Lyr Req: It's Bad, You Know (R. L. Burnside)

Subject: haunting blues melody
From:
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 10:26 PM

Hello blues lovers

Help me find the name of this haunting blues song I heard while driving like a madman through the back roads of Texas a month ago en route to Denver at midnight. The song had a haunting quality to it not unlike the first time we heard The Royal Scam (Steely Dan) in the seventies.

Starting with a medium tempo...drums only for the intro for the first minute or so...then add a little keyboard...not much...one note or so each measure...to give it some chordal structure...then a few more measures...then one soft haunting note from a harmonica...again not much...maybe one note per measure...and then the vocalist would 'say'..."Didn't want to have to tell ya (or tell ya)"...he'd say it maybe once every four measures...song is six or seven minutes long...little reverb (but not live)...new song...old singer...sort of like Hooker...but more clear (half the time you can't understand Hooker!)...Pulled into a Dalhart truck stop called the dj at some public radio station...she was stoned...immaculate...couldn't remember what she played thirty minutes ago!!!

Anyway its haunted me and no radio station in Denver knows...

Help! Wade in Denver

Subject: RE: haunting blues melody
From: Neil Lowe
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 07:42 AM

...I haven't a clue, but if you ever find out, please share. Bare-bones arrangements such as your description suggests are precisely my cup of coffee.

Neil

Subject: RE: haunting blues melody
From:
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 10:39 AM

I think you are referring to a song called "It's Bad, You Know" by R.L. Burnside. It's on a CD called "Come On In". Really great stuff. It took me awhile to find this one myself.

Mary

Subject: RE: haunting blues melody
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 10:44 AM

I don't know this track but Burnside's mentor was Fred MacDowell and his records came out on the Fat Possum label so how could he go wrong?
RtS

Subject: RE: haunting blues melody
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 10:48 AM

Wade: "Immaculate" or "inarticulate"? "Stoned" goes a bit more with the latter. Bi-i-ig grin.

Thanks for bringing it up--I love the stark, haunting stuff myself.

--seed

I hope you realize that by posting a gentle cap, I'm saving you from an initiation humiliation (all in good spirits, of course) from the keyboard of our official greeter Catspaw.

Subject: RE: haunting blues melody
From: Noah Zacharin
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 12:49 PM

any of r.l. burnside's stuff will shake your soul. try a dose of his labelmate junior kimbrough for good measure.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hobo Blues (R. L. Burnside)
From: GUEST,Gigi Erba
Date: 04 Nov 24 - 07:48 PM

@ The Mud Cafe',
I'd like to know the very lyrics to Hobo Blues as sung by R.L. Burnside - Album: Acoustic Stories (1988) R. L. Burnside (November 23, 1926 ) youtube video 3:32.
Looking forward to hear from you I remain yours sicerely .
Thanks a lot.
Gigi Erba - Monza 20900 - Italy

Subject: Lyr Add: HOBO BLUES (R. L. Burnside, 1926)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 12:45 PM

Here’s how I hear these lyrics on the recording at YouTube:


HOBO BLUES
As recorded by R. L. Burnside

When I first got to hoboin’, oh, hoboin’,
I took a freight train to be my friend, oh yeah.

Well, I hoboed, I hoboed,
Hoboed a great long way from home, oh yeah.

Well, mama she followed me that mornin’, me that mornin’, me that morn—
Followed me down to the yard, oh yeah.

She said, “My son he’s gone, lord, he gone, he gone.
Yes, he gonna work somewhere.” Oh yeah.

Well, I left my dear old mother, my dear old mom, my dear old—
She was on her knees a-cryin’, oh, yeah.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Bad, You Know (R. L. Burnside)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 02:17 PM

YOu know, nobody has yet posted the requested lyrics to the song
"It's Bad, You Know." Now I'm curious to know of them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Bad, You Know (R. L. Burnside)
From: meself
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 02:30 PM

Here's a recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ-6fpuVeFA

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Bad, You Know (R. L. Burnside)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 09:20 AM

For the little that it's worth,
one website for song lyrics includes this song.

And one telltale line in the lyrics is printed as:

"She'd asked me why, I just went an' told her"

which might correspond to the opening post's suggested

"Didn't want to have to tell ya".