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John Hammond, Jr.: At the Crossroads - The Blues of Robert Johnson

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Vanguard Records
Released: 2003.10.14
Time:
 49:20
Category: Blues
Producer(s): Fred Jasper
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.johnhammond.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] 32-20 Blues (R.Johnson) - 3:07
[2] Milkcow's Calf Blues (R.Johnson) - 2:46
[3] Traveling Riverside Blues (R.Johnson) - 3:23
[4] Stones in My Passway (R.Johnson) - 3:11
[5] Cross Road Blues (R.Johnson) - 3:07
[6] Hellhound Blues (Hellhound on My Trail) (R.Johnson) - 4:30
[7] Me and the Devil Blues (R.Johnson) - 2:37
[8] Walking Blues (R.Johnson) - 2:56
[9] Come on in My Kitchen (R.Johnson) - 3:31
[10] Preaching Blues [Up Jumped the Devil] (R.Johnson) - 4:23
[11] Sweet Home Chicago (R.Johnson) - 4:28
[12] When You Got a Good Friend (R.Johnson/Traditional) - 4:43
[13] Judgment Day [If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day]) (R.Johnson) - 3:24
[14] Rambling Blues (Rambling on My Mind) (R.Johnson) - 3:14

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


John Hammond, Jr. - Guitar, Electric Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals

Michael Bloomfield - Piano
Levon Helm - Drums
Charlie Musselwhite - Harmonica
Robbie Robertson - Guitar

Billy Butler - Electric Guitar
Bobby Donaldson - Drums
Garth Hudson - Hammond B3 Organ
Jimmy Lewis - Bass, Electric Bass
Pete Ragusa - Drums
Wild Jimmy Spruill - Electric Guitar
Jimmy Thackery - Guitar
Mark Wenner - Harmonica
Jan Zukowski - Bass

Fred Jasper - Compilation Producer
Captain Jeff Zaraya - Compilation Engineer
Martin Burckhardt - Cover Art
Georgette Cartwright - Creative Services Coordinator
Amy L. VonHolzhausen - Creative Director
Bruce Winkworth - Liner Notes

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2003 CD Vanguard - VZCD103

Recording Date 1964.



JOHN HAMMOND is the son of the late, great record producer John Hammond, the man who recorded everyone from Bessie Smith to Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday to Bruce Springsteen. In the 1930s, Hammond Snr tried to bring the Delta bluesman Robert Johnson to New York for the Spirituals To Swing concerts but Johnson had passed away months earlier. Johnson's legacy was among the many recordings played in the house during Hammond Jnr's childhood and the music stuck with him. AT THE CROSSROADS finds Hammond playing fourteen of Robert Johnson's famous blues, including Traveling Riverside Blues, Cross Road Blues, Walking Blues and Preaching Blues (Up Jumped The Devil). The performances are drawn from recordings made by John Hammond between 1965 and 1979 and feature him either solo (voice, guitar and, occasionally, harmonica) or with support musicians (including harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite, guitarist Michael Bloomfield and various members of The Band). Despite these disparate sources, the unity of vision is surprisingly strong, given that fourteen years separates the earliest and latest recordings.

acerecords.co.uk



If Robert Johnson could look down from heaven or up from hell, he'd likely find it very interesting that John Hammond, Jr. had covered his songs. Here is a white guy, after all, who sounds like a black blues singer and chooses - of his own free will - to frequently return to the repertoire of an obscure black guitarist/singer from the 1930s. At the Crossroads collects this musical meeting of the minds -- or souls -- by gathering 14 of Hammond's Johnson covers, recorded between 1965 and 1978. Like Johnson, Hammond relies mostly on solo acoustic guitar. In this way, it's easy to certify his versions of "Come on in My Kitchen" and "32-20 Blues" as the real deal, or, as a folk enthusiast would say, "authentic." At the same time, renditions of "Milkcow's Calf Blues" and "Stones in My Passway" are less raw and penetrating than Johnson's, and one could easily say that Hammond's real gift is that of a popularizer of rural acoustic blues. The last four cuts include full-band takes of "Sweet Home Chicago," "When You Got a Good Friend," "Judgment Day," and "Rambling Blues." While these cuts surely won't pass the purity test, they're nonetheless lots of fun. At the Crossroads is a cross-cultural, racial, and generational document, and offers a good one-stop look at one artist's nod toward another.

