Topic: My father's/The Master's Will

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I've long admired the John Hurt song "If You Don't Want Me, Baby".  Its melody and accompaniment are beautiful, and there is something mysterious about it.  I've puzzled over the second of these two verses John Hurt sang consecutively:

   It was late last night when everything was still
   Well, me and your baby ease out on the hill

   I tried my best to do my father's will
   I tried my best to do my father's will

I never could make sense out of that second verse, especially in the context set up by the preceding verse.

In listening to the George Mitchell Collection, I noticed that William "Do Boy" Diamond, in the course of his song, "Just Want To Talk To You", sang the following verse:

   Way last night, Lord, when everything was still
   Oh, me and my rider, Lord, we was doin' the Master's will

Hearing that verse made me think that my lack of understanding of the John Hurt verse was due to my thinking of him singing of "my father's will" as opposed to "my Father's will", i.e., God's will.  Perhaps this interpretation was obvious, but it sure never occurred to me until I heard Do Boy Diamond's verse.  The fact that Diamond follows up his verse with:

    Moon look pretty, boy, she's shining through the tree
    I can see my woman, Lord, but the poor gal can't see me

further cements his song's connection to the John Hurt song, which also uses almost exactly the same verse.  So I guess "If You Don't Want Me, Baby" is not unique as I thought it to be.  It makes more sense to me now than it did before, though.
All best,
Johnm 

   

[uncle bud]

Funny, I was just listening to this yesterday and thought "there's a real nice John Hurt song nobody plays". I hadn't paid much attention to the lyrics, although that one "father's will" line did jump out at me and I thought it was a little strange to find secular and religious verses mixed like this. Now I know better. Great song.

I'm assuming the version you're referring to, John, appears on the Today! record. The song also appears on D.C. Blues: Library of Congress Recordings, both Vol 1 and Vol 2. Interestingly, Hurt plays it in Spanish on Vol 1, and like the Today! version on Vol 2 (which sounds like Vestapol to me but I haven't confirmed). Hurt's spoken intro to the second version goes "That's what I playin' a while ago in the Frankie tuning. I also play it this way too."

The Vestapol version - if that's what it is - is much sweeter IMO.

[Johnm]

Yes, Uncle Bud, I was referring to the version on "Today!", which is in Vestapol as you say.  I need to get the Library of Congress recordings--I don't have them and have only really listened to them once.  My impression at that time was that there are a whole raft of songs John Hurt does in 3/4 there that we don't have in the "Country Blues in 3/4" thread, but I can't remember which titles they are.  It's amazing how many songs there are on those sets, including a really large number that John Hurt never recorded elsewhere.  I think he mined his repertoire very deeply for those sessions.
All best,
Johnm

[uncle bud]

Yes, there is a fair amount of stuff he didn't do elsewhere. Without doing a comprehensive check, I'd say this is more the case for DC Blues Vol 2. A chunk of this material is religious songs with fairly basic accompaniment, but then there's stuff in there like I Got Mine. Listening to some of these recordings is a bit like listening to John Hurt playing in a living room somewhere and seeing what songs he can remember.

I'm not sure how available these 2-CD sets on the Fuel 2000 label are currently as regular, in-print items. I got both of mine dirt cheap from Roots and Rhythm, and I see they only have Vol 2 now listed in their Bargain Basement section for $12.98.

[blueshome]

My understanding of "Master's will" was not religious but a  reference from slavery times where the master wished his slaves to mate to produce more.

[Johnm]

Hi Phil,
That is an interesting interpretation.  I have been trying to think if I could ever recall hearing a song lyric that referenced the "master" in an obvious reference to slavery days that was not either sentimental, like some Stephen Foster songs, or humorous, like "Blue-Tail Fly" or "Raise a Ruckus Tonight", as sung by Lonzie Thomas.  I can't think of any (certainly doesn't mean there aren't any), nor can I think of any other lyrics in the country blues corpus that reference the "master" in a non-ambiguous reference to slavery.  Certainly there are plenty of references to "captain", "big boss man" and "walking boss", the sort of post-Slavery equivalents of "master".  I am dubious as to whether Do-Boy Diamond's lyric (he was born in 1914, long after slavery days) references a slave master as opposed to God.
All best,
Johnm

[waxwing]

In Feather Bed, an obvious "pre-blues" or medicine show song, Gus Cannon sings,

I remember a time, just before the war
Colored man used to go on about chips and straw
Now, praise God, Old Master's dead.
Colored man plumb fool about the feather bed.

I guess this sorta falls into the humorous category, altho' the whole song has a melancholic feel and seems to be about other difficulties that the black man has in a white society, always being suspected, at the mercy of the legal system, etc. told with only the faintest humor.

I wonder which war the song originally referred to, Civil or Great (WWI)?

Wax

[Johnm]

Good find, John C.  I agree that the song's intent is humorous, though in a sort of ruefully lugubrious way.  It's hard to imagine WWI as being perceived to have altered circumstances as drastically for the colored man as did the American Civil War.
All best,
Johnm