ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
---|---|---|
Tommy Johnson | Big Road Blues | Canned Heat Blues: Masters Of The Delta Blues |
Mississippi Sheiks | Stop And Listen Blues | The Essential |
Mattie Delaney | Down The Big Road Blues | I Can't Be Satisfied Vol. 1 |
Willie Lofton | Dark Road Blues | Blues Images Vol. 12 |
Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup | Dirt Road Blues | A Music Man Like Nobody Ever Saw |
Big Maceo Merriweather | Big Road Blues | The Victor/Bluebird Recordings 1945-1947 |
John Dudley | Big Road Blues | Parchman Farm: Photographs And Field Recordings: 1947–1959 |
Shirley Griffith | Big Road Blues | Saturday Blues |
Jimmy Brewer | Big Road Blues | Blues Roots: The Mississippi Blues Vol. 1 |
Mager Johnson | Big Road Blues | Goin' Up The Country |
Houston Stackhouse | Big Road Blues | Masters Of Delta Blues Vol. 4 |
Blind Bobby Baker aka Bobby Leecan | Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out | Suitcase Breakdown |
Bessie Smith | Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out | The Complete Recordings |
Pinetop Smith | Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out | Boogie Woogie & Barrelhouse Piano Vol. 1 |
Josh White | Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out | Josh White Josh White Vol. 6 1944-1945 |
Scrapper Blackwell | Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out | The Frog Blues Annual No. 5 |
Charlie Segar | Key To The Highway | Blues From The Vocalion Vaults |
Jazz Gillum | Key To The Highway | When The Sun Goes Down |
Big Bill Broonzy | Key To The Highway | When The Sun Goes Down |
John Lee Hooker | Key To The Highway | Documenting The Sensation Recordings 1948-52 |
Little Walter | Key To The Highway | The Chess Years 1952-63 |
Blind Connie Williams | Key To The Highway | Philadelphia Street Singer |
Blind Lemon Jefferson | Corinna Blues | Best Of |
Ma Rainey | See See Rider Blues | Mother of the Blues |
Leadbelly | C.C. Rider | American Epic: Lead Belly |
Jelly Roll Morton | C.C. Rider | Library Of Congress Recordings |
Bea Booze | See See Rider Blues | Sammy Price And The Blues Singers Vol. 2 |
Lonnie Johnson | See See Rider | American Folk Blues Festival 1963 |
Otis Spann | See See Rider | Otis Spann's Chicago Blues |
Babe Stovall & Herb Quinn | See See Rider | South Mississippi Blues |
Papa Charlie Jackson | All I Want Is a Spoonful | Why Do You Moan When You Can Shake That Thing |
Luke Jordan | Cocaine Blues | Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice |
Charley Patton | A Spoonful Blues | The Best Of |
Charley Jordan | Just A Spoonful | The Essential |
David 'Honeyboy' Edwards | Just a Spoonful | Screamin' & Hollerin' The Blues |
Howlin' Wolf | Spoonful | The Complete Recordings 1951-1969 |
Lottie Murrell | Spoonful | Living Country Blues USA Vol. 10 |
Mississippi John Hurt | Coffee Blues | Memorial Anthology |
Archie Edwards | Lovin Spoonful | Living Country Blues USA Vol. 6 |
Show Notes:
Back in 2014 we did two shows tracing the origins and evolution of several classic blues songs and revisited the theme with two more shows in 2020. Today’s program is a belated sequel to those shows. Today we trace the history of “Big Road Blues”, “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out”, “Spoonful”, “Key To the Highway” and “See See Rider.”
Big Road Blues” was one of the most influential recordings of early Mississippi blues, a song many bluesmen learned either from the record or from seeing Crystal Springs blues legend Tommy Johnson in person. He recorded the song at his first session on February 3, 1928 in Memphis with Charlie McCoy on second guitar. “I ain’t goin’ down that big road by myself” became a classic blues line, sometimes changed to ‘dark road’ or even ‘road of love’ by other singers. Mississippi Sheiks used the guitar part for their great “Stop and Listen” when they recorded it on Feb. 17, 1930 and a few days later Mattie Delaney recorded her version, “Down the Big Road Blues.” Next was Willie Lotfon who titled it “Dark Road Blues”, in 1945 it was covered by Arthur Crudup (“Dirt Road Blues”) and Big Maceo. In the 60s it was covered by Shirley Griffith and K.C. Douglas, who learned directly from Johnson, as well as versions by Jimmy Brewer, Houston Stackhouse among others.
After some recording in 1964, Robert Nighthawk would only record once more for a session in August of 1967 and another session the middle of the following month. The music harks back to Nighthawk and Stackhouse’s early delta days and the music is beautifully played. Tommy Johnson’s influence looms large with five of his songs being covered. In a way Nighthawk’s life had come circle: He was once again playing with Stackhouse who taught how to play guitar (Johnson’s “Big Road Blues”, “Cool Water Blues” and Big Fat Mama were the first songs he taught Nighthawk) Stackhouse in turn learned directly from Tommy Johnson and here were the two old friends performing the songs of Johnson together one final time.
