Topic: Buddy Moss Lyrics

[Rivers]

Thanks for posting this, I didn't have Buddy Moss's version and was looking for the lyrics for adding to the 'brands & products' list. I do have John Jackson's recording on Back Porch Blues. It doesn't throw much light on the original being a filtered version lyrically, though it does smoke in places. Sorry to butt in.

[waxwing]

-G-

All for now.
John C

[LB]

Thanks again for another enlightening exchange as always. It seems the folks here in Atlanta that knew Buddy are pretty firm on what he meant on part of these lyrics but I often hear several different takes on these lines. I think what is said here on this thread includes the closest I've seen to what was really being said and the meanings behind it. Buddy Moss if memory serves me was about 19 years old in 1933 when he recorded in NY with many of the other veteran players and recorded all his most successful sides. He was in jail in Greene County Ga by 1935 time frame and I think Hoover was out of office in 33' too. And hearing the Curley Weaver style execution of this G rag in the 1960s is such a funny circle of music. Very cool stuff. Especially how they walk up that 5th string on the turnaround. Another thing that is real fun is sticking Curley's Tricks style licks into this song. It really gives a pretty big song. If this thing had another good verse it would be hell on wheels. Last thing to say about the playing part. This swingy jazzy groove he puts on this G rag was a real trigger for me. I've never felt 100% comfortable with my Trick's Aint Walkin rendition of this G rag but when I started learning Chesterfield it locked in like a vault door. This song with Tricks verses sprinkled into it makes a wonderful Atlanta blues medley. I performed it for Cora Mae Bryant today at her house. SHe grew up with Buddy Moss coming home after gigs with her father Curley and as shes says "Buddy always carried bubble gum in his coat pocket". I avoid sometimes asking her a million questions because she's 81 and doesn't have a lot of patience for people asking much about Buddy Moss... Long story but thanks again for all this help. I think I'll go over and mash the maximum DONATION button on Weenie Campbell's left hand column as I sign off tonight. This is the best blues site on the net bar none. Sorry for the rambling...

LB

[Bricktown Bob]

For this song the wording of the Lord's Prayer was parodied, a daring gimmick that would not have been appreciated by everybody. As this would certainly have been unacceptable in the thirties, no original recording from the time when Moss probably first sang the song exists.

I can't think that this is the reason no original recording exists, as plenty of other songs recorded back then contained parodies of sacred material.  Unless there was some sort of policy change, as with the Hays Office in Hollywood -- you could do stuff in 1929 that you weren't allowed to in 1933.

[Rivers]

On behalf of everybody LB thanks for the kind words.

All here who've been involved with keeping the thing going since 98, when it sputtered into life as a simple text mailing list, appreciate your comments. It's really a joy and something of a surprise that it's evolved so well with many great regular contributers including yourself. I'm sure the many who are more disposed to just lurking get just as much enjoyment from it.

So on behalf of Slack and the ramshackle work gang at virtual weenie mansions, thanks again for your comments, much appreciated.

Hey, I just realized we're in our 10th anniversary year. Partyyyyyy!!

[Slack]

And thanks for the bucks LB - those are appreciated too! 

Hey, I just realized we're in our 10th anniversary year. Partyyyyyy!!

Woot! Woot! 

[LB]

WC Rocks thanks to yall.


Hey guys guess what? Chesterfields are hard to find but I bought an old unopened antique pack on Ebay. I tend to collect a lot of memorabilia and this might fit into a display of Atlanta blues stuff one day.

I don't smoke cigarettes but I know these would have been a true hard core smoker's brand!

see JPG, also picked up a Joe Louis promo, Ebay is dangerous!

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Buddy Moss recorded "Oh Lordy Mama" at a session in New York City on August 8, 1934.  He was nineteen or twenty years old at the time, but you would never have guessed it from the degree of poise he showed in the session and how fully evolved his style was, even at that very early stage.  He played the song out of E position in standard tuning, and it employs a phrasing archetype that is discussed in the "Blues Forms and Vocal Phrasing" thread here:  http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=60&topic=924.msg7419#msg7419
At the tempo Buddy took the song, it was pretty sporting trying to get the words out in time, for there are a lot of them.  What a powerful singer and player he was.



