Episode 2 The Devil's Music


Episode 2

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When someone says "I've got the blues,"

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everyone knows what that means.

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"I'm feeling down" or "I'm depressed."

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Well, when it comes to singing the blues, it doesn't always mean that.

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This programme's about good-time blues.

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It's about good-time blues entertainment,

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whether it's a kind of showbiz or just having fun in the juke joint.

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It's about blues singers who made their living moving around,

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playing for workers, cotton pickers, sawmill camp workers,

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factory labourers, pimps and butchers,

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washerwomen and ladies' maids.

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Our first singer started out as a chorus dancer,

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singing on travelling minstrel shows which used to move all over the South

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bringing showbiz to even the most isolated rural patch.

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Laura Dukes - Little Bit.

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# You'll get a line, I'll get a pole

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# Honey, oh babe

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# You'll get a line, I'll get a pole Babe

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# You'll get a line, I'll get a pole

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# We'll go down that crawdad hole

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# Honey, baby mine

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# I'll sit on the bank and my feet got cold, honey, oh babe

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# Sit on the bank till my feet got cold, babe

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# I'll sit on the bank till my feet got cold

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# Looking down that crawdad hole

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# Honey, baby mine

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# Now, what you gon' do when the creek runs dry, honey, oh babe

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# What you gon' do when the creek runs dry, babe?

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# What you gon' do when the creek runs dry

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# Sit on the bank Watch the crawdads die

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# Honey, baby mine

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# Here come a man with a pack on his back, honey, oh babe

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# Here come a man with a pack on his back, babe

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# Here come a man with a pack on his back

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# All them crawdads in that sack

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# Honey, baby mine

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# Oh, the man fell down Broke his pack, honey, oh babe

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# The man fell down and broke his pack, babe

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# The man fell down, broke his pack All them crawdads back in pack

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# Honey, baby mine. #

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That song, Crawdad, is an old country song.

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It's one that white singers used to sing as much as black

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in the '20s and '30s.

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Even rock-and-rollers like Jerry Lee Lewis sing it sometimes.

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The country entertainments like the travelling minstrel shows

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sometimes set up tents with folding stages.

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Other times, they'd perform on the back of a truck at a street corner.

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Sam Chapman used to work the minstrel shows like that.

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He'd quit his farm work during the slack season and go on tour,

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maybe up through Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee and back again.

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He'd crack jokes, tell stories, and then maybe he'd sing a love song.

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# Well, you told me, woman

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# Once upon a time

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# If I'd be your'n

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# You'd sure be mine

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# But that's all right

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# I know you love another man

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# But that's all right

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# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

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# Who will love you tonight?

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# Well, I come to your house late last night

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# Knocked up on your door

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# I heard a strange voice saying "Get away from there

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# "You can't get in here no more!"

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# But that's all right

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# I know you got another man but that's all right

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# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

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# Who will love you tonight?

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# Well, there's one thing certain woman

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# Without a doubt

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# If I can't come in That bastard better not come out

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# And that's all right

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# I know you got another man but that's all right

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# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

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# Who will love you tonight?

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# Oh, yes I do, baby

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# That's what I'm talking about, gal

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# Well, he did something in my house

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# Never happened before

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# He broke down my bed and loved my woman on my floor

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# But that's all right

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# I know you got another man but that's all right

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# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

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# Who gon' love you tonight?

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# Well, I knocked on the front

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# I ran round to the back

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# He passed by me running

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# Faster than a Dodge Cadillac

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# But that's all right

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# I know you had another man but that's all right

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# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

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# Who gon' love you tonight? #

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Chapman came from Mississippi.

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Born in the same state at about the same time

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at the turn of the century was Big Joe Williams.

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Illiterate, he started hoboing when he was just a kid.

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He played and lived off his music from an incredibly early age.

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Now he's living in a caravan in his birthplace of Crawford, Mississippi,

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where he can remember how he used to play up on a stage

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set up in the fields and where the farm hands

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and the local whites would come and hear him sing.

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# I'd rather be sloppy drunk, woman

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# Than any way I know

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# Yeah, I'd rather be sloppy drunk

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# Than any way I know

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# And to hear my woman say that she don't want me hanging round no more

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# Well, I'm going to get sober, baby

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# Ain't gonna drink no more

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# Yeah, I'm gonna get sober, woman

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# Ain't gonna drink no more

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# Turn my woman round and round Yeah, with me so and so

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# Hey, baby, bring me one more heavy pint

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# Hey, Momma Bring me one more heavy pint

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# I'm gonna get drunk, baby Lord knows

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# Sure gonna wreck your joint

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# Gonna get drunk, baby, Lord

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# Then I ain't gonna drink no more,

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# Ain't gonna drink no more

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# Well, I'm gonna get drunk, baby Lord, now

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# Ain't gonna drink no more

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# Tell my woman I'm getting drunk with me so and so

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# Say what you say. #

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Big Joe was the paid entertainer of many a plantation dance in the south.

