[Dixielandjazz] Blues question

[Dixiejazzdata]

 I am with Bill I heaqr exactly the same thing he does on the two different sessions, however this could also be due to the quality of the recordings themselves, as well as the whim of Blind Lemon Jefferson in singing a different word to avoid boredom form doing the song over and over again every night.

Blues singers do that quite often, and sometimes it has to do with the way they read their audience at that performance as to the choice of their words, whether or not they make any sense lyrically, they improvised all the time and often made up totally new verses on the same songs.  

Of course OKOMers would then say he was singing the wrong lyrics to his own song :))  Just so we could have something else to argue about and was efficiently as musicologist even if we never worked with an old Blues man or played his music :))

There is a White cat on youtube doing his version as MATHbox Blues ,  Harlan Flo, is his name.   probably to avoid copyright payment. :))

Cheers,

Bart.

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Haesler <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
To: B.B. Buffington <dixiejazzdata at aol.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sun, Mar 18, 2012 5:55 pm
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Blues question


 John Gill asked:
> I have a question for all the Blues fans on the list. It's about "Matchbox 
Blues" by Blind Lemon Jefferson. My question concerns the line "....will a 
matchbox hold my clothes". It sure sounds to me like Jefferson sings "...will a 
matchbox hold my soul". So what do you think?

Dear John,
This query has been raised before by those of us who are also into the Blues.
The answer depends on which Blind Lemon record you are listening to.
The original Okeh 8455 version recorded on 14 March 1927:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3GEDqkJeVs 
or the Paramount renditions (takes -2 and -4) made for Paramount 12474 a month 
later:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVavS3STc1w
I hear "soul" repeated twice on the Okeh and "clothes" twice on Paramount -2.
I have the lyrics for both, if wanted. Although, both transcriptions use 
"clothes". 
The 1935 Leadbelly record uses "clothes' but also includes a stanza referring to 
a gal packing up her trunk,
thereby making the clothes connection.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G7PiBXKzfg


> ....and so does Albert King, BB King, Ma Rainey, Eric Clapton, etc.

Ma Rainey??
Very kind regards,
Bill.
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