“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” was written by pianist Jimmie Cox in 1923. The lyrics in the popular 1929 recording by Bessie Smith are told from the point of view of somebody who was once wealthy during the Prohibition era and reflect on the fleeting nature of material wealth and the friendships that come and go with it. Although “Nobody Knows You When You Are Down and Out” was copyrighted in 1923, the first known publication did not appear until a recording of 1927. Blues and jazz musician Bobby Leecan, who recorded with various ensembles such as the South Street Trio, Dixie Jazzers Washboard Band, and Fats Waller’s Six Hot Babies, recorded “Nobody Needs You When You’re Down and Out” under the name “Blind Bobby Baker and his guitar”, with his vocal and guitar. His version, recorded in New York around June 1927, is credited on the record label to Bobby Leecan and has completely different lyrics from the popular 1929 version. The second known recording of the song was on January 11, 1929, by an obscure vocal quartet, the Aunt Jemima Novelty Four and four days later, influential boogie-woogie pianist Pinetop Smith recorded “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” in Chicago, crediting himself as the author.
The song was so identified with Bessie Smith that no one recorded the song again until a generation later. Josh White covered it in 1945, Leadbelly recorded it at his last sessions, Billie & De De Pierce cut a version in 1961, Grey Ghost recorded it in 1965 along with many others. In 1949, Bessie’s travelling companion, Ruby Smith recorded a version of the song. There is also a private recording made by Scrapper Blackwell from the same year that has surfaced and he recorded a version for Bluesville. A version by Nina Simone reached number 23 in the Billboard R&B chart as well as number 93 in the Hot 100 pop chart in 1960.
Blues pianist Charlie Segar first recorded “Key to the Highway” in 1940. Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy followed with recordings in 1940 and 1941, using an arrangement that has become the standard. Broonzy explained the song’s development: “Some of the verses he [Charlie Segar] was singing it in the South the same time as I sung it in the South. And practically all of blues is just a little change from the way that they was sung when I was a kid … You take one song and make fifty out of it … just change it a little bit.” Segar’s lyrics are nearly the same as those recorded by Broonzy and Gillum. Segar’s original “Key to the Highway” was performed as a mid-tempo twelve-bar blues. When Jazz Gillum recorded it later that year with Broonzy on guitar, he used an eight-bar blues arrangement. In two different interviews, Gillum gave conflicting stories about who wrote the song: in one, he claimed sole authorship, in another he identified Broonzy as the author. According to Broonzy, he used an original melody which was based on childhood songs. Shortly after Broonzy’s death in 1958, Little Walter recorded “Key to the Highway” as an apparent tribute to him. The song was a hit, spending fourteen weeks in the Billboard R&B chart where it reached number six in 1958.
“See See Rider”, also known as “C.C. Rider”, “See See Rider Blues” or “Easy Rider” was first recorded by Ma Rainey on October 16, 1924, for Paramount Records in New York. Lead Belly and Blind Lemon Jefferson performed the song in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area between 1912 and 1917. The song is possibly connected to the Shelton Brooks composition “I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone” (1913) that was inspired by the mysterious 1907 disappearance of the 28-year-old jockey Jimmy Lee, “The Black Demon”, a well-known black rider who won every race on the card at Churchill Downs. Gates Thomas collected a version of “C.C. Rider” in the 1920s in south Texas. In 1926 Blind Lemon recorded “Corinna Blues” with the opening line: “See see rider, you see what you done done/Made me love you, now your train has come.”
In 1943, a version by Wee Bea Booze reached number one on Billboard magazine’s Harlem Hit Parade. Later rock-oriented versions were recorded by Chuck Willis (as “C.C. Rider”, a number one R&B hit and a number 12 pop hit in 1957) and LaVern Baker (number nine R&B and number 34 pop in 1963).
“Spoonful” is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded in 1960 by Howlin’ Wolf. Etta James and Harvey Fuqua had a pop and R&B record chart hit with their duet cover of “Spoonful” in 1961, and it was popularized in the late 1960s by the British rock group Cream.A version with a different chord progression was recorded in 1966 by Mississippi John Hurt as “Coffee Blues.” Others who recorded versions include Jimmy Witherspoon and Koko Taylor. “Spoonful” can be seen as a metaphor for sex or drugs but Howlin’ Wolf’s version seems to say it could be anything that elicits strong cravings or addiction:
It could be a spoonful of diamond
It could be a spoonful of gold
Just a little spoon of your precious love
Satisfy my soul
Men lies about little
Some of ’em cries about little
Some of ’em dies about littles
Everything fight about a spoonful
That spoon, that spoon, that sp-
Dixon’s “Spoonful” is loosely based on “A Spoonful Blues”, a song recorded in 1929 by Charley Patton. Earlier related songs include “All I Want Is a Spoonful” by Papa Charlie Jackson (1925) and “Cocaine Blues” by Luke Jordan (1927).