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"You can't play no blues unless you have some hard times. Young people today, I don'y care whether they're black or white, they didn't come up like Muddy and me, they come up too easy" - Howlin' Wolf to Peter Guralnick, Feel Like Going Home.

Author Topic: Muddy Waters Lyrics  (Read 5453 times)

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Offline Johnm

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #15 on: January 25, 2021, 05:21:26 PM »
I agree with you, Lindy, with the exception that I would leave the "y" out, so it would end up being "miserous", or "miserest" as in either, "having or characterized by having misery" or "most miserable". The vowel sound in the first syllable is a short "i" sound, like in "hit", and there is also a soft "s", almost like a "z" at the end of the first syllable.

Offline lindy

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #16 on: January 26, 2021, 11:36:24 AM »
As long as we're on the topic of Muddy Waters lyrics, here's one I'm stumped by, his version of Rollin' and Tumblin' on this LP:



I'm perplexed by the verse at about 2:20-2:25. This is what I've always heard:

Well I could-a had a-ligion [sic], this bad old thing __________.
Well I could-a had religion, this bad old thing ___________.
Well now whiskey and women, would not let me be.

However, sometimes I wonder if I'm hearing a Lady Mondegreen for "a-ligion" and "religion." In the second line I hear a very faint "a" before he sings the "re" in what I think is "religion."

Phonetically, the words in the blank sound to me like "mm-bay" or "nn-bay," which at one time I thought might be "mm babe," but there's no "b" sound in the last part of the word.

FWIW, that ancient bluesman Jeff Beck sings "I could-a had religion in this bad old Sunday."

Muddy recorded several versions of this song, but this is the only one that *I* know contains this verse. I also think he never recorded an acoustic version. If there are any big MW fans out there who know otherwise, do tell.

Lindy

Offline Johnm

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #17 on: January 26, 2021, 12:11:04 PM »
Hi Lindy,
I think he's singing "this bad old same day", which would make it much the same meaning as "this very day" which is sung by other singers at that place in that verse.
All best,
Johnm
« Last Edit: January 26, 2021, 01:15:27 PM by Johnm »

Offline banjochris

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #18 on: January 26, 2021, 01:42:47 PM »
I think it's either what John has or possibly "this ver' old same day," meaning "very" crammed into one syllable.
Chris

Offline waxwing

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #19 on: January 26, 2021, 01:55:15 PM »
Sounds to me like:

Well I could-a had a religion, this bad ol' thing, hmm, ba'(be)?
Well I could-a had a religion, this bad ol' thing, hmm, ba'(be)?
Well now whiskey and women, would not let me be.

I think you are hearing "a religion", Lindy. He phrases it differently, but all the sounds are there. Then he refer's to himself as "this bad ol' thing," and then jokingly asks his woman, "hmm, babe?" A contraction of "babe" to "bay" is not uncommon. I think Muddy was a jokester. He admonished Van Ronk that Hootchie Cootchie Man was suposed to be funny.

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Offline banjochris

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #20 on: January 26, 2021, 02:30:02 PM »
Also I'm pretty sure the last word of the third line is "pray," not "be."

Offline lindy

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #21 on: January 26, 2021, 03:51:10 PM »
OK, I'll go with John's input, Chris's "pray," and Wax's "a-religion." Sometimes I still hear the same "thing" word that Wax hears, and sometimes not.

I'll offer these lyrics, all of which are standard in most versions of this song, except for the last verse (which I've never heard in any other song, have you?):

Rolling and Tumbling
Muddy Waters

(one of many versions, this one from "The Real Folk Blues")

Well I rolled and I tumbled, I cried the whole night long. x2
Well I woke up this morning, didn’t know right from wrong.

Well I told my baby, before I left that town. x2
Well don’t you let nobody, tear my barrelhouse down.

[Hums and scats one verse.]

Well if the river was whiskey, and I was a diving duck. x2
Well I would dive to the bottom, never would I come up.