Ronnie D. Lankford Jr. - All Music Guide



This CD brings together the near enough fifty minutes of Robert Johnson (so to speak) songs recorded by John Hammond, Jr. on eight Vanguard albums between 1964 and 1978—seven under his own name, the eighth, Blues at Newport, by various hands recorded live at Newport Folk Festivals from 1959 to 1964.

The notes here go on about Johnson, born in 1911, and at the age of 27 who lay dying even as John Henry Hammond, famous father of John, Jr., was hunting for him. If only Johnson hadn’t died and Pa Hammond had put him on the 1938 Carnegie Hall stage with Sidney Bechet, Bill Broonzy, Lips Page, and Albert Ammons, would Johnson have been famous ever since? Maybe not.

His idiom was too downright strange to most virgin ears. There were numerous bluesmen stylistically close to Johnson on his stamping ground long after he died—and he might well have been better than them all—but some were extremely good by any standard short of the miraculous. Some people knew enough to be seriously interested, but lacked the clout and the facilities to record or even let people hear what there once was, of a standard comparable with all but the rarest treasures which did get recorded. How long did it take before, say, Johnny Shines had the chance to record half as many songs as Johnson, at the same level as 1952’s “Ramblin’”? Hacksaw (Richard Harney) got recorded decently only in the 1970s, but the tapes weren’t issued for years after that. Who other than the Library of Congress recorded Calvin Frazier’s best? Frazier’s merits became clear only after the technology and the will existed to rescue the music from ruinous noisy old library discs. Hearing Frazier’s 1941-1942 Library of Congress recordings (an exercise strongly recommended in itself), it’s amazing how little is on his commercial discs from post-war Detroit. Would Johnson have had a wide hearing in 1938, when the same music still wasn’t appreciated in 1958? Arhoolie’s early 1960s reissue of Robert Lockwood’s 1941 “Little Boy Blue” was a rare hint for more than a minority within a minority, that there had been a lot more beside Johnson—and of stunning quality. I wish Johnson had lived into the 1970s, as long as, say, Big Joe Williams, but would even his appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1938 have overcome current preoccupations, inhibitions, and ideas that here was an archaic primitive? Would Johnson have been more famous than he became as a result of some stunning recordings and the early death which made his story movie-worthy?

Sorry, Mr. Sleevenote Man, but John Hammond, Jr’s “covers of Robert Johnson” aren’t “as authentic as it gets”, at least in terms of such claims as “Hammond nails Johnson’s high, almost falsetto singing style”. He doesn’t. And there’s no such thing as “almost falsetto”: singing is either falsetto or it isn’t. There are high voices, but falsetto is a separate vocal technique deployed occasionally by Muddy Waters in emulation of Johnson’s own rare upward forays (and also by Russian basses). Skip James had a high voice, but not a ringing one like Johnson’s (there’s a theory, which can be looked up online, that Johnson’s recordings were actually somehow speeded up and his actual voice was lower, nearer Muddy Waters’s baritone). James did use falsetto technique for expressive purposes which his normal voice couldn’t serve. If Johnson did have exactly the voice anybody can hear on the recordings as issued, he was a tenor. Some bits of his anatomy crucial to singing were of a certain shape and size, rather than something different. That was his instrument, a good one. He also had a magnificent technique for singing exactly what he sang, as well as the other technique to sing falsetto, briefly, and the sheer trick of producing the comic low-pitched sounds which are the fun of his raggy burlesque “Hot Nuts”. He was a great artist, his musical sensibilities and style developed within his inherited musical culture, his singing founded on a way of speaking which presumably still bore traces of African language accents. John Hammond’s speaking voice, and probably yours, owes its character to how his or your ancestors spoke, local ways of speaking English, and maybe before that various vocal habits from one and another ancestral language. This sort of story accounts for some special features of Johnson’s singing—and also some special problems Hammond could never avoid in trying to emulate Johnson vocally.

This CD’s notes claim that he “nailed” Johnson vocally. Not so. I’ve heard Europeans get closer to Johnson’s voice, tone, and intonation than did the stripling Hammond of between 25 and 39 years ago here. Johnson might sing “stones”, but Hammond tended to effects like “stoe-woans”, an aspect of a perennial problem for most people from most places who are trying to sing blues. The English George Melly does extraordinarily well, but his repertoire is vocally not so extremely intense as Johnson’s. In opera, there are some great tenor voices just wrong for some tenor roles. In trying to do a Robert Johnson, the young Hammond simply lacked the voice to match the sleevenote’s retrospective claims.

In terms of guitar playing he’d more confidence; he wasted neither his time nor his music trying to “nail” Johnson instrumentally. Even in his early twenties he was far too good a musician to sink into parrotry, and his solo guitar playing and accompaniment were very much the real blues thing.

The opening “32-20 Blues” is splendid on guitar, but the voice begins with something of an affectation, until he gets sufficiently engrossed just to sing well. On another half dozen titles, the affectation makes him sound so self-conscious as to seem embarrassed by himself. “Come on in My Kitchen” is, however, the real thing again, not mimicry. The vocal-guitar interplay is remarkable. Likewise, “Preaching Blues” (1965? It doesn’t say) is up past the mark, very much because it neither sounds nor tries to sound anything like Johnson: the guitar is flailed or made to squeal, the rack-harmonica with its pinched sound implies an unusually acrobatic Jimmy Reed. In fact, the more Hammond did instrumentally the less he strayed into pastiche vocalising.

“Sweet Home Chicago” on electric guitar gets nearer J.B. Hutto. Despite too much stock Elmore James phrasing over second guitar, bass, drums (with a decent, if derivative, harmonica player) the unadventurous performance has the skill and vigour still to be interesting. “When You’ve Got a Good Friend” is superior Bobby Bland blues with band. Hammond plays good harp and a Hawaiian slide sort of guitar and a plucked electric guitar (Billy Butler? Nice to see his name) interact. With plenty of variety well within the idiom. This impressive performance is from the Big City Blues set, which might be one of a few John Hammond CDs rather better than this somewhat contrived Johnson compilation. The last two items, from the So Many Roads set, are very efficient but even with Charlie Musselwhite on harp insufficiently distinctive—in a club you’d not complain, or necessarily ask who was in the band. It’s just a somewhat anonymous late 1960s band style. Collecting together the Hammond-plays-Johnson material has generated a curiosity, mixed in musical interest. Not to be preferred to other Hammond CDs: a demonstration of how not to assemble a “Best of John Hammond, Jr. 1964-‘78”. Too much wishful thinking. Anyway, a CD culled from Hammond’s Vanguard years came out a couple of years back.

Robert R. Calder  - 11 December 2003
© 1999-2014 PopMatters.com.



I began listening to John Hammond at the Crossroads at the same time as I was listening to Richard Goode’s long awaited completion of Bach’s Partitas for Keyboard (Nonesuch, 2003). It struck me that the two recordings were very similar. Both are interpretations of a cultural canon. Bach’s Partitas for Keyboard are considered among his best compositions and has been the subject of hundreds of recordings and performances. Like the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas for Keyboard exist as an artistic summit, the best the Austrian-German tradition has to offer. Likewise, the Robert Johnson songbook contains the indivisible subatomic particles making up all of popular music.

The performance of each set of compositions is personal, informed, and inventive. Goode’s precise treatments of the Partitas sparkle with a diamond-intense brilliance. John Hammond’s interpretation of Johnson’s blues, while more daring, still remain within the standards for rural blues performance—full of spontaneity, invention, and pathos. In terms of universal art, culture, and aesthetics, the two sets of compositions are equal.

John Hammond at the Crossroads is Vanguard Records' collection of Hammond performances of Johnson tunes from the past 25 years, derived from eight releases ranging from 1965’s Country Blues (Vanguard) through 1979’s Hot Tracks (Vanguard). The majority of the collection consists of Hammond and guitar (and harmonica). From "Sweet Home Chicago" to the end of the collection reside the electric pieces (just as "Sweet Home Chicago" was meant to be). Joining Hammond are the likes of Jimmy Thackery, Charlie Musselwhite, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson. The leader, however, is at his best on the acoustic pieces. He takes 32-20 blues at a languid, strutting half-time, adding drama and dread. On "Stones in my Passway" Hammond effects a Skip James falsetto that will make you start the piece over just to make sure who is singing. His voice is no mere caricature of a Caucasian performing in an African-American idiom. Hammond comes off as the authentic article, displaying the true ubiquity of the blues.

