Topic: Blind Lemon Jefferson lyrics

[Stuart]

Hi Rivers:

I followed your advice, and using Google Books did a search for the exact words, "sufficient clothes." I looked through the first two pages of 100 results on each page. It appeared in numerous secular contexts starting in the mid-1800s in the texts that came up in the search. My guess is that it was a common usage in wide circulation. This doesn't rule out that Lemon had a Biblical allusion in mind, but it strongly suggests that there are other possibilities.

[banjochris]

Now certainly Paramount and other labels got lyrics wrong, but the folks who put the ad for the record together thought it was "clothes" too!

[Rivers]

Very interesting discussion, I'd never really thought about it before. It's one of my favorite recordings from 1926, nearly 100 years ago. Mind blowing. So far ahead of its time.

I'd always assumed "ain't got sufficient clothes" was simply idiomatic for "broke" but now I'm starting to see other root explanations are possible. I'll stick with biblical at this point but will poke around on the web for a while.

[Rivers]

The text in the Paramount ad Chris posted describes what they believed it meant. He was so broke and busted in a poker game he couldn't leave except wearing a barrel. I like that one too.

[Johnm]

For what it's worth, I can't recall a single instance in blues lyrics where the cost of riding a train was referred to as a "toll". I've never heard it referred to as anything but a "fare" or a "ticket". This is in response to Pencapchew1988's suggestion that Lemon sang "toll" rather than "clothes". I've certainly always heard it as "clothes".

[Doug]

Like Rivers, I always thought "sufficient clothes" was just a way of saying how broke the singer was. 

There *are* lots of biblical stories about clothes, including a story in Matthew 22:1-14 about a wedding banquet where guests get kicked out for not wearing the proper clothes. That is intriguing.. but I've never heard the phrase "sufficient clothes" used about that parable.

While we're on the phrase, I've always liked the story that Lightnin' Hopkins' "Fishin' Clothes" was based on a mishearing of the phrase, although it sounds too good to be true!

[islandgal]

I've always heard it as clothes and still do, but here is another interpretation of the word in Jefferson's song:
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/04/blind-lemon-jefferson-bad-luck-blues.html

[Pencapchew1988]

Interesting. I wasn’t aware of the popularity of the term “sufficient clothes”
That’s what I like about Lemon’s songs. His lyrics can be highly interpretive and that’s what makes them interesting. Bad Luck blues is probably my favorite song of his, probably my second favorite one to play after Rabbit Foot Blues.