Willie Watson, May 6, 2014
From the debut album from Willie Watson, Folk Singer Vol. 1
- available now on Acony Records at http://smarturl.it/FSV1itunes
Willie Watson's debut solo album, Folk Singer Vol. 1, was
produced by David Rawlings at Woodland Sound Studios, the studio he co-owns
with associate producer Gillian Welch in Nashville, TN, over the course of a
pair of two-day sessions, for their own Acony Records label. The album spans ten songs from the American folk
songbook ranging from standards like "Midnight Special,"
"Mexican Cowboy" and Richard "Rabbit" Brown's "James
Alley Blues" to the more obscure, like Memphis Slim's 12-bar blues,
"Mother Earth," Gus Cannon and the Jug Stompers' "Bring it With
You When You Come," Land Norris' double-entendre kids chant, "Kitty
Puss" and St. Louis bluesman Charley Jordan's sing-song "Keep It
Clean."
-snip-
Willie Watson (born September 23, 1979) is a White American singer-songwriter, guitarist, banjo player, actor and founding member
of Old Crow Medicine Show. His debut solo album Folk Singer, Vol. I, was
released in May 2014;[1]. Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Watson_(musician) for more information about this performer.
****
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents a YouTube sound file & several text examples of the African American originated song "Long John" ("Lost John").
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/01/long-john-black-american-prison-work.html for the closely related 2023 pancocojams post entitled "Long John" (Black American prison work song: sound file, Information, & lyrics).
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of "Long John" ("Lost John"). Thanks also to the collectors of the versions of that song that are featured in this post and thanks to Willie Watson for his rendition of that version of "Long John" ("Lost John". Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
****
SOME EXAMPLES OF "LONG JOHN" ("LONG JOHN DEAN") THAT AREN'T PRISON WORK SONGS
LYRICS #1
From https://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=54642&messages=15
Subject: Lyr Add: LONG GONE (W.C. Handy)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 08:19 AM
Words by Chris
Smith Music by W.C. Handy
Copyright 1920
by pace & Handy Music Co., Inc., copyright renewed by W.C. Handy
A bold bank robber
from Bowling Green,
Was sent to the
jailhouse yesterday,
Late last night he
made his getaway.
2. Long John stood on the railroad tie,
Waiting for a
freight train to come by;
Freight train came
just puffin' and flyin',
Ought-a seen Long
John grabbin' that blind.
CHORUS:
He's Long Gone
from Kentucky,
Long Gone ain't
he lucky,
Long Gone, and
what I mean,
He's Long Gone
from Bowling Green.
Long Gone ain't
he lucky,
Long Gone, and
what I mean,
He's Long Gone
from Bowling Green.
3. They offered a reward to bring him back
Even put
bloodhounds on his track,
Doggone
bloodhounds lost his scent
Now nobody knows
where Long John went.
4. They caught him in Frisco, and to seal his fate,
San Quentin jailed
one evening late,
But out on the
ocean John escaped
The guard forgot to close the Golden gate
5. A gang of men tried to capture Dean,
So they chased him
with a submarine
Dean jumped
overboard, grabbed the submarine,
And made that gang
catch a flying machine.
CHORUS:
He's Long Gone
from Kentucky,
Long Gone, ain't
he lucky,
Long Gone, and
what I mean,
He's Long Gone
from Bowling Green.
John's Long Gone
from San Quentin,
Long Gone and
still a sprintin',
Long Gone, I'm
telling you,
Shut your mouth
and shut mine too.
Now he's Long
Gone and still a swimming,
Lone Gone with
them mermaid women,
Long Gone, just
like a fish,
My that boys got
some ambish.
6. A vamp thought she had Long John's goat,
She took his watch
and money from his coat,
John stole all she
had, now she thinks he's a riddle,
He didn't leave
enough cloth to dust a fiddle.
CHORUS:
He's Long Gone
from Kentucky,
Long Gone that
guy is some lucky,
Long Gone from
this queen,
Long Gone from
Bowling Green.
I never thought
she'd do any harm,
But she's chased
him strong, didn't stop to wait,
And blacked his
eye in every state.
CHORUS:
Now John's Gone
and he left me weeping,
Long Gone but
only sleeping,
But from the
drug we catch his breath,
Long Gone and
scared to death.
From: Blues: An Anthology, edited by W.C. Handy (1926; 1949; Macmillan, 1972, pp. 200-202; with music)
~Masato
-snip-
Those lyrics are related to the version of "Long John" that is sung in the embedded video.
Here's information about W.C. Handy from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._C._Handy
"William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28,
1958) was an American composer and musician[1] who referred to himself as the
Father of the Blues.[2][3] Handy was one of the most influential songwriters in
the United States.[4] One of many musicians who played the distinctively
American blues music, Handy did not create the blues genre but was the first to
publish music in the blues form, thereby taking the blues from a regional music
style (Delta blues) with a limited audience to a new level of popularity.[4]
Handy was an educated musician who used elements of folk music in his compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from various performers.[3]"...
LYRICS #2
Subject: Lyr Add: LOST JOHN (from Odum and Johnson)
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 02:58 PM
Lyr. Add: LOST JOHN
Lost John, lost John, lost John.
Lost John, lost John, lost John.
Lost John, lost John, lost john.
Help me to look for lost John.
Lost John done gone away,
Help me to look for lost John.
Still I ain't bother yet,
Still I ain't bother none.
Sun is goin' down,
Sun is goin' down.
I goin' 'way some day,
Yes, I goin' 'way some day.
I'm goin' 'way to stay,
Still I'm goin' 'way to stay.
Come an' go with me,
O yes! come an' go with me.
I got a honey here,
Yes, I got a honey here.
Goin' away to leave you,
Well, I goin' 'way to leave you.
Negro dance song, from "The Negro and His Songs,"
p. 227, Odum and Johnson, 1925 (reprinted by Negro Universities Press).
Collector and locality not stated.
-snip-
"Negro" is no longer used as a referent for Black Americans (African Americans) except in rare occasions such as the organizational name the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).
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