C. MICHAEL BAILEY - October 15, 2003
© 2014 All About Jazz



Although Robert Johnson's name and songs are familiar to almost anyone with a passing interest in the blues these days, that wasn't true when John Hammond began interpreting his music four decades ago. There had only been a dozen recordings of the seminal Delta bluesman released, eleven before his death at the age of 27 in 1938 and one posthumously, and those were only to be found on aging 78s, although some of the songs had become familiar through the work of some of his followers. Hammond, more than anyone else, though, dedicated himself to resurrecting the music in the style of Johnson himself, earning a reputation in some circles as "the white Robert Johnson."

Hammond's enthusiasm for Johnson's music and Johnson's style has never waned, and there's no artist more suitable for a compilation like At The Crossroads. Drawn from Hammond's releases on Vanguard during the sixties and seventies, these fourteen tracks provide an excellent musical portrait of both the interpreter and the original creator of this music. When it's just Hammond and his slide guitar, the echoes of Johnson's original roadhouse performances are uncannily present. When Hammond is joined by bands for four of the cuts, it's just as easy to imagine Johnson transported to a later era when he could have joined the likes of Michael Bloomfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Robbie Robertson and Hammond's other accomplices in a modern studio setting. In any setting, Hammond's affection for the form and the authenticity of his performances are impressive.

This may be the ultimate John Hammond collection, as well as the ultimate Robert Johnson tribute. In either event, it's an essential addition to your blues collection.

© 2003 Shaun Dale - Cosmik.com



Der 1942 in New York geborene John Hammond Jr. wird oft als der weiße Robert Johnson bezeichnet. Eine Grammy-Auszeichnung im Jahr 1985 und darüber hinaus sieben weiteren Grammy-Nominierungen in den Jahren danach (die letzte 2010), 3 Blues-Awards und eine Blues-Award Nominierung, ebenfalls in 2010, sind bezüglich der Qualitäten dieses Musikers wohl selbstsprechend. Seit 1964 produzierte er in mehr oder weniger regelmäßigen Abständen nicht weniger als 33 CDs (bzw. LPs), mit "Rough' And Tough' in 2009, die aktuellste, die ebenfalls großartig geworden ist. Umso mehr verwundert es, dass John Hammond Jr. hierzulande scheinbar noch immer als besonderer Tipp unter den besonderen Kennern des Blues gehandelt wird.

Hier stelle ich Euch eine Compilation aus dem Hause Vanguard vor mit dem Titel "At The Crossroads". Sie umfasst Songs aus verschiedenen Album-Produktionen aus den Jahren 1964, bis 1989. Der Titel der Compilation lässt bereits ahnen, um welche Art Stücke es sich handelt, nämlich ausnahmslos um Material von Robert Johnson. Die meisten Tracks sind Soloeinspielungen. "Me And The Devil Blues" ist eine Live-Performance vom Newport Folkfestival 1964. Die übrigen Songs sind im Studio entstanden. Auch hört man unterschiedliche Gitarren zum Einsatz kommen.

Zu den Songs von Robert Johnsen etwas sagen zu wollen, wäre in der Bluesszene vermutlich so etwas wie Eulen nach Athen tragen zu wollen. Erwähnenswert jedoch ist zumindest, dass Hammond die Songs nicht einfach kopiert. Vielmehr verleiht er ihnen einen ganz eigenen (Hammond-)Ausdruck. Das gilt für alle 14 Tracks dieser Zusammenstellung. Die Tracks 13 "Judgement Day" und 14 "Ramblin' Blues" sind sogar Bandarrangements. Beim letztgenannten sind u. a. keine geringeren als Charlie Musselwhite, Robbie Robertson und Michael Bloomfield mit von der Partie.

Last but not least gewinnt der Hörer einen Eindruck von der Entwicklung des Musikers John Hammond Jr. über einen Zeitraum von nicht weniger einem viertel Jahrhundert. Und dies mit den hörbaren Veränderungen, vor allem aber auch mit der Stegigkeit eines eigenen und wirklich herausragenden Stils.

John Hammond Jr. - At The Corssroads ist mein Lauschtipp für Euch im September.