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He also worked in the industrial north,

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sometimes playing for dimes on streetcars or in the streets.

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Like many Mississippi musicians, he can use a slide,

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giving his blues a tough, whining sound.

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It's a technique that's become commonplace in rock music today,

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but singers like Big Joe are the originals.

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Even more original is his nine-string guitar, which he modified himself.

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It helps give the dense, heavy sound

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and the percussive quality he learned when he first started playing music

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by beating on a water bucket as he sang.

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# Well, in the morning, Highway 49

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# Yeah, I'm gonna get up in the morning, get to Highway 49

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# I've been looking for my woman but Lord she can't be found

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# Lord, I believe, I believe

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# Well, I believe I'll dust my bed now

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# I believe, well I believe I'll dust my bed

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# Going out on Highway 49 Lord, I be rocking to my head

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# I believes I caught her walking Yeah, on my mind

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# Yeah, I believes I caught her walking, yeah, on my mind

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# My sweet woman Somewhere on Highway 49. #

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Highway 49 runs roughly from New Orleans up through Mississippi

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to Memphis, Tennessee.

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That was just part of the territory

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Big Joe worked as an itinerant musician.

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Many blues are rooted in the specific places singers came from

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or where they worked.

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Whether it's a highway or a big city or just a little town.

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A singer who often used to play with Big Joe

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is piano player Little Brother Montgomery.

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This song, Vicksburg Blues,

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is a piece he's been singing since the 1920s.

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Vicksburg, incidentally, is on the Mississippi River

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and Little Brother used to play around there.

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This is the kind of music you could hear in the juke joints,

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the barrel houses and the honky-tonks.

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The sort of places where people went along on a Saturday night to drink,

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gamble and fight - generally have a good time.

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# Now when I went down Mulberry

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# Paused and I turned up clean

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# Now when I went down Mulberry

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# A boat and I turned up clean

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# I was looking for my baby

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# But she had moved away

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# Some said she moved right on one night

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# And some said she moved out on fine

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# Some said she moved right on one night

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# And some said she moved out on fine

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# Now wherever she is

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# She's resting on my mind

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# Now wherever she is

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# She's resting on my mind

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# Now just as soon as the train, mama

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# Wake up in the yard

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# Now, just as soon as the train Mama

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# Honey, make up in the yard

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# Now I'm Vicksburg boat-bound

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# But the boat, they don't have me. #

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Minstrel stage, plantation dance or honky-tonk -

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blues singers have been entertainers for over 60 years.

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But not every blues singer has been a professional entertainer.

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For every one that is, there's another who's an amateur.

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This last piece of film is of a man who works by day

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in a chemical factory.

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He has his own club in St Louis where people come to drink.

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It's not much different from any other neighbourhood bar,

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but James DeShay leads a band

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and two nights a week, they perform as much for their own pleasure

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as to attract more customers.

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The songs they sing are just solid electric amplified blues.

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Incredibly, this song is something James DeShay remembers from a record

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by the great Mississippian Charley Patton,

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which came out in 1929.

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In fact, bits of the song come from more than one record which came out

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in 1929, but then that's the way the entertainer makes the song his own.

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# Get my pony Saddle up my black mare

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# Get my pony Saddle up my black mare

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# I've got to find my woman Find her in the world somewhere

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# I've got a brand new pony Baby, already trained

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# I've got a brand new pony Baby, already trained

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# I'm going to get in my saddle Tighten up on my reins

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# Something to tell you When I get the chance

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# Something to tell you When I get the chance

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# Well, I don't want to marry Baby, let me be your man

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# Hey, come on, got a girl and she won't let me ride

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# Hey, come on, got a girl and she won't let me ride

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# Well, she keeps walking round Wobble from side to side

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# Hey, hey, I don't know, babe But I do believe I will

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# Hey, hey, I don't know, babe But I believe I will

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# Hey, hey I'll be on my own but I'd rather be with you

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# I've got a brand new pony Baby, already trained

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# I've got a brand new pony Baby, already trained

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# Well, I'll sit in my saddle Tighten up on my reins

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# Hey, a brown-skin woman # Look like something good to eat

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# A brown-skin woman Look like something good to eat

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# If it don't happen early Baby, you are right with me. #

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Thank you. Thank you.

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