Episode 2 The Devil's Music

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

everyone knows what that means.

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

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

This programme's about good-time blues.

It's about good-time blues entertainment,

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

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

playing for workers, cotton pickers, sawmill camp workers,

factory labourers, pimps and butchers,

washerwomen and ladies' maids.

Our first singer started out as a chorus dancer,

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

bringing showbiz to even the most isolated rural patch.

Laura Dukes - Little Bit.

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

# Honey, oh babe

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

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

# We'll go down that crawdad hole

# Honey, baby mine

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

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

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

# Looking down that crawdad hole

# Honey, baby mine

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

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

# What you gon' do when the creek runs dry

# Sit on the bank Watch the crawdads die

# Honey, baby mine

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

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

# Here come a man with a pack on his back

# All them crawdads in that sack

# Honey, baby mine

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

# The man fell down and broke his pack, babe

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

# Honey, baby mine. #

That song, Crawdad, is an old country song.

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

in the '20s and '30s.

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

The country entertainments like the travelling minstrel shows

sometimes set up tents with folding stages.

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

Sam Chapman used to work the minstrel shows like that.

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

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

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

# Well, you told me, woman

# Once upon a time

# If I'd be your'n

# You'd sure be mine

# But that's all right

# I know you love another man

# But that's all right

# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

# Who will love you tonight?

# Well, I come to your house late last night

# Knocked up on your door

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

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

# But that's all right

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

# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

# Who will love you tonight?

# Well, there's one thing certain woman

# Without a doubt

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

# And that's all right

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

# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

# Who will love you tonight?

# Oh, yes I do, baby

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

# Well, he did something in my house

# Never happened before

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

# But that's all right

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

# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

# Who gon' love you tonight?

# Well, I knocked on the front

# I ran round to the back

# He passed by me running

# Faster than a Dodge Cadillac

# But that's all right

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

# Every now and then I 'gin to wonder

# Who gon' love you tonight? #

Chapman came from Mississippi.

Born in the same state at about the same time

at the turn of the century was Big Joe Williams.

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

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

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

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

set up in the fields and where the farm hands

and the local whites would come and hear him sing.

# I'd rather be sloppy drunk, woman

# Than any way I know

# Yeah, I'd rather be sloppy drunk

# Than any way I know

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

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

# Ain't gonna drink no more

# Yeah, I'm gonna get sober, woman

# Ain't gonna drink no more

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

# Hey, baby, bring me one more heavy pint

# Hey, Momma Bring me one more heavy pint

# I'm gonna get drunk, baby Lord knows

# Sure gonna wreck your joint

# Gonna get drunk, baby, Lord

# Then I ain't gonna drink no more,

# Ain't gonna drink no more

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

# Ain't gonna drink no more

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

# Say what you say. #

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

He also worked in the industrial north,

sometimes playing for dimes on streetcars or in the streets.

Like many Mississippi musicians, he can use a slide,

giving his blues a tough, whining sound.

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

but singers like Big Joe are the originals.

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

It helps give the dense, heavy sound

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

by beating on a water bucket as he sang.

# Well, in the morning, Highway 49

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

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

# Lord, I believe, I believe

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

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

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

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

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

# My sweet woman Somewhere on Highway 49. #

Highway 49 runs roughly from New Orleans up through Mississippi

to Memphis, Tennessee.

That was just part of the territory

Big Joe worked as an itinerant musician.

Many blues are rooted in the specific places singers came from

or where they worked.

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

A singer who often used to play with Big Joe

is piano player Little Brother Montgomery.

This song, Vicksburg Blues,

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

Vicksburg, incidentally, is on the Mississippi River

and Little Brother used to play around there.

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

the barrel houses and the honky-tonks.

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

gamble and fight - generally have a good time.

# Now when I went down Mulberry

# Paused and I turned up clean

# Now when I went down Mulberry

# A boat and I turned up clean

# I was looking for my baby

# But she had moved away

# Some said she moved right on one night

# And some said she moved out on fine

# Some said she moved right on one night

# And some said she moved out on fine

# Now wherever she is

# She's resting on my mind

# Now wherever she is

# She's resting on my mind

# Now just as soon as the train, mama

# Wake up in the yard

# Now, just as soon as the train Mama

# Honey, make up in the yard

# Now I'm Vicksburg boat-bound

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

Minstrel stage, plantation dance or honky-tonk -

blues singers have been entertainers for over 60 years.

But not every blues singer has been a professional entertainer.

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

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

in a chemical factory.

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

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

but James DeShay leads a band

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

as to attract more customers.

The songs they sing are just solid electric amplified blues.

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

by the great Mississippian Charley Patton,

which came out in 1929.

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

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

# Get my pony Saddle up my black mare

# Get my pony Saddle up my black mare

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

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

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

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

# Something to tell you When I get the chance

# Something to tell you When I get the chance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you. Thank you.