Topic: Ishmon Bracey's Lyrics

[Bunker Hill]

Perhaps those '60s recordings he did for Gayle Dean Wardlow may come out some day.?I believe that like Rev. Wilkins, he recorded only religious material in the '60s.

They don't appear in the Bob Laughton & Cedric Hayes mammoth 2 volume Post War Gospel Records, so can only surmise Wardlow didn't furnish them with the details for inclusion.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I believe Wardlow may have shopped his '60s recordings of Ishmon Bracey around (I don't know how much), and not gotten any takers.  I have no idea of how much material it is, whether an album's worth of songs, or just one or two.  Whatever the case, I would love to hear the music. 
Re your comment on how many unreleased/undiscovered titles Bracey had among his early recordings, David, I recall reading somewhere that Sam Collins had a shocking number of tunes that had been recorded and unreleased, something like 14 songs.  Does anyone know if that is true?
All best,
Johnm

[Bunker Hill]

I recall reading somewhere that Sam Collins had a shocking number of tunes that had been recorded and unreleased, something like 14 songs.? Does anyone know if that is true?

You ain't kidding, 26 to be precise - 12 Gennett titles and 14 ARC. One of the ARCs turned up on a Yazoo's Lonesome Road compilation in 70s and given the title of My Road Is Rough & Rocky but in a review of the LP it was suggested it was infact Toenail Flang Dang. Without looking out the review I can't for the life of me recall by whom or on what evidence this was based

[Forum2002]

Thank you Thank you very much ....
I have been looking for his lyrics now for a long time - and his recordings - and now I have found this true country blues website...
How do I get the time to read/study all this?
Never mind - I start now.
Are all his lyrics on "paper" now?
Have they found any unknown recordings anywhere since 2005?
Hi Ejler Svendsen, Copenhagen

[Slack]

Welcome Ejler - glad you found us!

[uncle bud]

Hi, John.  After listening to the first two lines a couple of dozen times, I think the title of this song was supposed to be "Family 'Sturbance", with 'sturbance being a colloquial pronunciation of "disturbance".  As close as I can get to the first two lines is:

   The [  ] I live in has 'sturbance every morn

The word in brackets is really a mystery to me.  Sometimes I think it starts with an L, and other times I think it could be "room".

Reviving this thread just to mention, since it wasn't mentioned here as far as I can tell, that the Mississippi Blacksnakes (aka Bo Carter, Charlie McCoy, Sam Chatmon or "Sam Hill" aka Walter Vinson) recorded a song with completely different lyrics called "Family Disturbance (Family Troubles)" 19 January 1931. So it seems to be a title, at least, that was floating around.

[Johnm]

Thanks for that information, Andrew.  It makes dj's original sussing out of "'sturbance" from "stirving" all the more impressive to me.  Good work, guys!
All best,
Johnm

[banjochris]

That's funny, I always thought the right title should be "Family Acknowledge." 

[Norfolk Slim]

At the risk of driving everyone nuts...

Ive been working on a Bracey tune- and whilst I had the cd in the computer, I thought I'd have another listen to the puzzling lyric in the first verse of woman woman in Transcribe.  I slowed it down, eq'd out the guitar etc.

I absolutely agree that it is "Crazy baby", but the next bit (which we currently have as "you treat me" has another syllable to my ear.  I think I hear  "Used to treat me"- could this be it?

Changes the meaning a bit- perhaps hes saying that once she treated him (as in being good to him, rather than mistreatment) but now she breaks his heart in two?

 

[uncle bud]

Hi Slim - Gave this a listen and actually I am not hearing "crazy baby" at the moment. What I hear is

Baby the way you treat me, break my heart in two

The "you" is sung as a two-syllable word, "you-hoo" or "you-oo", to my ear.

[Chezztone]

One quibble with the generally fine transcription of "Woman Woman Blues" posted on this thread (see excerpt of relevant verse below): I don't think he can be calling his gal a stavin' chain. That term is used in blues in such phrases as "I can pick it up and shake it like stavin' chain" or as a name that a bluesman calls himself. Maybe Bracey is calling her a "screaming thing" or "screaming Jane"? I invite others to try to understand what he's saying, I can't quite get it, but it doesn't sound quite like "stavin' chain" even if that did make sense. Thanks! 
   Now got a woman, good little woman
   She ain't a thing but a stavin' chain
   See, she's a married woman and I'm
   Scared to call her name

[Chezztone]

Re: "Woman Woman" -- Still can't figure out that "screamin' thing" or whatever, please help with that.
And also I hear "Baby baby" instead of "Crazy baby."
And the first line of the fourth verse I believe is "Treat me like treat you, baby" instead of "Treat me like, treat your baby." That letter and comma make a significant difference in meaning. He is asking her to "Treat me like I treat you," not treat me like you treat your baby. Thanks! Chezz

[uncle bud]

I've listened numerous times over the past day or so and I hear "stavin' chain" myself pretty clearly. For what it's worth, in Barrelhouse Words, Stephen Calt actually uses this song as one of the examples of the usage of Stavin' Chain. He writes, "A figure in Southern black mythology associated with sexual prowess, eccentrically invoked above (i.e. in the Bracey lyric) in reference to a female, either to suggest like prowess or to indicate that her only utility is sexual." He also notes "In American slang, staving stood for very strong or excessive since c. 1850." It's an explanation I can accept, given that I actually hear Bracey sing "stavin' chain" myself.

I agree that the first line of the fourth verse is "Treat me like, treat you, baby" i.e. treat me like I treat you. (I'd leave the comma in myself to indicate the missing word, or perhaps preferably, transcribe it as "Treat me like... treat you, baby".)

And I still hear:

Baby the way you treat me, break my heart in two

[Bunker Hill]

He also notes "In American slang, staving stood for very strong or excessive since c. 1850."

I found this interesting enough to investigate further. FWIW on page 2230. volume four of A Dictionary Of American English compiled at the University of Chicago 1944, 1959 second impression (OUP) there's an entry denoting a handful of early usages thus:

Staving, a. and adv. [1621] Big, immense; excessively. - 1862 N.Y. Tribune 7 Feb. 5/6 A staving dram put him in a better humor. 1884 MARK TWAIN' H. Finn xv, This one was a staving dream. 1898 F. H. SMITH C. West 594 They was stavin' good to her. 1902 HARBEN A. Daniel 91 He got blind, stavin' drunk

Not that it get us anywhere.......so let normal service resume.

[Rivers]

Thanks Bunker, that's a stavin' handy new adjective to use in polite company. I tagged it.