Blues Like Showers of Rain Transcript
- It's not very much of song that Negro got from whites, because Negro people always was a kind of a singing group of people.
♪ There's a certain yellow joker live around this town ♪
♪ That's just lazy as lazy can be
♪ If you've been troubled, you've been broke, you've been hungry, no job, no money, the one you love has deserted you,
- -that makes you blue.
♪ Oh Lordy, Lord! ♪
♪ Oh Lordy, Lord! ♪
♪ It hurt me so bad ♪
♪ For us to part. ♪
♪ But someday, Baby, ♪
♪ I ain't gonna worry my life anymore. ♪
I'll start like this: I was born in Texas, 1906, in a little flag-stop town. My people was very poor like that. Fact of business, they was so poor until when I was born, my mother had triplets, and I was one of 'em. So, anyway, when the midwife say to my daddy, say, "Come in and see the babies," you know. So my dad come in, and he was disgusted 'cause he already had five in the front. So when he seen triplets like that, he called my mama --and he said, "Dora, say, "come in here and pick out the one you want," you see, "'cause I'm gonna drown the other two." And so then I been swimming every since.
♪ Well, the little red rooster told the little red hen, ♪
♪ "I ain't been been to see ya since God knows when." ♪
♪ The little red hen told the little red rooster, ♪
♪ Say, "You dont't come around, Daddy, like you used to." ♪
♪ Got to rock tonight, Baby.♪
♪ You gotta rock tonight, Baby.♪
♪ You gotta rock tonight, Baby, ♪
♪ and we got to rock tonight ♪
♪ Well, the little black cat told the little gray mouse, ♪
♪ "I got a mind to chase you 'round in this house." ♪
♪ The little gray mouse told the little black cat,♪
♪ Say, "Listen here, Daddy, don't chase me like this." ♪
♪ You got to rock tonight, Baby.♪
♪ You got to rock tonight, Baby. ♪
♪ You got to rock tonight, Baby, ♪
♪ and we got to rock tonight. ♪
♪ Well, the black alligator told the old crocodile, ♪
♪ Hang around, Daddy, I'll getcha after while. ♪
♪ The crocodile said to the pink alligator, ♪
♪ Get me now, Daddy, I'll hang around later. ♪
♪ Got to rock tonight, Baby. ♪
♪ You got to rock tonight, Baby. ♪
♪ You got to rock tonight, Baby, ♪
♪ and we got to rock tonight. ♪
♪ 's all. ♪
I heard it from my mother and father, and they can also play. And the first thing I wanted to play was the blues. He used to take me and put me across his knee, and tell me- -he'd lay my right hand on the piano and try to make me play. I couldn't because I was too young because my fingers wasn't developed. After they got developed, it was too late, because he was dead and gone, but I didn't forget what he taught me. You dig it? I dig it.
♪ Well I feel like playing, I feel like blowing my box ♪
♪ I feel like playing, I feel like playing my box ♪
♪ And when I start to playing,♪
♪ I know the house begin to drum ♪
I bought me a cheap guitar, and I used to keep the family woke all night trying to learn, and eventually I learned to make a few chords. From that, I began to annoy the public.
♪ I feel like playing, I feel like blowing my time. ♪
♪ I feel like playing, I feel like blowing my time ♪
♪ And when I blow my top, I know the house begin to run ♪
So, that's where my improvement come. Finally I got so I could make a living by singing the blues, and I loved them, and I still love the blues. Maybe you wanted to help your mother, and you just wasn't able. I guess all boys feel like there's one of these days you're gonna get a chance to do something for his mother. Well, that helps you out in that blue feeling, too. So, naturally, I had that same feeling. Well then my mother, she died in 1918 with twins. My oldest sister taken over, because my daddy had done deserted us.
♪ Come on. ♪
♪ Take a little walk with me. ♪
♪ Come on, Baby. ♪
♪ Take a little walk with me ♪
♪ To the same old place where we long to be. ♪
♪ Come on. ♪
♪ Take a little walk with me. ♪
♪ Come on, Baby, ♪
♪ Take a little walk with me ♪
♪ Back to the same old place, ♪
♪ Memphis, Tennessee. ♪
♪ Early one morning just about half past three ♪
♪ You done something that's really worrying me. ♪
♪ Come on, Baby, ♪
♪ Take a little walk with me. ♪
♪ To the same old place where we long to be. ♪
♪ Come on, Baby, now you know we're going to walk so slow. ♪
♪ I tell every time you see me you'll wanna walk some more ♪
♪ Come on, Baby, ♪
♪ Take a little walk with me ♪
♪ To the same old place where we long to be. ♪
(Blind Arvella Gray I ran off from my sister, so I got away. I got on a farm, and I worked there for a year. He gave me a quarter at the end of the season for my year's work. Now, he fed me, and he bought my clothes, although he didn't buy no shoes. The first pair of shoes I had, a friend of mine bought me a pair of shoes called Buster Brown shoes, that was the brand name, and they was real shiny. He told me to put them on, and I didn't know what you're supposed to do with 'em, 'cause I had never worn no shoes before. And so, when I did put 'em on, I stood a half day before anybody noticed me standing just in one place. Then they told me I was supposed to walk around in 'em, and I didn't understand about walking around in shoes. I was just clumsy, just like a robot, when I started walking in shoes. I worked there for a year, and a flood came, and we had to go to high ground. These in the pretty modern days, 1920 it was, when the flood was in Texas, in this certain part of Texas. While we was up on high ground, another white fella come along and stole a bunch of us, give us a line of jive and say, "Well, we gonna take you out west Texas, and you can make some money and you can be more free and have more money and things," so we went out there.
♪ I've been down so long ♪
♪ Being down do not worry me no more. ♪
♪ I've been down so long ♪
♪ Being down do not worry me no more. ♪
♪ I'm gonna pack my suitcase, ♪
♪ Cross to where you know I'm gone. ♪
♪ Some peoples have their trouble, ♪
♪ But I've been having mine all my life. ♪
♪ Some peoples have their trouble ♪
♪ But I've having mine all my life. ♪
♪ Well, one day I will get lucky, ♪
♪ Oh Lord, before I die. ♪
When the final settlement come, the white man said, "Well," says, "I'm gonna check you out." Says, "John, you did well. You made a damn good crop, and a $100, a $150 is what you cleared. I think you did good. John, don't you think you did alright?" "Yessir, I think I did alright. That's good money." "Yessir." "Well, how much land you think you gonna need another year? I think you need to take on more land, 'cause 35 bales wasn't enough for you and your wife and your 5 kids. I think you worked hard, and that was damn good, John, but you need to take on more land. Get that all worked up and everything, you make about 8 or 10 more bales. I think that you would clear 50 more dollars. Don't you think that'd be alright?" "Yessir, I think that'd be alright." "I'm gon' give you 5 more dollars on your issue." And that kind of thing, which is quite stupid, I mean, if you just look back at it. But those are the kind of things that we lived by. You don't get nothing on flowery beds of ease. You gotta go through something to get something, which I know that. A lot of country guitar players used to come to town and pick guitars. They'd sing the blues and all such songs as that, you know, steamboat singing and roustabout. They'd sing all them songs. While they're unloading cotton, you know, they'd be singing and playing them guitars. All the riverboats would come there and dock, and all the aristocratic people would come down there for slumming and enjoyment. Well, they call them jukes, they call them barrel houses, and they call them honky-tonks. They'd all come to a show place, and they'd sit down to a piano, and they'd start a-barrel-housing.
♪ Nobody knows, ♪
("Some People Call Me Lucky" by Otis Spann)
♪ People, the trouble that I've seen. ♪
♪ Nobody knows, ♪
♪ People, the trouble that I've seen. ♪
♪ Now you know I done lost all of my money, ♪
♪ And my woman, she's treating me so mean. ♪
♪ Some people used to call me lucky, ♪
♪ But my luck, to me, seem to fail. ♪
♪ Yeah, some people call me lucky, ♪
♪ But to me, my luck began to fail. ♪
♪ I been looking for that woman, ♪
♪ You know, ever since my luck been gone. ♪
♪ I done stopped drinking and gambling now, ♪
♪ And I don't run around no more. ♪
♪ Yes, I done stopped drinking and gambling. ♪
♪ Yes, I don't run around no more. ♪
♪ Yes, you know, I'm gonna find my woman, ♪
♪ Whoa, and I don't care where she goes. ♪
I was going to penitentiary and I had to serve my time out. Well, some had six months and some had a solid year, but me and my buddy, we had lifetime here. That's what we did. Some had six months, and some had a solid year, but me and my buddy, we had lifetime here. That's what it is, is on the penitentiary. That's a prisoner's song. Worked there a couple hundred days. Got away from there by singing the blues. ♪ In Atlanta, Georgia ♪ ♪ Woke up this morning . . . ♪ I ain't had too much trouble, just a small amount. At that time, I was growing up quite a bit, so then I got here to Chicago with one quarter in a tin cup where I learn a few folk songs. Got on the street and I started to hustling, and then after that, I been a street singer ever since. I started in 1932, bought a guitar for 2 and a half. So, I was just determined to play it, and I just kept on. I finally met one little blind fellow, and he said, "Well, maybe this idea would do." So then he tuned it up in Sebastopol, what he called cross C or something or another. I don't know nothing about it. Then they say, "Well then you're gonna have a problem, 'cause you don't know how to read and write. You can't read braille, and you can't read music." So I just started banging away. And I used to get more quarters from moving out in front of places than I did for stopping and playing for them. They'd say, "Here's a quarter, half dollar. Will you carry that noise a little bit further."
♪ Early one morning ♪
♪ The blues, they came falling down. ♪
♪ Early one morning ♪ ♪ Blues came falling down. ♪
♪ I was all locked up in jail. ♪
♪ I was prison bound. ♪
♪ And you will never ♪
♪ see my smiling face again. ♪
♪ And you will never ♪
♪ see my smiling face again. ♪
♪ But I always will remember ♪
♪ that you have been my friend. ♪
Music comes to me through, like, a dream. When I was making recordings, I was getting a hold of so much money-- The money was really good. When you was making $100 a week-- But it's altogether different now. When I had money, I had friends from miles around. I don't have any money now, my friends cannot be found. Some give me nickels, and some give me lousy dimes. Some people say, "That old Stumps ain't no friend of mine." I don't have any money now. My friends cannot be found. This number here is a type of blues for a man and wife.
♪ I don't care ♪
♪ What nobody say. ♪
♪ Baby, stand by me. ♪
♪ Oh Babe, ♪
♪ I don't care ♪
♪ What nobody say ♪
♪ Baby, stand by me. ♪
♪ Oh yeah. ♪
♪ When my friends ♪
♪ Turn their back on me, ♪
♪ Hold my hand, ♪
♪ Tell me I'm still your man. ♪
♪ I don't care ♪
♪ What nobody say. ♪
♪ Baby, stand by me. ♪
♪ Oh Babe. ♪
I fell in love with my husband, and we've been married 25 years, and we still try to make a little music, right on. My blues mostly came from women, and I've had quite a few to give me lots of trouble, and that's the reason why I started out to writing blues.
♪ The road seems hard, ♪
♪ and it will look rough, ♪
♪ but Baby, stand by me. ♪
♪ Oh Babe, ♪
♪ You is the one ♪
♪ That I love. ♪
♪ Nothing in the world ♪
♪ I give up you for. ♪
♪ I don't care ♪
♪ What nobody says. ♪
♪ Baby, stand by me. ♪
♪ Black nigger baby, black feet and shiny eyes, ♪
♪ Black all over, born that way with India-rubber feet. ♪
♪ Oh, turn that nigger around and knock him in the head. ♪
♪ White folks say, "Gonna kill that nigger dead." ♪
We were living in Waco, Texas, my mother, my brother, and myself. I was in the public school, you know, kid. And we had to run home and close the door, and they lynched this man and drug him, and they burned him, and then they sewed the ashes up in a little cloth, and sold these ashes to the people. So, you see, I'm quite conscious of you know, the social pattern in America.
♪ Black nigger baby, black feet and shiny eyes, ♪
♪ Black all over, born that way with India-rubber feet. ♪
♪ Gonna turn that nigger around, ♪
♪ then knock him in the head. ♪
♪ The white folks say, "We gonna kill that nigger dead." ♪
♪ Turn that nigger around, ♪
♪ knock him in the head. ♪
♪ But the white folks say, ♪
♪ "You better kill that nigger boo." ♪
♪ I'll take care of myself. ♪
♪ I always carry a great big razor, ♪
♪ And a pistol in my vest. ♪
♪ Turn that nigger around and ♪
♪ Oh, the white folks say, ♪
♪ "We gonna kill that nigger dead." ♪
♪ Oh well ♪
And I'm glad to know that it has gone from this horrible record of all the lynchings, to last year, I don't believe there was a Negro lynched in America at all, so it must be better. Condition must be improving. In short, I just is proud of my life, because I've come through with my skin on, and if I had it to live over, I'd live it all over, and I'm 54 years old now.
♪ This is my story. ♪
♪ This is all I got to say to you ♪
♪ Bye bye, Baby, ♪
♪ And I don't care what you do. ♪
♪ But someday, Babe. ♪
♪ I ain't gonna worry my life anymore. ♪
♪ You on my mind ♪
♪ Every place I go. ♪
♪ How much I love you ♪
♪ Nobody know.♪
♪ But someday, Babe, ♪
♪ I ain't gonna worry my life anymore. ♪
So, if anybody have the blues like I do, I know about how they feel, because it's a feeling that it's hard to do anything about. It's hard to know which way to go and what to do. So, the blues, I can't explain it, but it's a feeling that, deep down inside-- it is so deep till I can't possibly get to the bottom of it. But blues is just blues, all I know.
