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Why aint they no blues thread?

moevillini said:
(actually sounds much like Dizzy Miss Lizzy, and also quite a bit like one of the two songs in aint's quiz above)
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Kinda funny how everythang kinda goes round in circles, eh, Mo? A couple posts back we wuz talkin bout Chockamo (Ike, Ike) and Larry Wlliams' name got brought up as coverin the old Sugar Boy Crawford tune. I don't know if ya seen it, but in the Sugar Boy interview, he said he wuz just imitatin Lloyd Price, who took a common street phrase from Nawlinz (Lawdy, Miss Clawdy) and made a tune out of it:

Sugar Boy said:
It came from two Indian chants that I put music to. “Iko Iko” was like a victory chant that the Indians would shout. “Jock-A-Mo” was a chant that was called when the Indians went into battle. I just put them together and made a song out of them. Really it was just like “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” That was a phrase everybody in New Orleans used. Lloyd Price just added music to it and it became a hit. I was just trying to write a catchy song.
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Then Elvis covers that tune (and many other blues hits) and we off to the races. To his credit, unlike that butcher, Pat Boone, at least Elvis didn't screw up the tunes--he sung them just like they was writ. Lloyd Price also took traditional old blues/ballads, like Stagger Lee (done by old bluesman Mississippi John Hurt, among others), and made popular versions out of them in the 50's. The Kansas City song wuz first (before Fats and many others) recorded, and was a big hit for, the great Wilbert Harrison, who also covered Stagger Lee (as did the Isley Brothers, Ike and Tina, Bob Dylan, and many others). Here's Wilbert, with his laid back style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAmDxxLV_vw

In that interview, Crawford also says this about the "Indian" (blacks dressed up like indians at Mardi Gras) tribes in Nawlinz:

Sugar Boy said:
I lived at 1309 La Salle Street. We called the neighborhood “The Bucket of Blood,” because there were a lot of barrooms around there. It seemed like every Saturday night there was a cutting or shooting there. It was also a neighborhood where there were a lot of Indian tribes. [The "battlefield"] was an area bordered by Claiborne, Galvez, Tulane and Perdido Streets. That’s where the Indians met on Mardi Gras day. I wasn’t too keen on going down there, because when they met, there would be a lot of cutting and shooting going on....You might not believe it because of “Jock-A-Mo,” but I was afraid of the Indians.
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Interestingly enough, in a recent movie (called "Black Snake Moan"--also the name of an old, much-covered, Blind Lemon Jefferson tune) the actor Samuel Jackson performs a blues tune, loosely based on the Stagger Lee legend, which mentions the "bucket of blood," too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpSA5Il9i4E


Aint nuthin but one big-*** circle, see?
 
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While on this topic, here's a little discourse on the Delta blues by Samuel Jackson and others. I've seen it claimed that the flick "Black Snake Moan" is kinda based on the life of R. L. Burnside (already posted several times in this thread), but I dunno. Also that R. L.'s grandson is playin drums in these clips, which include Jackson singin Muddy Waters toons (and others). Kinda intristin, I thought, anywaze:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcv79wINlAc&feature=related
 
Ya know, alla dat talk bout Sugar Boy and Chockamo, and it just hit me that I never even posted the original (and best) version from 1953 by Sugar Boy his own damn self. Here it is, muddy sax, and all. He don't talk bout "Grandmas," but "spy boys." Every tribe had a spy boy who would proceed a block or two in front of the main tribe, on the lookout for rival tribes and such. When he seen one, he would signal back, so they all knew to prepare for battle. Each tribe had it's own colors and insignia (flag) which their "flag boy" toted as they went--hence the reference to settin yo flag on fia.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iQeWTP3L6c

Now, tell me the Dixie Cups (from Nawlinz they own sefz) writ that tune like they claimed, tryin to take money outta Sugar Boy's pockets, eh? The lyin bitches still takin half the royalties and were later found in a court of law to be the "sole writers" of Iko, because Sugar Boy just settled with them, rather than fight them in court forever.
 
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Blues, it purty, eh?