   Meet me down at the river, you can bring me my shoes and clothes, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
   Said, meet me down at the river, bring me my shoes and clothes
   Says, I ain't got so many but I got so far to go

   Woman I love, she done caught that Southern train, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
   Said, the woman I love, she caught that Southern train
   Now, she left me here, heart just an aching pain
 
   Goin' away to leave you 'cause you' cryin' ain't gonna make me stay, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
   Said, I'm goin' and leave you 'cause your cryin' won't make me stay
   I may be back in June, may be the first of May

   Woman I love, says, she right down on the ground, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
   Said now, the woman I love, right down on the ground
   Now, she's a tailor-made woman, ain't no hand-me-down

   Tell me what time do that train leave your town, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
   Said now, tell me what time do that train leave your town
   Said now, "One leave at 8:00, one leave at quarter past 9:00."

   Seaboard goes south at 8:00, babe, Southern goes north at 9:00, oh Lordy mama, great God almighty
   Said now, Seaboard goes south at 8:00, babe, Southern goes north at 9:00
   Says, I just got one hour, talk with that gal of mine

All best,
Johnm

[uncle bud]

I'm curious what the earliest recorded version of this song is. So far, poking through B&GR, Buddy Moss is it. It gets covered a lot, Blind Boy Fuller, Curley Weaver, Brownie McGhee, Bumble Bee Slim, Shirley Griffith, Pink Anderson. Did it originate with Buddy?

[Stuart]

On The George Mitchell Collection, there's a recording titled "Hey Lawdy Mama" done in 1963 that has similar lyrics (minus verse four).

[blueshome]

30 something years later Buddy recorded the same lyrics. Listen to "Atlanta Blues Legend".

I've been struggling for months to get the vocal timing right on this song it's such  squeeze to get the words in smoothly......must check out the thread John mentioned.

[oddenda]

Buddy may have been a son-of-a-bitch, but he was a STUNNING musician! His own worst enemy. "Ride to Your Funeral in a V-8" was prescient.

Peter B.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
With three lyric threads and the prospect of others, Buddy Moss seemed another good candidate for a merged lyric thread.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Buddy Moss recorded "Unkind Woman" at a session in New York City on July 30, 1934 that yielded one other tune, the spectacular "New Lovin' Blues".  "Unkind Woman", which Buddy played out of E position in standard tuning, perhaps even surpasses "New Lovin' Blues" in terms of instrumental fireworks.  Both Buddy's singing and playing show a startling assuredness for a young man of nineteen or twenty.  Like Leroy Carr and Louis Hayes, Buddy Moss liked to cram a lot of syllables into his lyrics.  This performance can be found on "Buddy Moss, Volume 2", Document Records DOCD-5124.

   

   Now, my baby told me she loved me, but I found out that she was lyin'
   Now, my baby told me she loved me, but I found out that she was lyin'
   Every time I think how my baby did me, I just can not keep from cryin'

   Say, but someday, babe, and it won't be long
   Says, someday, babe, and it won't be long
   Say, you're gonna want for your daddy, woman, but I mean, and I will be gone

   Mmmm, Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawd
   Mmmm, Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawd
   Say, I love you, woman, but you won't act right at all

   SOLO

   If you don't want me, woman, why don't you let me be?
   Now, if you don't want me, woman, why don't you let me be?
   Said, there's a-plenty more women that really cares for me

   Mmmm, my baby, she don't treat me kind no more
   Said, my babe, she don't treat me kind no more
   Because every day she treats me worser than the day before

All best,
John

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Buddy Moss recorded "Insane Blues" on August 7, 1934, about a week after recording "New Lovin' Blues" and "Unkind Woman".  Buddy was entering a stretch where he would in the course of three days, August 7-9, record 12 spectacular titles.  He played "Insane Blues" out of C position in standard tuning, and his accompaniment utilizes the rapid-fire brushed triplets that were a favorite of his in these sessions.



   Blues and trouble, and I mean, they will drive you wild
   Says now, blues and trouble, and I mean, they will drive you wild
   They won't only drive you crazy, they'll make you commit suicide

   I had the blues so long, I don't hardly know my name
   I've had the blues so long, I don't hardly know my name
   And if they worry me much longer, they will drive poor me insane

   SOLO

   Some people say blues ain't nothin', but they'll make you feel awful blue
   Some people say blues ain't nothin', but they'll make you feel awful blue
   And if the woman you love done quit you, make you do things you don't want to do

   Blues, oh blues, why do you worry me this-a-way?
   Said now, blues, oh blues, why'd you worry me this-a-way?
   I've got to find my woman, well, she can drive my blues away

All best,
Johnm