Thomas Schleiken
 

 L y r i c s


32-20 BLUES

If I send for my baby and he don't come
If I send for my baby, man, and he don't come
All the doctors in hot springs they sure can't help him none

And if he gets unruly, things he don't wanna do
And if he gets unruly and thinks he won't do
I'll take my 32-20, now, and cut him half in two

I'm gonna shoot my pistol, I'm gonna shoot my gatling gun
Yeah, I'm gonna shoot my pistol, I'm gotta shoot my gatling gun
You made me love you, now your man have come

Baby, where you stay last night?
Yeah, I said baby, where'd you stayed last night?
'cause you got the hair all tangled and you ain't talkin' right
Where'd you stayed last night?
- - - - - - -
He got a .38 special but I believe it's most too light
He got a .38 special but I believe it's most too light
I got a 32-20, got to make the camps alright

If I send for my baby, man, and he don't come
If I send for my baby, man, and he don't come
All the doctors in hot springs sure can't help her none

Her .38 special, boys, do it very well
Her .38 special, boys, it do very well
I got a 32-20 now, and it's a burnin'

If I send for my baby, man, and he don't come
If I send for my baby, man, and he don't come
All the doctors in wisconsin sure can't help him none

Hey, hey baby, where'd you stay last night?
Hey, hey baby, where'd you stay last night?
You didn't come home until the sun was shining bright

Ah-oh, boy, I just can't take my rest
Ah-oh, boy, I just can't take my rest
With this 32-20 laying up and down my breast


MILKCOW'S CALF BLUES

Tell me, milk cow,
What on Earth is wrong with you?
Oh, milk cow,
What on Earth is wrong with you?
Now, you've left you a calf
And your milk is turning blue.

Lord, your calf is hungry
And I believe he needs a suck.
Lord, your calf is hungry,
I believe he needs a suck.
Well, your milk is turning blue.
I believe he's out of luck.

Now, I feel like milking and my cow won't come.
I feel like churning and my milk won't turn.
I'm cryin' please,
Please, don't do me wrong.
If you see my milk cow, baby now,
Please drive her home.

Lord, my milk cow been rambling
For miles around.
Lord, my milk cow been rambling
For miles around.
Well, how can you suck on some other man's bull cow
In this strange man's town?


TRAVELLING RIVERSIDE BLUES

Asked sweet mama, Let me be her kid
She said, "You might get hurt if you don't keep it hid"

Well I know my baby, If I see her in the dark
I said I know my rider, If I see her in the dark

Now, I goin' to Rosedale, Take my rider by my side
Still barrelhouse, If it's on the riverside, yeah
I know my baby, Lord, I said, "is really sloppy drunk"
I know my mama, Lord, a brownskin, but she ain't no plum

See my baby, tell her, Tell her hurry home
Had no lovin', since my baby been gone
See my baby, Tell hurry on home
I ain't had, Lord, my right mind, Since my rider's been gone

Hey, she promises, She's my rider
I wanna tell you, She's my rider
I know you're mine, She's my rider
She ain't but sixteen, But she's my rider

I'm goin' to Rosedale, Take my rider by side
Anybody argue with me man, I'll keep them satisfied
Well, see my baby, tell her, Tell her the shape I'm in
Ain't had no lovin', Lord, since you know when

Spoken: Why don't you come into my kitchen

She's a kindhearted lady. She studies evil all the time
She's a kindhearted woman. She studies evil all the time

Squeeze my lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg
Squeeze it so hard, I'll fall right out of bed
Squeeze my lemon, 'til the juice runs down my leg

Spoken: I wonder if you know what I'm talkin' about

Oh, but the way that you squeeze it girl
I swear I'm gonna fall right out of bed

She's a good rider
She's my kindhearted lady
I'm gonna take my rider by my side
I said her front teeth are lined with gold
She's gotta mortgage on my body, got a lien on my soul
She's my brownskin sugar plum...


