GODDAMN!
October 22nd, 2006 at 3:46 am (Uncategorized)
I really can’t understand what Leadbelly is saying in this song. Its called Ox Drivin’ Blues. This is what I can make out of the chorus and first verse:
Oh back bobcat deeb on the lamb Who made a bad bad cut in half Oh back bobcat jeeb on the lamb Uh made it back back whoa GODDAMN Oh buckin jeeba lamb Who made it back back whoa GODDAMN
In May was drivin 20 o’clock And he was a long way from home And he looked down the road Looked like he could see his wife And he get a holla at the oola GUYA! Whoa yeah boy, backup Oh buckin jeeba lamb Who made a bad bad wool GODDAMN!
I’m not sure what any of that has to do with Ox Drivin’, in fact I don’t know what Ox Drivin’ is in the first place. One of the most beautiful things about the blues is that you can be effected by the music even if you have no idea what they’re talking about. Blues oozes with emotion.
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Ana said,
October 25, 2006 at 7:53 am
GUYA. This song is amazing and ooozes emotionis. Is it catagorized as “blues” though? I believe one would beg to differ.
David Greisman said,
October 25, 2006 at 10:41 am
Its interesting that you say that. This is from allmusic.com:
“Because [Leadbelly] was an African-American, he is sometimes viewed as a blues singer, but blues (a musical form he actually predated) was only one of the styles that informed his music. He was a profound influence on folk performers of the 1940s such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, who in turn influenced the folk revival and the development of rock music from the 1960s onward, which makes his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, early in the hall’s existence, wholly appropriate.”
His bio is fascinating, you should check it out. He shot and stabbed lots of people.
allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:9i0xlfje5cqq~T1
kyra said,
November 9, 2006 at 12:12 am
guddam….finally that most vile song ‘cotton eyed joe’ finds some redemption…why?….just the mere fact that this bad ass mother….strumming with epileptic furver…wrenching from his shoe strung tin box… monotously pleading for some relief from the voices inside his head (i can see him rocking back and forth…strumming…swaying his head all stevie wonder-like….flies buzzing beyond the screen door….a bunch got in through the various rips…one sits on the rim of his whiskey glass…little paws stuck…it accepts its impedding doom…the ciccadas chirp, or whatever it is that they do…and his aged mother in the corner sits and moans from the heat…too old to sweat)…and yes…that cotton eyed joe fool…is that who drove him mad and sent him on a killing spree?
gigi said,
November 9, 2006 at 10:35 am
hahahaha stevie wonder didn’t drink whiskey!
songstory said,
November 9, 2006 at 12:22 pm
You Bell cousins both make good points. Although no matter how crazy Cotton Eyed Joe made Leadbelly, he managed to pull it all together when it counted. On TWO seperate occasions Leadbelly literally sang his way out of prison–receiving pardons from visiting politicians after serenading them on the prison grounds. Those were the good old days. Can you imagine the reaction if a pardon was granted to a murderer today only because they asked for one in a really really really nice song? Part of me thinks its a shame it doesn’t work like that anymore–but the more I think about that the less sure I am.
I find it amazing that there are any recordings of Leadbelly. He was born in 1888, which means he would be 118 if he was still alive. He isn’t still alive though. He died in 1949, 57 years ago, of ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease). So considering his age, the fuzzy, crackely sounding song I posted here may have actually been recorded on the most advanced equipment that was available at that time.