Some guy in that Sammy Jackson clip done said da blues aint purty. That aint 100% true, ya know? Take this here Elmore James toon, for example. Who gunna say that aint purty, I ax ya?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBA2REoRD98



I genrly saings dat fine-*** tune ta my wimminz when they gitz all kinda pissed off at me over nuthin, eh? Then I sez: "Cmon ovva here, Sweet Thang, and gives yo Daddy some sugar, eh?" Then, most times, anywaze, they try to go upside my head wit a fryin pan.
 
Is anybuddy else havin trouble with youtube? I git the sound, but no movin pics. Been dat way fo a day er two. Just me, er sumthin in the system? Anybuddy knows?


Aint nobuddy knowin nuff to even takes a stab at dat blues quiz, eh? OK, then, Imma gives the answers here soon.
 
I haven't kept up on this thread because youtube is blocked at my office. I'll check out the videos tonight at home.
 
ok, first one is GMLSG

the next two sound sorta similar to each other, either one sounds like it might be the songs I mentioned above - Lawdy Miss Clawdy and/or Dizzy Miss Lizzie.

But I dunno, the more I listen to these, the more they just all sorta sound the same.

at any rate, youtube is working fine for me, though the videos in this thread seem to take quite a while to load
 
moevillini said:
ok, first one is GMLSG

the next two sound sorta similar to each other, either one sounds like it might be the songs I mentioned above - Lawdy Miss Clawdy and/or Dizzy Miss Lizzie.

But I dunno, the more I listen to these, the more they just all sorta sound the same.

at any rate, youtube is working fine for me, though the videos in this thread seem to take quite a while to load
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Thanks for the info, Mo. I aint knowwin nuthin bout no computers. It wasn't workin for me, but once ya done tole me youtube workin for you, I started playin round a little. I aint got no clue if "java" has anything to do with vids, but I installed an update, and suddenly it's workin again.

Mo, I won't say yet you're right or wrong on your quiz yet, just in case Blood knows and wants to say. He said he aint been followin the thread, so I dunno if he wants to try yet or not. But I will say this: Ya gotta give one answer, not a bunch. I understand what you mean by your first answer, but the second one is just too iffy. If they all sound the same, mebbe ya should autta listen more harder, know what I'm sayin?

Thanks to you too, Blood, for bein willin to help. I guess I gotz it fixed now, though.

Anybuddy else gunna play? Ya caint win no prize if ya don't even try. It aint like yo gamblin er nuthin, ya know?
 
Born with the Bllues

Brownie McGhee tells the story, and he aint lyin, neither:

"My definition of the blues is ‘truth’. Man being true to himself and being true to his listeners when he’s performing or singing any song that people consider the blues…Just being honest with yourself as you tell your stories past and present with a smile on your face. I’m not ashamed of my past, that’s why I say blues is truth, because I tell it like it is. I don’t mess it up at all. Blues is my life, my living, my joy, my everything. And I can live with it." —Brownie McGhee

I done writ some stuff bout Brownie and Sonny already. Case ya clean forgot, Brownie had polio as a chile, and his brother, Sticks McGhee, used to push him around Kingston, Tennessee with a stick (hence the name "Sticks"). With the help of the March of Dimes, he got an operation that restored most of his mobility when he was 19, although he had a noticable limp all his life. That's when he hit the road, without a dime. He survived by hustlin, gamblin, and playin the blues as he walked his way east to North Carolina. That's where he met the legendary Blind Boy Fuller, and they travelled together for a couple years, until Fuller died. He had met Sonny Terry through Fuller and they teamed up after that, eventually ending up in Harlem. Probably the greatest blues duo that ever lived.

I talked to Brownie, sittin at a bar,for about an hour once. He and Sonny were playin later that night, and I got there early. Brownie liked his liquor so much that he would even buy every third round or so. A very honest, articulate and interesting character. Needless to say, also a great performer, who acted Broadway plays and in several movies, such as "Angel Heart" with De Niro, Mickey Rourke, and Lisa Bonet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nXP8bvUiBo&feature=related
 
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Brownie was multi-talented, ya know? In the tradition of Robert Johnson and his "Terraplane Blues," Brownie took to fixin up cars in his spare time, mainly just for the fun of it all, if ya catch my drift. This here tune is from around 1947, about the same time his brother, Sticks, was changin the lyrics to his tune, "Drinkin Wine, Spo-dee-o-dee," to make it recordable.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dETcsYKNflI&feature=related

"When I git to grindin yo valves...you be ready to ride some mo...."
 
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