They got me killed for forgingMan, there's an awful lot of history and commentary there in 13 words.
and I can't even write my name
-- "Death cell blues" by by Blind Willie McTell
I had to rush right out and buy it, and used that as an excuse to try out emusic, which Chris Hamrin had been saying some nice things about.
1 comment:
I was just re-listening to the excellent set When the sun goes down: The secret history of rock & roll (a 4 CD overview of blues from early and proto-blues of the 1920's through to the early electric blues of Chicago in the 1950's). I was really struck by how similar "Judge Harsh blues" by Furry Lewis (from disc 2) is to McTell's "Death cell blues". There are important differences, but several of the verses are almost identical. Lewis doesn't include that great couplet about forging, though.
I'm not sure sure when McTell recorded his song, but the Lewis song was recorded in 1928. Without more info it would be hard to say anything definitive about who might have influenced who, or whether they're both just drawing from that great shared pool of song ideas that so much folk music used to come out of.
Post a Comment