Well I coulda had a religion, this bad old same day. x2
Well now whiskey and women, would not let me pray.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2021, 05:54:19 PM by lindy »

Offline blueshome

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #22 on: January 27, 2021, 05:16:00 AM »
Going back;
“ I hear "Frigidaire whine”” in Streamline Woman. Muddy used this in the version he recorded for Swiss radio in the 70’s.

Offline banjochris

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #23 on: January 27, 2021, 09:37:21 AM »

I'll offer these lyrics, all of which are standard in most versions of this song, except for the last verse (which I've never heard in any other song, have you?):

[snip]

Well I coulda had a religion, this bad old same day. x2
Well now whiskey and women, would not let me pray.

Son House sings it in "Preachin' the Blues Part 1" – I would assume Muddy got it from Son.
Chris

Offline lindy

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #24 on: January 27, 2021, 11:04:44 AM »
Thank you, Chris!

Offline MarkC

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #25 on: January 28, 2021, 10:12:58 AM »
My two cents - that recording is so clear, and all the other lyrics so easily understood, that I wonder if Muddy just forgot those words while recording and fudged them.

Maybe there’s another song with that blues couplet somewhere.

Offline MarkC

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #26 on: January 28, 2021, 10:16:39 AM »
Somehow I didn’t see Banjochris’s comment. Spot on regarding Son House.

Offline MarkC

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #27 on: January 28, 2021, 10:28:28 AM »
I just listened to Son House’s Preachin’ the Blues Part 1 - I hear his version as:

Oh ‘coulda had religion
Lord this very day

Offline Blues Vintage

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #28 on: March 05, 2021, 05:23:42 AM »
Screamin' And Cryin'


Muddy Waters – Vocals, Guitar
Jimmy Rogers – Guitar 
Johnny Jones – Piano
Leroy Foster – Drums

Chicago, Illinois
Ca. September 1949

Piano in E





Screamin' and cryin' thinkin' about my past life and gone
Screamin' and cryin' thinkin' about my past life and gone
Well you know I used to have a sweet little mother well boy you know I had such a happy home

Screamin' and cryin' thinkin' about the time have been
Screamin' and cryin' thinkin' about the time have been
Well you know I used to have seven wives well boys you know I used to have twenty girlfriends

Screamin' and cryin' wonderin' where’s my peoples gone
Screamin' and cryin' wonderin' where’s my peoples gone
Well you know I feel my poor self sinkin' down child I don’t think I can last very long
« Last Edit: March 05, 2021, 07:51:01 AM by Harry »

Offline Blues Vintage

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Re: Muddy Waters Lyrics
« Reply #29 on: June 16, 2021, 12:11:46 PM »
I Got My Brand On You


Muddy Waters – vocals, guitar
Otis Spann – Piano
James Cotton - Harmonica
Pat Hare - Guitar
Andrew Stephens - Bass
Francis Clay - Drums

Newport, Rhode Island
July 3, 1960

Piano in G





I got my brand on you, I got my brand on you
I got my brand on you, I got my brand on you
There ain't nothin' you can do, I got my brand on you

Well, you may go away and leave me, but I ‘clare you can’t stay, you gonna come runnin' home, baby, home to me some day
I got my brand on you, I got my brand on you
There ain't nothin' you can do, I got my brand on you

I don’t put my brand you know, baby, on no certain part, but when I kiss you, darlin’, I’ll stab it in your heart
I got my brand on you, I got my brand on you
There ain't nothin' you can do, I got my brand on you

Well, you know you can call on your doctor, baby, there ain’t nothin’ he can say, but shake his head, baby you know, and slowly walk away
I got my brand on you, I got my brand on you
There ain't nothin' you can do, I got my brand on you

GUITAR/PIANO SOLO

Well, you know I got you, baby you know, like a fish out on the line, I can reel you in, darlin’, most any time
I got my brand on you, I got my brand on you
There ain't nothin' you can do, I got my brand on you

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