Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases a sound file and lyrics for Leadbelly's version of the song "Alabama Bound." A brief excerpt from that song's Wikipedia page is also included in this post. Additional examples of this song are included in the Bonus section of this post.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "ALABAMA BOUND"
From
"I'm Alabama Bound" is a ragtime melody composed by Robert Hoffman in 1909. Hoffman "respectfully" dedicated it to one M. T. Scarlata.[1] The cover of its first edition, published by Robert Ebberman, New Orleans, 1909, advertises the music as "Also Known As The Alabama Blues" which has led some to suspect it of being one of the first blues songs. However, as written, it is an up-tempo rag (Rag Time Two Step) with no associated lyrics.
It has been recorded numerous times in different styles—both written and in sound recordings—with a number of different sets of lyrics.
Two recording artists claimed composing credits for the tune under two different titles and both with differing lyrics: Trixie Smith for "Railroad Blues" (Paramount 12262, 1925) and Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton for "Don't You Leave Me Here" (Bluebird 10450, 1939).
Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter recorded perhaps the best-known version of "I'm Alabama Bound" ("Alabama Bound", Victor 27268, 1940).
...The first lyrics associated with the melody was a 1909 sound recording attributing the words to the owner of a New Orleans sheet music publishing company. The actual source of the lyrics is unclear, however, but they may have come out of a folk tradition".
-snip-
WARNING: That Wikipedia page contains what is now known as "the n word" fully spelled out [in the "1909 Rag" section.]
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SHOWCASE EXAMPLE: 'Alabama Bound' LEADBELLY, Blues Guitar Legend
RagtimeDorianHenry, Uploaded on Apr 15, 2009
-snip-
SyberkaPL, a commenter to this sound file’s viewer comment thread wrote that Leadbelly sang this song “with [the] Golden Gate Quartet”
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LYRICS: ALABAMA BOUND
(as sung by Leadbelly & The Golden Gate Quartet)
I'm Alabama bound
I'm Alabama bound
And if the train don't stop and turn around
I'm Alabama bound
Oh, don't you leave me here
Oh, don't you leave me here
But if you must go anyhow
Just leave a dime for beer
Oh don't you be like me
Oh don't you be like me
Drink your good sweet cherry wine
And let that whiskey be
Well your hair don't curve
And your eyes ain't blue
Well if you don't want me, Polly Ann
Well I don't want you
-snip-
reposted from http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leadbelly/alabama+bound_20231287.html
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BONUS SECTION - ADDITIONAL TEXT EXAMPLES OF & COMMENTS ABOUT THE SONG "ALABAMA BOUND"
From "Coonjine In Manhatten" http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/07070413.html Garnett Laidlaw Eskew, 1939, pps. 10-11
"A song which was popular in America twenty years ago was "Alabama Bound." An ex-roustabout on the St. Louis levee once explained to me that this song was originally a Coonjine song. The steamboat Saltillo was a doughy little sternwheeler which late in the evening used to pull away periodically from the landing and turn her nose southward down the Mississippi. At Cairo she would turn into the Ohio and up that stream to the mouth of the Tennessee River, following the lovely channel of that river back into the Muscle Shoals section of Alabama which the great government dams are today being built to improve navigation.
With their usual happy facility for conferring euphonious nicknames, the Negroes called the Saltillo the Sal Teller.
Sal Teller leave St. Looey
Wid her lights tu'n down.
And you'll know by dat
She's Alabama bound. Alabama bound!
She's Alabama bound!
You'll know by dat
She's Alabama bound!
Doan you leave me here!
Doan you leave me here!
Ef you's gwine away and ain comin' back
Leave a dime fer beer!
Leave a dime fer beer
Leave a dime fer beer!
Brother, if yu gwine away
Leave a dime fer beer!
I ask de mate
Ter sell me some gin;
Says, I pay you, mister
When de Stack comes in
When de Stack comes in
When de Stack comes in!
Says, I pay you mister,
When de Stack comes in
The name Stack, recurring several times in the song, referred to one of the Lee Line boats, the Stacker Lee.
-snip-
Notice the similarity between this song's lyrics and Leadbelly's version of "Alabama Bound".
Read that manuscript for more information about and examples of coonjine songs.
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From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=54404 "Steamboat coonjine songs", posted by Guest Q, 06 Dec 02 - 02:12 PM
"…“Also from [Newman L.] White, ["American Negro Folk Songs”] collected 1915, this one sung on Tennessee River boats.
The boat's up the river
And she won't come down;
I believe to my soul
She must be water bound.
The boat's up the river
And she won't come down;
One long-lonesome-blow
And she's Alabama bound.
(Reported separately, about the railroad). There are many verses to "Alabama Bound," the song changed through time and visited several topics:
She is a long tall yellow gal,
She wears a Mary Jane,
She wears a Mary Jane.
If that train don't leave dat rail
I am Alabama bound.
-snip-
"yellow gal"= light skinned Black woman
"wears a Mary Jane?" – My guess is that this refers to the style of shoes that are still known as "Mary Jane shoes" and "Mary Janes". Here’s an excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jane_(shoe)
"Mary Jane is an American term (formerly trademarked) for a closed, low-cut shoe with one or more straps across the instep.
...Children's shoes secured by a strap over the instep and fastened with a buckle or button appeared in the early 19th century. Originally worn by both sexes, they began to be perceived as being mostly for girls in the 1930s in North America and the 1940s in Europe.[1] They were also popular with women in the 1920s."
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RELATED LINK
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/in-search-of-information-about_2.html for Part I of this series. That post provides excerpts from material that provides information about those songs and dances. Also in that post I share my speculations about why I think that counjaille and coonjine songs and dances appear to have been largely forgotten.
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Thanks to Leadbelly and the Golden Gate Quartet for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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