"Tornado Groan" by Luella Miller (1927)
Tornado swept out this little town today
Tornado swept out this little town today
And taken away everything I had.
The lightning flashed, wind rattled around my door
Lightning flashed, wind rattled around my door
Ever since that time, I haven’t seen my house no more.
It ruined my clothes and blowed my bed away
It ruined my clothes, blowed my bed away
I ain’t got no place to lay my heavy head.
The storm come back and blowed my man away
Storm come back and blowed my man away
That’s the reason why I ain’t got a good man today.
I’m lonesome now, I have to walk the street
Lonesome now, I have to walk the street
A flat stranger to everyone I meet.
Mmmmmhhh, tornado ruined my home
Mmmmmhhh, tornado ruined my home
And left me standing with the tornado groan.
http://www.we7.com/album/Luella-Miller/Luella-Miller-1926-1928?m=0
This was recorded on October 11, 1927, less than two weeks after a tornado ripped through St. Louis (on September 29). See “High Water Everywhere: Blues and Gospel Commentary on the 1927 Mississippi River Flood,” pp. 49-50, in Nobody Knows Where the Blues Come From: Lyrics and History, ed. Robert Springer, 2005, 2006. I'm not sure about one word each in lines 9 ("heavy") and 15 ("flat").
Photo: St. Louis tornado aftermath and cleanup of telephone poles, 1927. Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.
1 comment:
How much life hinges on the whims of nature.
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