The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3748   Message #24409
Posted By: Jon W.
23-Mar-98 - 11:54 AM
Thread Name: Favorite Blues Songs
Subject: Lyr Add: STOP AND LISTEN BLUES^^
Art mentioned "Stop and Listen Blues" but didn't post the lyrics. That's one of my favorites also, due to the intricate guitar rhythms, cutting fiddle, and intensely emotional and personal lyrics. The last line of each of the odd-numbered verses is sung with interjected falsetto (delta yodeling) which make them very difficult to understand but after many many listenings I think the way I have transcribed them is accurate.

STOP AND LISTEN BLUES
Walter Vinson & Mississippi Sheiks

Every day has been that long old lonesome day,
Now don't you a-hear me talkin', Pretty Mama,
Every day has been that long old lonesome day.
Cryin' it seems like to-ooh-ooh-day is the ooh-ooh same old way-eee.

Cryin' smokestack's black baby, bell it shinin' like gold,
Now don't you a-hear me talkin', Pretty Mama,
Ahh, smokestack's black, bell's it shinin' like gold,
Cryin' I found my baby, laying on the cooling floor.

Don't a hearse look lonesome mama, rollin' 'fore you door,
Now don't you a-hear me talkin', Pretty Mama,
Don't a hearse look lonesome, rollin' 'fore you door,
Cryin' she's gone ch-eee-ill, won't be-eee back no more-ooh.

Oh, stop and listen, hear how the bell it tolls,
Now don't you a-hear me talkin', Pretty Mama,
Stop and listen, hear the bell it tolls,
I had a sweet little farrow, but she's dead and gone.

Cryin' followed my baby down, to the buryin' ground,
Now don't you a-hear me talkin', Pretty Mama,
I followed my baby, to the buryin' ground,
It was hacks an' ee-eee horses stand-ee-eee, all aroun-ooh