Joe Turner seems to have been 2 people - transmogrified from a 'mercy' man, almost an angel, into an ogre. I recall reading a reference somewhere - but, of course, I can't find it - that the 1920s Joe Turner may have been a real person, feared throughout the South as the chain gang boss whose job it was to deliver gangs of black prisoners to the prison farms. This would accord with the version in the DT. The Traditional Ballad Index gives the earliest record of that version as 1927. It gives references to Sandburg ('American Songbag'), Courlander ('Negro Folk Music USA') and the DT. Evidently, Courlander refers to the angelic Turner, a storekeeper who gave food and goods to people suffering as a result of a huge flood in the 1890s, but his fragment - the same as Sandburg's? - does not accord with that story. However, Big Bill Broonzy sang a blues about this Good Samaritan, 'Joe Turner No 1', and said it was the earliest blues he knew of - 'written back in 1892'. It's mostly talking, incredible guitar playing and the one line repeated twice:They tell me Joe Turner been here and gone
They tell me Joe Turner been here and gone
They tell me Joe Turner been here and gone
Big Bill sang this and talked about it to Studs Terkel on a Folkways LP 'Big Bill Broonzy Interviewed by Studs Terkel'. I do not have time at the moment, but I will transcribe it for you later because it is quite fascinating. The 'mercy' man seems to be the earlier. However, the pieces are linked because whatever Joe Turner was - angel or devil - he's done 'been and gone'. Bill Bill says the original Joe Turner was 2 people - 'Joe was a negro and Turner was a white man'.
Mississippi John Hurt recorded a 'Joe Turner Blues' on his 'Last Sessions' (Vanguard). However, this was his original composition and nothing to do with any of this - except it's interesting that he used the name 'Joe Turner' as a person whom he despised.
Stewie.