The Charity, Oct. 30, 2017
Son House live 1967 in TV-Studio -snip- According to Stefan Wirz, a commenter on this video's discussion thread, this video was recorded at October 9, 1967 at WDR TV in Cologne, Germany **** Edited by Azizi Powell This pancocojams post presents information about Son House and showcases a 1967 video of Son House's performance of his song "Death Letter Blues" (also given as "Death Letter"). The lyrics for that song are also included in this pancocojams post along with two comments from this video's discussion thread. The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to Son House for his musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to all those who are associated with this video. Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube. Special thanks to Pavel Skradlant for suggesting that I showcase Cassandra Wilson performing Son House's "Death Letter" on this pancocojams blog. That suggestion led to me to publish this post on Son House and this post that showcases two videos of Cassandra Wilson performing that song: https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/09/two-videos-of-african-american-jazz.html **** INFORMATION ABOUT SON HOUSE
After years of hostility to secular music, as a preacher and for a few years also working as a church pastor, he turned to blues performance at the age of 25. He quickly developed a unique style by applying the rhythmic drive, vocal power and emotional intensity of his preaching to the newly learned idiom. In a short career interrupted by a spell in Parchman Farm penitentiary, he developed his musicianship to the point that Charley Patton, the foremost blues artist of the Mississippi Delta region, invited him to share engagements and to accompany him to a 1930 recording session for Paramount Records.
Issued at the start of the Great Depression, the records did
not sell and did not lead to national recognition. Locally, House remained
popular, and in the 1930s, together with Patton's associate Willie Brown, he
was the leading musician of Coahoma County. There he was a formative influence
on Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. In 1941 and 1942, House and the members of
his band were recorded by Alan Lomax and John W. Work for the Library of
Congress and Fisk University. The following year, he left the Delta for
Rochester, New York, and gave up music.
In 1964, a group of young record collectors discovered
House, whom they knew of from his records issued by Paramount and by the
Library of Congress. With their encouragement, he relearned his repertoire and
established a career as an entertainer, performing for young, mostly white
audiences in coffeehouses, at folk festivals and on concert tours during the
American folk music revival, billed as a "folk blues" singer. He
recorded several albums, and some informally taped concerts have also been
issued as albums. House died in 1988.[3] In 2017, his single "Preachin'
the Blues" was inducted in to the Blues Hall of Fame.[4]
[...]
Honors
In 2007, House was honored with a marker on the Mississippi
Blues Trail in Tunica, Mississippi.[25]
In 2017, his single "Preachin' the Blues" was
inducted in to the Blues Hall of Fame.[4]"
****
LYRICS - DEATH LETTER BLUES
(Son House, 1933)
I got a letter this morning, how do you reckon it read?
Say, "Hurry, hurry! The gal you love is dead."
I got a letter this morning, I say how you reckon it read?
It say, "Hurry, hurry! mmm 'cause the gal you love is
dead."
You know I grabbed up my suitcase, took off down the road
When I got there, she was laying on the cooling board
I grabbed up my suitcase, I said I took off down the road
I said when I got there, mmm she's laying on the cooling
board
Lord, I walked up close, I looked down in her face
She's a good old girl, got to lay her to Judgment Day
I say I walked up close, I looked down in her face
I say she's a good old girl got to lay her to Judgment Day
Lord I fold up my arms, I slowly walked away
I said, "Farewell, Honey, I'll see ya Judgement Day!"
I fold up my arms, ah yes, I walked away
And I said, "Farewell, farewell, hmm, I'll see you
Judgement Day!"
You know, I went in my room, and I bowed to pray
But the priest came along, and drove my spirit away
I went in my rules, yeah, I bowed to pray
I said, well, the blues came along, and drove my spirit away
You know, I thought I'd never love but four women in my life
My mother, my sister, dead gal, and my wife
I thought I'd never love, and I said, but four women in my
life
I said my mother and my sister, my dead gal, and my wife
(You know, looked like 10,000 people
Were standin' around the buryin' ground
I didn't know I loved her, until I let her down
Looked like 10,000 standin' around the buryin ground
You know I didn't know that I loved her
UntiI I began to let her down)
You know I didn't feel so bad
Till the good Lord turned me down
I didn't have a soul to throw my arms around
I didn't feel so bad until the good Lord's son went down
I say I didn't have a soul to throw my arms around
You know I's cryin' last night, the night before
I'm gonna change my way of living
So I won't be crying no more
You know I cried last night, I said, all the night before
I said I'm gone change my way of living so I won't cry no
more
(You know it's so hard to love when someone don't love you
Don't look like satisfaction, don't care what you do
It's so hard to love someone that don't love you
You know you don't get no satisfaction
Don't care what you do
You know love had a fault
Make you do things you don't want to do
Love sometimes leave you feelin sad and blue
Love had a fault, make you do things you don't want to do
Love sometimes leave you feelin sad and blue)
****
TWO COMMENTS FROM THIS VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieekMD7kfpw
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: These comments were written in response to another commenter's question about what this song means.]
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.]
1. Rod Jones, 2021
"@Charles
Williams This isn't a complex song, and
incorporates some themes very common in the delta blues. Death is one of these
themes, the death of a lover very often.
There is no need, and no cause, to make it complex - it's
simply about loss, and grief.
The singer (Son House in this instance) is seperated from
his wife or girlfriend - we don't know why. Maybe he's out on the road or
riding the blinds, doing gigs, or some other kind of work. (Son House worked on
the railways at one point in his life). Maybe they split up, but he still loves
her anyway.
He receives a "death letter" (possibly on the special,
black-bordered stationery that was used back then), informing him that she has
died, so he quickly packs a bag and heads back to where she lives.
He attends the mortuary where he is shown her body, and bids
her farewell until they are re-united on Judgement Day.
He attends the funeral, where a large crowd has assembled,
which indicates that she was well thought-of locally. (In Ghana, for example,
if the whole village attends your funeral, everyone knows you were a good
person). After the service he walks away, saddened, and tries to comfort
himself with the thought that they will be re-united on Judgement Day.
Back in his bedroom he tries to pray but the blues (in this
case you could say grief), comes upon him and he is unable to pray.
He asks God to have mercy on his soul, saying that he would
never seek to harm anyone.
There are other variations of these lyrics, but that's the
ghist.
The blues is the truth. The big themes of the blues are the
big themes of life itself - in this case Love and Death.
2.
"@Charles
Williams There are subtexts to the blues
- voodoo is one of them ("got a black cat bone, gotta mojo too, high john
the conqueror..."), but the whole African culture around death is probably
the most deeply embedded and pervasive.
Listen to Bukka White's Fixing To Die, and Blind Lemon's See
That My Grave Is Swept Clean, or any version of St James Infrimary, amongst
many others.
The African death culture crossed the Atlantic, and melded
with Christianity, as in Death Letter Blues, and countless others.
Think about New Orleans funerals with marching bands, and
Jamaican Nine Nights funerals.
Add to that the fact that Stephan Grossman, who knew Son House well after he was "rediscovered", said that House was obsessed with death, especially when drunk (as he often was), and you might start to understand some of the dark underpinning of this song - so deeply embedded that it doesn't even need to be mentioned or explained.
"There's two kinds of music - the blues and
zippedee-do-dah." "
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment