, lust) in Revelations 17-18. I think that Jim describes two captivities as well: the enslavement of Africans and the forced resettlement of the Cherokees (remember the Baxters were part Cherokee). The line "Been to the nation" etc. suggest that the speaker has been to the Cherokee nation (Oklahoma) and returned not with money but with a sack perhaps filled with some sort of valuables.
https://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20The%20Red%20Man%20and%20The%20Blues%20-%20Chapter%204.htm
The overall theme in my conjecture then is that that the singer had chosen to return to Georgia where s/he can be with his/her beloved rather than to live in the second Babylon in Oklahoma. I know this is a stretch, but I believe it's a clearer line than to anything about Alabama or the second Alabama regiment. Why would Jim Baxter be content not to be a member of a military group? Given that the Baxters might have played this song to a white audience, he would have a reason for being somewhat indirect in his symbolism. My conjecture ties together the various stanzas of the song, if only tentatively.
24
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics
« Last post by banjochris on March 14, 2024, 05:31:37 PM »
I don't think we have the "lyrics" of "Georgia Stomp" transcribed here, so I went ahead and did it. Like "Forty Drops," another F tune – how many old-time records had F tunes on both sides?! This is absolutely some of the best guitar backup ever recorded and it's just a beautiful number. I wish they had recorded so much more, especially fiddle tunes.




Now this is the old Georgia Stomp. Now, honor your object. Also your partner. Now hands up eight and circle. Now, break-a-loose and walk back. Now, take your time. Swing your corners. Now, swing your partner. Join your partner's right hand. Now, right to the left, all the way through. Turn your corners, now.
25
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics
« Last post by Johnm on March 14, 2024, 05:22:45 PM »
Hi altaltcountry,
1. The final verse is as it was transcribed. There is clearly no "the" at the beginning of the line, which is "just", and in the repetition of the line you can clearly hear the break between "sure" and "as. There is nothing sung that sounds like the second syllable of "Georgia" either.
2. Jim is singing "You don't want me ..." It's a commonplace line that is encountered many places in the blues.
3. If Jim is meaning the "second Babylon", he is nonetheless consistently pronouncing it "the second bamalong", so interpreting it as the second Babylon involves jumping through some interpretive hoops and presuming that he meant something other than what he sang.
26
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics
« Last post by banjochris on March 14, 2024, 05:17:25 PM »
I don't hear "Georgia" in that last line at all – I hear "Just sure" or "Just as sure" with the "as" swallowed. Also, Jim Baxter articulates the "r" in Georgia very distinctly in "Dance the Georgia Poss," which he isn't doing at all here if he's singing the word "Georgia."

And although the first "You" is a bit swallowed, the repeat of "you didn't want me" is pretty clear to me.

And the "second Babylon" thing I have always thought was a stretch, since the "m" in "bamalong" or "'Bama long" is also very distinct.

I'm not sure I totally buy any of the explanations put forward, although 2nd 'Bama as a regiment is somewhat convincing. Although we have no way of knowing, it seems odd to me that if it is 2nd 'Bama, that when the A&R guys asked the Baxters for the title, that they would say "Bama Long Blues" if it was a regiment. Of course it could just be a transcription error from what the suits heard. Such a beautiful tune, though!

Chris
27
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics (Bamalong)
« Last post by altaltcountry on March 14, 2024, 02:51:23 PM »
a garbling of "second Babylon", and a biblical reference.
Two questions about lyrics here:
1. I think the final verse says "The Georgia sun sets in the golden west" rather than "As sure as the sun...." You can  hear the soft "g" in both lines, and the word "the" is clearer in the second line. This may be important for a reason I'll suggest below.
2. In the next-to-the-last verse, Jim may be singing "He don't want me, don't you dog me around..." rather than "You don't....." Tough call. But this  may also be significant; it's possible that persona of the song is a woman.
The Georgia reference may be important because there is another Georgia allusion in the song, "Been to the nation... brought the sack." This alludes to the Cherokee nation (the exile from Georgia to Oklahoma) and the Cherokee custom of the nation sack (which women were more likely to carry or conceal). My tentative hypothesis is that the song IS about a "second Babylon" as in Revelations. This hypothesis wouldn't require the speaker of the lyrics to be female.
28
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: Andrew and Jim Baxter Lyrics
« Last post by altaltcountry on March 13, 2024, 02:07:46 PM »
Many thanks--what a wonderful treasury of wisdom and experience I've stumbled upon when researching NW Georgia string bands (I'm about 40 miles from Gordon County). I just wish I knew more about fiddling. I can tell that Andrew is doing something fairly unique but I don't know how to describe what I hear in terms of bowing / tuning, harmony, rhythm, and phrasing. The observations of you and others about Andrew's and Jim's techniques are invaluable to a non-player like me.
29
Just a little note on the verses at the end of "Whoopee" – the flip side of Lonnie Johnson's "She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight" is "Death Valley Is Just Halfway to My Home."
30
Country Blues Lyrics / Re: King Solomon Hill - Tell Me Baby, King Solomon Hill Lyrics
« Last post by Johnm on March 13, 2024, 09:37:24 AM »
Thanks very much for the help, Blues Vintage. That is tremendous hearing! I made the changes you suggested.
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