Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Bad Luck Blues" (sound file, information, lyrics, & comments)

RagtimeDorianHenry, Mar 14, 2009

Blind Lemon Jefferson (born Lemon Henry Jefferson) was born on September 24, 1893 in Coutchman, Texas. He lived most of his life in that state. He learned the guitar in his teens, and started to play for picnics and parties. He became then a street musician, playing on street corners in East Texas cities, sometimes all night long for people.

He started to record for Paramount Records in 1925 with a couple of gospel songs, under the pseudonym of Deacon L. J. Bates. His first records under his own name were "Booster Blues and "Dry Southern Blues" and sold very well. For that reason he recorded more than 100 songs between 1926 and 1929 for Paramount.

Blind Lemon was making enough money to buy a car and to employ a chauffeur, something extremely rare for a black man at this time. Despite this, Jefferson has been very unhappy with his royalties treatments with Paramount. This would explain why he decided to record for Okeh in 1927 his hit "Match Box Blues" along with "Black Snake Moan".

Jefferson died on December 19, 1929 in Chicago at age 36. His death certificate indicated "probably acute myocarditis".

Back Luck Blues, recorded in 1926

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This pancocojams post  showcases a sound file of "Bad Luck Blues" by Blind Lemon Jefferson.

This post also includes information about Blind Lemon Jefferson, song lyrics, and comments about those lyrics.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Blind Lemon Jefferson for his musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube. 

Thanks also to Gigi Erba from Italy for motivating me to focus on Blues songs. 

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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BLINE LEMON JEFFERSON
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Lemon_Jefferson
"Lemon Henry "Blind Lemon" Jefferson (September 24, 1893? – December 19, 1929)[1] was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s and has been called the "Father of the Texas Blues".[9]

Due mainly to his high-pitched voice and the originality of his guitar playing, Jefferson's performances were distinctive.[9] His recordings sold well, but he was not a strong influence on younger blues singers of his generation, who could not imitate him as easily as they could other commercially successful artists.[10] Later blues and rock and roll musicians, however, did attempt to imitate both his songs and his musical style.[9]

Beginning of recording career

Prior to Jefferson, few artists had recorded solo voice and blues guitar, the first of which were the vocalist Sara Martin and the guitarist Sylvester Weaver, who recorded "Longing for Daddy Blues", probably on October 24, 1923.[17] The first self-accompanied solo performer of a self-composed blues song was Lee Morse, whose "Mail Man Blues" was recorded on October 7, 1924.[18] Jefferson's music is uninhibited and represented the classic sounds of everyday life, from a honky-tonk to a country picnic, to street corner blues, to work in the burgeoning oil fields (a reflection of his interest in mechanical objects and processes).[19]

 [...]

Jefferson did what few had ever done before him – he became a successful solo guitarist and male vocalist in the commercial recording world.[20] Unlike many artists who were "discovered" and recorded in their normal venues, Jefferson was taken to Chicago in December 1925 or January 1926 to record his first tracks. Uncharacteristically, his first two recordings from this session were gospel songs ("I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart" and "All I Want Is That Pure Religion"), released under the name Deacon L. J. Bates. A second recording session was held in March 1926.[21] His first releases under his own name, "Booster Blues" and "Dry Southern Blues", were hits. Their popularity led to the release of the other two songs from that session, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues", which became a runaway success, with sales in six figures. He recorded about 100 tracks between 1926 and 1929; 43 records were issued, all but one for Paramount Records. Paramount's studio techniques and quality were poor, and the recordings were released with poor sound quality. In May 1926, Paramount re-recorded Jefferson performing his hits "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues" in the superior facilities at Marsh Laboratories, and subsequent releases used those versions. Both versions appear on compilation albums.[citation needed]

Success with Paramount Records

Largely because of the popularity of artists such as Jefferson and his contemporaries Blind Blake and Ma Rainey, Paramount became the leading recording company for the blues in the 1920s"...

