With Texas flooding and fires in Detroit as I post, a little more on St. Louis blues singer Mary Williams Smith Johnson (b. ca. 1900-1905, Eden Station, Mississippi, d. 1970, St. Louis?). I should mention her 1925-1932 marriage to Lonnie Johnson (b. 1889 or 1894, 1899 or ca. 1900?-d. 1970), one of the great "connectors," a man linked within one or two degrees of separation to hundreds of other musical artists, a dude who knew New Orleans in the time of Storyville, Europe during the Great War, the loss (in Louisiana) of all but his brother James to the Spanish Influenza, and the urban blues excitement of St. Louis, Chicago, New York, even Toronto -- and on and on. Lonnie (and his brother James) had also recorded with Luella Miller, and then along came Mary -- they are reported to have had five kids, but what happened to said children if they did, I have no clue at this juncture.
Here are the lyrics to "I Just Can't Take It," recorded in 1936, after which Signifying Mary Johnson seems to have stopped recording, so far as I know:
Man I love is only five feet four He told me this morning He couldn't use me no more I said Daddy I just can't take it Daddy I just can't take it Daddy I just can't take it I swear that he's stealing from me
Well he told me to leave his window Don't even knock on his door Little things he used to do He don't do them no more Well I just can't take it Well I just can't take it Well I just can't take it I swear that he's stealin' from me
Play it Peter* play it
Well he told me people He told me to my face He had another woman He know to take my place I said I just can't take it Well I just can't take it Well I just can't take it I swear that he's stealing from me
Daddy you got the hot stuff Yo Mama got the buns Let's get together and have some fun Well I just can't take it Well I just can't take it Well I just can't take it I swear that he's stealin' from me
*Presumably Peetie Wheatstraw, on piano. The recording I'm working from is probably a little slower than the actual tempo, judging from Mary's spoken quips. In fact, if you up tempo the song, it sounds remarkably like Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" (1947) and "Mind Your Own Business" (1949), opening up the intrigue of cross-influences.
A little more from 1953. Let's not forgetFrom Here to EternityandThe Wild One.
Lee Marvin as Chino, Marlon Brando as Johnny -- perfect foils. Of the two, Chino is actually a little sharper. Have a favorite Brando movie? Marvin? And the cast of From Here to Eternity -- also stellar.
I guess we all ought to have gotten used to it by now: how the words use and used get a lot of usage; furthermore, they have been used in a lot of different ways for a very long time.
In 1950, Hank Williams cut a song with the refrain, "Why don't you love my like you used to do?"
Then there was Big Joe Williams, "Crawlin' King Snake" (1941) via John Lee Hooker (1949): "I don't want you hangin' around my mate, wanna use her for myself."
And Signifying Mary Johnson in 1936: "Little things he used to do / He don't do them no more;" even before that, in 1929: "Because my black man has told me / He couldn't use me anymore."
Oh yes, in the common parlance of our day -- and derived from quite a little ways back, too -- I've heard every one of the following expressions "used" in the past month either in person, in a song, in writing or on screen:
Get used to it. He was hesitant at first, but now he's used to it. I used to work there. Sorry, but I can't use you today. He's using. I got no use for that.
Just yesterday, I heard a woman say she was looking for "a gently used dryer for $50."
Of course, there's always: Used cars. Used books.
And let's not forget the way Bill Withers put it in 1972: "... if it feels this good getting used / Oh, you just keep on using me / Until you use me up."
Please do go ahead and use your memory banks: what usage of "use and used" have I not made use of?
A week ago today, a large "Restoring Honor" rally was held in Washington, D.C.
When Americans start talking about honor, it's usually a smokescreen for something else, or empty rhetoric.
If I recall correctly, the last prominent American to trumpet the word HONOR was President Richard M. Nixon, same man who would fall to the Watergate Scandal. Here's an excerpt from his "Peace With Honor" speech on January 22, 1973, regarding the US-Vietnam War:
[T]o all of you who are listening, the American people: Your steadfastness in supporting our insistence on peace with honor has made peace with honor possible. . .
