Wow - but Bessie Smith spills fire and fury in Hateful Blues on Columbia Record 14023D. Talk about hymns of hate - Bessie sure is a him-hater on this record. The way she tells what she is going to do with her "butcher" will make trifling fellows catch express trains going at 60 miles an hour. The music is full of hate too. You can almost see hate drip from the piano keys. Every note is a half-note. No quarter for anyone - Chicago defender ad, July 1924
Hi all, Over the years I've noticed that the melodies of "Careless Love" and "Corinna, Corinna" have often been used to set new lyrics, and I thought it might be interesting to think of as many of these songs as we can. Just to start out, the following songs use the melody of "Corinna, Corinna": * "Hold Them Puppies"--Leroy Carr * "The Northern Starvers Are Returning Home"--Mississippi Sheiks These songs used the melody to "Careless Love" * "Be True, Be True Blues--Henry Sims with Charlie Patton * "County Jail Blues"--Funny Papa Smith Can you think of other songs that employ either of these melodies but with different lyrics? All best, Johnm
Hi all, Furry Lewis' rendition of "Roberta" that first appeared on his Prestige Bluesville album, "Back On My Feet Again", was done to the tune of "Corinna, Corinna", and even used several of the same verses, just subtituting Roberta for Corinna. All best, Johnm
D.Spree You are wrong. Snooks has some different harmonic touches, but he sings essentially the same melody as John Hurt, Merle Haggard, et al used for "Corinna, Corinna". The Bob Dylan version of "Corinna, Corinna" uses a different melody for "Corinna", as does Taj Mahal's. There is no one set melody commonly in use for "Alberta", and Snooks' version uses the same lyrics as the traditional "Corinna, Corinna", simply substituting Alberta for Corinna in the lyrics.
The Mississippi Sheiks (1930) and Jimmie Gordon (1938) use the Corinna Corinna melody for their versions of Alberta. Jazz Gillum's version (1937) is a different song both musically and lyrically, and would seem to be based on DarK Road and related tunes.
Robert Jenkins, Butch Cage and Willie B. Thomas base I Had a Dream Last Night (All I Had was Gone) on Corinna. On the (great) Arhoolie disc, Old Time Black Southern String Band Music. Willie throws in a verse of Alberta for good measure.