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LYRICS - BAD LUCK BLUES

(Blind Lemon Jefferson)

[Verse 1]

I wanna go home and I ain't got sufficient tolls*
Doggone my bad luck soul
Wanna go home and I ain't got sufficient tolls*
I mean sufficient, talking about tolls*
Well, I wanna go home, but I ain't got sufficient tolls*

[Verse 2]

I bet my money and I lost it, Lord, it's so
Doggone my bad luck soul
Mmm, lost it, ain't it so?
I mean lost it, speakin' about doubh**, now
I'll never bet on the deuce-trey-queen no more

[Verse 3]

Mama, I can't gamble, son, why don't you quit tryin'?
Doggone my bad luck soul
Mmm, why don't you quit tryin'?
Why don't you quit, I mean tryin'?
That joker stole off with that long-haired brown of mine

[Verse 4]

Sugar, you catch the Katy, I'll catch that Santa Fe
Doggone my bad luck soul
Sugar, you catch that Katy and I'll catch that Santa Fe
I mean the Santy, speakin' about Fe
When you get in Denver, pretty mama, look around for me

[Verse 5]

The woman I love's 'bout five feet from the ground
Doggone my bad luck soul
Hey, five feet from the ground
Five feet from the, I mean ground
She's a tailor-made woman, she ain't no hand-me-down

[Verse 6]

I ain't seen my sugar in three long weeks today
Doggone my bad luck soul
I ain't seen my sugar, three long weeks
Three long weeks to, I mean day, girl
It's been so long, seems like my heart's gonn' break

[Verse 7]

I'm gonna run 'cross town, catch that southbound Santa Fe
Doggone my bad luck soul
Mmm, Lord, that Santa Fe
I mean the Santy, speakin' about Fe
Be on my way to what they call lovin' Tennessee

online source: https://genius.com/Blind-lemon-jefferson-bad-luck-blues-lyrics

*This word replaces the word "clothes" in that transcription. "Tolls" refers to money.

**"Dough" (informal referent for money) replaces the word "so" in this transcription.
 
Read the comments below about these corrections.

Also, a "long-haired brown" = a brown skinned Black woman with long hair

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SEKECTED COMMENTS ABOUT THESE LYRICS
From  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqEwFwj3j8A 
This is the discussion thread for the sound file that is embedded above.

Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

1. JimiChristopher, 2011
"@ijoan hmm I think your right about toll .. everywhere i looked said clothes but now i'm thinking toll too! Its definately sufficient though but obviously he's talking about station toll, makes sense."
-snip-
The comment from ijon is no longer shown in this discussion thread.

**
2. Bluesman1929, 2012
"Yes, it is obviously "toll". I don't think anyone has put forward a brilliant correction to a blues lyric more modestly than you. With rather less modesty, World Arbiter released a CD in 2006 of 26 Blind Lemon recordings, proclaiming the "texts revealed" through their "Sonic Depth Technology" and with much criticism of Grossman for his errors. But they still had "clothes" instead of "toll". Congratulations. I agree with JimiChristopher, though - it is "sufficient" throughout the first verse.

**
3. Bluesman1929, 2012
"Does anyone think that in the second verse it should be "speakin' about dough"? All versions of these lyrics have "speakin' about so", which doesn't make a lot of sense, but "dough" obviously does, since he says he's "lost it". I can hear a hard 'd'. I'm not American, so I don't know whether money would be called dough in 1920's Texas."
-snip
This excerpt suggests  that the word "dough" was probably used in the United States in the 1920s.

From https://pocketsense.com/did-word-dough-come-mean-money-8629.html
..."Although it's impossible to trace the exact date of the first slang usage of "dough" as a term for money, it seems to have originated in the 19th century. Since bread was the traditional everyday necessity of life, to earn one's living was to earn one's bread, therefore bread became synonymous with money. On some unknown day, an individual whose identity is lost to historians simply substituted the word dough, and a new slang term came into use."...

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