Now that we have achieved an honorable agreement, let us be proud that America did not settle for a peace that would have betrayed our allies, that would have abandoned our prisoners of war, or that would have ended the war for us but would have continued the war for the 50 million people of Indochina. Let us be proud of the 2 1/2 million young Americans who served in Vietnam, who served with honor and distinction in one of the most selfless enterprises in the history of nations. And let us be proud of those who sacrificed, who gave their lives so that the people of South Vietnam might live in freedom and so that the world might live in peace.
Aside from the fact that Nixon seems to be addressing preschoolers, what did "PEACE WITH HONOR" mean then? What does "RESTORING HONOR" mean now? Anything at all, or just a load of BS to keep the loyalists galvanized?
Still in the rapture of the deep of the musical blues, keeping me as happy as a clam. Two things are emerging just from transcribing the lyrics:
1) Each song is like a time capsule.
2) None of these songs were created in a vaccuum, but rather each plays off other songs -- most include a direct or coded reference to at least one previous song, usually performed by a different artist or band.
Stumbled upon the very cool Signifying Mary Johnson (Mary Smith Johnson, 1900-1970), a terrific -- and strange and apparently not widely appreciated in 2010 -- St. Louis blues singer. "Barrel House Flat Blues" was recorded in 1929, during Prohibition and shortly after the Great Crash, on the Paramount Records label in Grafton, Wisconsin. Her vocal style is eccentric, almost mumbling at times, but here for now is my take on what she's singing. Terrific backing band, as well -- more on that at some point, I suspect.
"Barrel House Flat Blues" by Mary Johnson
I got a barrel house flat in Detroit And one in St. Louis, too I got a barrel house flat in Detroit And one in St. Louis, too But my barrel house flat in Detroit Really gets more due.
I'm going to build me a barrel house flat Way out on Dago Hill* I'm going to build me a barrel house flat Way out on Dago Hill That way I can get my beer and whiskey Get it fresh from the still.
Police in Chicago, just won't let me be They try to find my beer and whiskey everywhere I hide it!
I got a barrel house flat in Chicago It's fifteen stories high I got a barrel house flat in Chicago It's fifteen stories high I get all of these high yellows And crazy babies dry.
Those babies like my good whiskey And they drink my cherry wine Those babies like my good whiskey And they drink my cherry wine And if you women want a good time Drop by this barrel house flat of mine.
Today's Rune:Wholeness.*Italian area of St. Louis now known as "The Hill."
I'm goin' to Detroit Get myself a good job I'm goin' to Detroit Get myself a good job Tired of staying around here With the starvation mob
I'm goin' to get me a job Up there in Mistah Ford's place Gonna get me a job Up there in Mistah Ford's place Stop these eatless days from Starin' me in the face
I'm goin' to Detroit Get me a barrelhouse flat I'm goin' to Detroit Get me a barrelhouse flat I would take my baby But I don’t know where she’s at
When I start to makin' money She don't need to come around When I start to makin' money She don't need to come around 'Cause I don't want her now, Lord I'm Detroit bound
They got wild women in Detroit That's what I want to see They got wild women in Detroit That's all I want to see Wild women and bad whiskey Would make a fool out of me
Today's Rune: Possessions. *Clearly, Robert Hicks' "Me and My Whiskey" (1929) makes only a slight variation to the last lines with "Wild women and whiskey can / Make a fool out of me." See previous post for comparison.
Another quick and dirty transcription right off the "Me and My Whiskey" 78 by Robert Hicks (Barbecue Bob). Not really sure about line 11. Here goes:
"Me and My Whiskey" (1929)
When I'm in my whiskey I don't care what I say When I'm in my whiskey I don't care what I say 'Cause me and my whiskey We gonna have our way
Please tell me, Mama, what Kind of lovin' you crave Ah tell me Mama what Kind of lovin' you crave I've got the title of a Seven different ways
I'm down here in Atlanta Where the womens they all know me I'm down here in Atlanta Where the women all knows me I'm going up about Detroit, get me A new girl you ain't seen
Don't you never want New lovin' sometime? Ah, don't you never want New lovin' sometime? They move a little different, but It's all the same old thing
Don't let your gal fix you Like my gal fixed me Don't let your gal fix you Like my gal fixed me She made me love her, now she Way down in Tennessee
Wild women Out West Where I so long to be They tell me wild women Out West Where I so long to be Wild women and whiskey can Make a fool out of me
