Posted by John Miller on July 21, 2002, 7:07 pm
--Previous Message--
: : MacLeod's lyrics
: This song seems almost impossible to make
: out, but I think the chorus goes like
: this:
:
: --
: You can keep on talkin' little darlin' babe
: But don't need no airy man
: I want these browns [ ]
: To thoroughly understand
: You can bring in my wood, you can bring in my
: food
: You can iron my shirts, you can bless my soul
: You can get yourself together
: you can [ ] about the weather
: I don't need no airy man
: --
:
: I might punt and give MacLeod the verses -
: they seem right in a few places, but just
: guesses in others....
: You can hear the tune here if you're
: interested in taking a whack at it &
: don't have access to any of his
: recordings.
: Frank
:
Thanks, Stefan and Frank, for the help with the lyrics. I was not aware of MacLeod's work in this area, Stefan, thanks for the link. I think some of his transcriptions of both verse and chorus are dead on, and others I am dubious. To the extent that your transcription of the chorus differs from MacLeod's, Frank, it sounds more right to me. I don't hear Papa Charlie sayin' "annoyin"--he was a demon for scansion, like Chuck Berry or David McCarn, and I think "annoyin" doesn't flow right. You guys gave me some really good steers. Part of the problem is that the lines that are intelligible are really clear and the ones that are not are--unintelligible. What a tragedy that two of the greatest Country Blues musicians, Blind Lemon and Papa Charlie, did most, if not all of their most interesting according acoustically. On the other hand, what a gift that they got recorded at all. Let's start a campaign to get Revenant or somebody else to do sets on Lemon and Papa Charlie like they did on Charlie Patton. I've got to get my nose (ears?) to the grindstone and try and figure out those lyrics.
John
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