STONES IN MY PASSWAY

Well, I've got stones in my passway
And my road, it's black as night
Yeah, I got stones in my passway
And my road, it's black as night
I got some pains in my heart
And they're stealing my appetite

Well, I got a bird to whistle
I got a bird to sing
Yes, I got a bird to whistle
I got a bird to sing
I got a woman that I'm lovin'
But she don't mean a thing

You trying to take my life
All my money too
I say to you lady
What you trying to do?
I say please, hey let us be friends
You hear me howlin' in your passway, baby please let me in

Well, I got three legs to walk on
Baby, please don't block my road
Yes, I got three legs to walk on
Baby, please don't block my road
All of my friends have betrayed me
And I'm booked and I got to go


CROSS ROAD BLUES

I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees
I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees
Asked the Lord above "Have mercy, now save poor Bob, if you please"

Yeoo, standin' at the crossroad, tried to flag a ride
Ooo eeee, I tried to flag a ride
Didn't nobody seem to know me, babe, everybody pass me by

Standin' at the crossroad, baby, risin' sun goin' down
Standin' at the crossroad, baby, eee, eee, risin' sun goin' down
I believe to my soul, now, poor Bob is sinkin' down

You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown
You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown
That I got the crossroad blues this mornin', Lord, babe, I'm sinkin' down

And I went to the crossroad, mama, I looked east and west
I went to the crossroad, baby, I looked east and west
Lord, I didn't have no sweet woman, ooh well, babe, in my distress


HELLHOUND BLUES (HELLHOUND ON MY TRAIL)

I got to keep moving, I got to keep moving
Blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail
Mmm, blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail
And the day keeps on remindin' me, there's a hellhound on my trail
Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail

If today was Christmas eve, if today was Christmas eve
And tomorrow was Christmas day
If today was Christmas eve and tomorrow was Christmas day
All I would need is my little sweet rider
Just to pass the time away, to pass the time away

You sprinkled hot foot powder, mmm, around my door
All around my door
You sprinkled hot foot powder, all around your daddy's door
It keeps me with ramblin' mind rider
Every old place I go, every old place I go

I can tell the wind is risin', the leaves tremblin' on the tree
Tremblin' on the tree
I can tell the wind is risin', leaves tremblin' on the tree
All I need is my little sweet woman
And to keep my company, hey, hey, hey, hey, my company


ME AND THE DEVIL BLUES

Early this morning
When you knocked upon my door
Early this morning, oooo
When you knocked upon my door
And I said hello Satan
I believe it's time to go

Me and the Devil
Was walkin' side by side
Me and the Devil, woooo
Was walking side by side
And I'm going to beat my woman
'Til I get satisfied

She said you don't see why
That she would dog me 'round
(Spoken:) Now baby you know you ain't doin' me right don'tcha
She say you don't see why, whoooo
That she would dog me 'round
It must-a be that old evil spirit
So deep down in the ground
You may bury my body
Down by the highway side
(Spoken:) Baby, I don't care where you bury my body when I'm dead and gone
You may bury my body, woooo
Down by the highway side
So my old evil spirit
Can get a Greyhound bus and ride


WALKING BLUES

I woke up this mornin', feelin' round for my shoes
Know 'bout 'at I got these, old walkin' blues
Woke up this mornin', feelin' round for my shoes
But you know 'bout 'at I, got these old walkin' blues

Lord, I feel like blowin' my old lonesome horn
Got up this mornin', my little Bernice was gone
Lord, I feel like blowin' my lonesome horn
Well I got up this mornin' all I had was gone

Well leave this morn' of I have to ride the blind
I've feel mistreated and I don't mind dyin'
Leavin' this morn', I have to ride a blind
Babe, I been mistreated, baby, and I don't mind dyin'

Well, some people tell me that the worried blues ain't bad
Worst old feelin' I most ever had, some
People tell me that these old worried old blues ain't bad
It's the worst old feelin', I 'most ever had

She got an Elgin movement from her head down to her toes
Break in on a dollar most anywhere she goes
My head down to her toes
God she break in on a dollar most anywhere she goes


COME ON IN MY KITCHEN

You better come on in my kitchen
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

Ah, the woman I love, took from my best friend
Some joker got lucky, stole her back again

You better come on in my kitchen
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

Oh ah, she's gone, know she won't come back
I've taken the last nickel out of her nation sack

You better come on in my kitchen
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

You better come on in my kitchen
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

When a woman gets in trouble, everybody throws her down
Lookin' for her good friend, none can be found

You better come on in my kitchen
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

Winter time's comin', it's gon' be slow
You can't make the winter, babe, just drive a little slow

You better come on in my kitchen
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

You better come on in my kitchen
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors


PREACHIN' BLUES (UP JUMPED THE DEVIL)

Mmmmm mmmmm I's up this mornin'
ah, blues walkin' like a man
I's up this mornin'
ah, blues walkin' like a man
Worried blues
give me your right hand

And the blues fell mama's child
tore me all upside down
Blues fell mam's child
and it tore me all upside down
travel on, poor Bob
just cain't turn you 'round
The blu-u-u-u-ues
is a low-down shakin' chill
spoken: Yes, preach 'em now.

