I love my girl like a schoolboy loves his pie, like a Kentucky white man loves his rock & rye. I love my girl until the day I die - Jim Jackson, St Louis Blues, 1930
Thanks so much for the help, Chris. Boy, I wasn't even close on that 3.1 line in "Ain't You Sorry". When I re-listened to the 4.1 correction in "Ain't You Sorry", I think Mance sings: . . . got a girl, chance SHE'S gonna pay my way It is so much better to have these transcriptions right. Thanks for all of your help.
Here is a draft of So Different Blues. There is one line in the “Easy, Mr Tom” interpolation at the end that is obscure to my ears: “Let’s buy.”
So Different Blues
Ever wake up with the so different blues, anytime? Ever wake up with the so different blues? And you couldn’t get on your Monday morning shoes.
Mama, here’s my stockings, go bring me my shoes, I say. Here’s my stockings, go bring me my shoes. My girl done quit me, I got to walk ‘em blues. (Or got the walkin’ blues)
Yon she go walking down that railroad track, yes she is. Yon she go walking down that railroad track. Got all my money, she left me that empty sack.
She’s walking down the road with the suit case in her hand, yes she is. Walking down the road with a suit case in her hand. She done quit her husband trying to follow some no good man.
Baby, you may go, you may try to stay, I say. You may go, may try to stay. If you’re thinking about me, you want to come back home some day.
Ain’t never loved but the four women in my life, I say. Ain’t never loved but the four womens in my life. My mom, my sister, my sweetheart and my wife.
Standing at the station when my baby got on board, yes I was. Standing at the station when she got on board. Well I couldn’t do nothing but beg her please don’t go.
F’I [If I] never see your smiling face again, I said. Don’t never see your smiling face again. Tell everybody that I once had been your friend
Take your time, Take your time. It’s easy, [If] you know how. Get your bucket, Let’s buy Some girl, Mr Tom, Yes, here. Oh, ask my friend if she just come home Don’t you turn her down.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2020, 11:07:23 PM by Johnm »
Thanks so much for the transcription of "So Different Blues", Willie Poor Boy. It's always great to get more of Mance's lyrics transcribed. All best, Johnm
8.3 you have EVERYBODY correct, he doesn't really pronounce the R.
In the "Mr. Tom" part he sings Let's buy Some BEER (he swallows as he says this so it comes out a little funny) Mr. Tom IS here. Oh, THAT'S my friend AND she just come home...
Hi all, Mance Lipscomb recorded "Hattie Green" for his album on Reprise, Frank Sinatra's label. I've always been curious as to how the album was shopped to Reprise, why they picked it up, etc. Whatever the case, it's a great album, and "Hattie Green" in particular is stellar. I think Mance's playing can be forgotten sometimes with the amount of music available we have today, but returning to his music I'm reminded how very rare it is in this style to encounter a guitarist whose playing keeps changing from beginning to end in his renditions. Mance really was a fount of invention. And working in a short form like "Hattie Green" has, 8-bars, in A position in dropped-D tuning, he had every opportunity to tap all of his resources. Here is "Hattie Green":
INTRO SOLO
I'm goin', up North, gonna stop by Abilene I'll be on my way, lookin' for, little Hattie Green
Hattie Green, Hattie Green, how come you treat me so mean? You the meanest woman, girl, I ever seen
You can shake it, you can break it, throw it out the window, catch it 'fore it falls Let me have what sticks, you can have what falls
SOLO
This time, tomorrow, wonder where on earth will I be? Somewhere walkin' up and down, that old Santa Fe
SOLO
Hattie Green, is a woman, is a woman I really love She don't stay here, but somewhere up above
SOLO
I hate, to see, that evenin' sun go down 'Cause I can't see, Hattie nowhere around
SOLO X 2
I love, little Hattie, I just can't help myself I don't get Hattie, I don't want nobody else
SOLO X 2
Edited 10/25 to pick up correction from Harry
All best, Johnm
« Last Edit: October 25, 2020, 09:24:20 AM by Johnm »
I've always been curious as to how the album was shopped to Reprise, why they picked it up, etc.
As Mance tells it in "I Say Me For A Parable", he (Lipscomb) was playing in California, and Frank Sinatra heard him. Sinatra invited him out on a yacht, where Lipscomb played for him and Mia Farrow. Sinatra then brought Lipscomb to the attention of Warner/Reprise records.
In the book, Mance claimed to have made 3 records for Reprise. One was released at the time. Another 12 songs were released about 20 years ago on the Rhino Handmade label. So there may be more unreleased Mance Lipscomb material in the vaults.
Thanks for the catch, Harry, I have made the correction. And thanks, dj, for the information on how Mance came to record for Reprise. It's hard to imagine, first of all, why Frank Sinatra would have been at a Mance Lipscomb performance, and secondly, Mance on a yacht, performing for Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow. Truth is sure enough stranger than fiction, I guess. All best, Johnm
I've just joined this website having, only yesterday, stumbled across mance Lipscomb's version of Ella Speed. In a great live version, found on another page of the WeenieCampbell site, I struggled to hear the last line of one of the verses. It goes something along these lines:-
When they all got the news that Ella speed was dead They goes home and dresses up in red There was friends and relations, all standing around
I've no idea what the 4th line is but think it finishes with "ground" or maybe "burial ground".
Hi, On that live version, it sounds like it might be: Taking my Ella to the burying ground From "Ella" to the end of the line I'm sure that's what he sang--the first two words I'm less sure. All best, Johnm