Mmmmm mmmmm
is a low-down shakin' chill
You ain't never had 'em, I
I hope you never will
Well, the blues
is a schin' old heart disease
spoken: Do it. now.
You gon' do it?
Tell me about it.

Let the blues
is a low-down achin' heart disease
Like consumption
killing me by degrees
I can study rain
oh, ohm drive, oh, oh, drive my blues
I been studyin' the rain and
I'm 'on drive my blues away
Goin' to the 'stil'ry
stay out there all day


SWEET HOME CHICAGO

Ooh, baby don't you want to go?
Ooh, baby don't you want to go?
Back to the land of California1, to my sweet home Chicago

Ooh, baby don't you want to go?
Ooh, baby don't you want to go?
Back to the land of California1, to my sweet home Chicago

Now one and one is two, two and two is four
I'm heavy loaded baby, I'm booked, I gotta go
Cryin' baby, honey don't you want to go?
Back to the land of California1, to my sweet home Chicago

Now two and two is four, four and two is six
You gonna keep monkey'in 'round here friend-boy2,
you gonna get your business all in a trick
But I'm cryin' baby, honey don't you wanna go
Back to the land of California1, to my sweet home Chicago

Now six and two is eight, eight and two is ten
Friend-boy, she trick you one time, she sure gonna do it again
But I'm cryin' hey, baby don't you want to go
To the land of California1, to my sweet home Chicago

I'm goin' to California, from there to Des Moines, Iowa'y3
Somebody will tell me that you, need my help someday,
cryin', hey hey, baby don't you want to go
Back to the land of California1, to my sweet home Chicago


WHEN YOU GOT A GOOD FRIEND

When you got a good friend, that will stay right by your side
When you got a good friend, that will stay right by your side
Give her all of your spare time, love and treat her right

I mistreated my baby and I can't see no reason why
I mistreated my baby and I can't see no reason why
Anytime I think about it, I just wring my hands and cry

Wonder, could I bear apologize or would she sympathize with me?
Would she sympathize with me?
She's a brown skin woman, just as sweet as a girlfriend can be

Baby I may be right or wrong
Baby, it's your opinion, well I may be right or wrong
Watch your close friend baby, then your enemies can't do you no harm

When you got a good friend that will stay right by your side
When you got a good friend that will stay right by your side
Oh give her all of your spare time, love and treat her right


JUDGMENT DAY ( IF I HAD POSSESSION OVER JUDGMENT DAY)

If I had possession over judgment day,
If I had possession over judgment day,
Lord, the women I'm lovin' would have no right to pray.

And I went to the mountain, far as my eye could see.
Lord, I went to the mountain, far as my eye could see.
Some other man got my woman and the lonesome blues got me.

And I rolled and I tumbled, cried the whole night long.
Lord, I rolled and I tumbled, cried the whole night long.
And I woke up this morning, my biscuit rollin' on.

Had to fold my arms and slowly walked away.
(I didn't like the way she done.)
Lord, I fold my arms and I slowly walked away.
Well, I said in my mind, "Your trouble gonna come some day."

Well, now run here baby, get down on bended knee.
Lord, now run here baby, get down on bended knee.
I wanna tell you all about the way they treated me.


RAMBLING BLUES (RAMBLING ON MY MIND)

I got rambling, I got rambling all on my mind.
I got rambling, I got rambling all on my mind.
I hates to leave my baby, but she treats me so unkind.

I got mean things, I got mean things all on my mind.
I got mean things, I got mean things all on my mind.
I hates to leave my baby, but she treats me so unkind.

I'm going down to the station, catch the fastest train I see.
I'm going down to the station, catch the fastest train I see.
I got the blues 'bout miss so-and-so, and her son's got the blues about me.

I got rambling, I got rambling all on my mind.
I got rambling, I got rambling all on my mind.
I hates to leave my baby, but she treats me so unkind.

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