Lyr Req: Fisherman's Blues (Champion Jack Dupree)

Subject: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: GUEST,wotsch
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 07:57 AM

hi everybody,

i don't know the original version but i like the one of the Avon Cities Skiffle Group which I suppose is even less known... So I would be very pleased if somebody could help me as I'm not a native speaker and have problems with understanding the lyrics.

Thank you

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: quokka
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 08:00 AM

Is that the same one sung by the Waterboys?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Dave Illingworth
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 09:41 AM

I think the Waterboys song is different.
I don't have the Champion Jack Dupree recording (1946), but it is definitely the same blues that the Avon City Skiffle Group recorded.
I used to have that EP (now sadly lost) and used to sing the song.
I half remember it (it's ripe for revival), but will wait to see if you get any other, more helpful, replies before I burden you with my
half-remembered version.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: eddie1
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 05:16 AM

For a couple of years I was quite proud of the fact that I bought Champion Jack Dupree a whisky on his 80th birthday when he was on tour in Germany. This lasted until I met a guy who had bought him a whisky on his 80th birthday, in the UK, about a year later!
A great way to get free whiskies though!

Eddie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:51 PM

I listened to a couple of sound samples of what I think were 2 recordings made at different times by Champion Jack Dupree. Here's what I think I heard:

...caught all my fishes and did away with my bone/bond(?)
I said hey, Mary, somebody been fishin' in my pond.
They have caught all my fishes, hoo! Well, well, and did away with my bone/bond(?)

Sometime I put my hand in the water and I play it as (?) mighty fine.
Well, I been fishin' right 'long here, mama, for some time.
I ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Dave Illingworth
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 08:50 AM

Thanks to Jim Dixon for getting the ball rolling.
The only words I think I can recall (from the Avon Cities Skiffle Group (1956) record) are:-

I believe there is some man been fishing in my pond
Did away with my fishes, did away with my (bond ?)
Well it's hey hey Mary, some man's been fishing in my pond
Did away with my fishes, done did away with my (bond ?)

Now my fish ain't so big, but they swim mighty deep
Don't want no man around them, even once a week
Singing hey hey Mary etc

That's all I remember. Must hunt out Champion Jack's record....

I am envious of Eddie1 and others who bought Jack a whisky.
But thankful I did get to see him.
As well as a thread which is still going strong about artists we wish we could have seen, how about one about:-
"Gigs/recording sessions I wish I could have been at"
But maybe it's already been done - I am a junior catter (kitten ?)
But I could definitely put down Jack Dupree's "Blues in the gutter"
recording session NYC 4th February 1958

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:49 AM

1)Dave, if you're the Dave Illingworth from DPN+1 , Hi.
2)I have a 1961 version of Jack singing this which I can try to transcribe if required.

RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: GUEST,Arnie at work
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:53 AM

As a kid, I used to see Champion Jack Dupree's big American limo parked outside his semi-detached council house in Ovenden Way, Halifax, W.Yorkshire. At that time, I didn't know who he was and am still not sure how or why he ended up living there. However,his limo did look a bit out of place amongst the few Ford Pops and Austins usually parked around there!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Dave Illingworth
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:14 AM

Thanks Roger the Skiffler !   I am indeed a member of DPN+1.
I no doubt know you (forgive me) maybe from the Zimmer Boys ?       I am terrible at names (but not faces).

I would love to know the lyrics if you can jot them down from the record - as, of course, would Wotsch, the originator of this thread.
Many thanks.

Also for "Arnie at work", I believe Jack Dupree settled in Halifax after he fell in love with a Halifax lass, and spent many happy years with her (they even had a daughter, I believe). There was an excellent BBC Radio Four programme about him about a year ago. He apparently completely acclimatised to the local community, and was well loved in the local pub and shops etc.
One of my favourite Dupree stories is about a solo gig he was booked for at a UK club. The club met in a room above a pub. With only a few minutes to go before Jack was supposed to start playing, the promoter started to panic. Then a punter came in saying "You should go downstairs - there's a great guy playing piano in the bar."
Champion Jack had arrived and immediately set to work on the pub piano........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:57 AM

Hi,Dave, I've bought a couple of your CDs and seen you at Caversham skiffle sessions. I'm getting on a bit but not yet as old as the Zimmer Boys!
I've got a partial set of lyrics, echo on the recording, my hearing aid and Jack's speech impediment make it difficult to catch everything. I used to see him at the 100 Club in Oxford St in the '70s when he was living in Yorkshire with his English wife..

Here's my best shot (where are Stewie and Masato when you need them!)

FISHERMAN'S BLUES
(Dupree)
I said Hey Hey baby
Some guy's been fishing in my pond
I said Hey Hey baby
Some guy 's been fishing in my pond
.......?

Well I don't mind him fishin'
.....?
Well I don't mind him fishin'
......?
......?

I said hey hey baby
What you want for me to do?
I said hey hey baby
What you want for me to do
.......?

I don't mind him fishin'
But he's got a really great long pole
I don't mind him fishin'
But he got a really great long pole
Every time I find him, lord lord....?

......?
Baby all round the edge of the pond
.....?
Baby all around the edge of the pond
I don't want him.....?

Hope someone else can fill the gaps!

RtS

Subject: Lyr Add: FISHERMAN'S BLUES (Champion Jack Dupree)
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 10:03 PM

Hi Roger, I have given it my best shot, but there are still a couple of gaps. Despite repeated listenings, I am unable to decipher the missing words in stanza 3 - the missing word in line 6 sounds a bit like 'bumblings'.   The last line of the song in square brackets should be close, I reckon. The 'whoo' is a sort of gentle whoop.   Hopefully, someone will be able to make the corrections.

FISHERMAN'S BLUES
(Champion Jack Dupree)

I say, 'Well, well, Mary,
Some man been fishing in my pond'
I say, 'Well, well, Mary,
Some man been fishing in my pond
He done eat up all my perches, whoo, lord, lord
And done away with my bond

Well I don't mind him fishin'
In that creek once a week
Well, I don't mind him fishin'
In that creek once a week.
But he's a greedy man, whoo, lord, lord
Don't leave me nothin' to eat

I say, 'Hey, hey, Mary,
What you want for me to do?'
I say, 'Hey, hey, Mary,
What you want for me to do?'
'I ? all along, whoo, lord, lord
And all my ? too'
[Spoken: 'All right play it, boy']

Instrumental break

I don't mind him fishin'
But he got a really great long pole
I don't mind him fishin'
But he got a really great long pole
Every time I find him, whoo, lord, lord.
Fishin' down in that hole


Say, the green grass growin'
All around the edge of my pond
Well, the green grass growin',
Baby, all around my pond
But I don't want him down no more, whoo, lord, lord
[No, baby, down no more]

Source: transcription of recording made by Champion Jack Dupree on 4 October 1961 and issued in 1964 on Champion Jack Dupree 'The Best of the Blues' Storyville LP SLP4010.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 05:20 AM

You da man, Stewie, knew you wouldn't let us down!

RtS
aka Bifocal Bob, the Croakin' Bullfrog

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Dave Illingworth
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 05:42 AM

Thanks Stewie and Roger.
Hopefully this will all be useful for Wotsch. Certainly interesting for me.
Strange that the words I remembered from the Avon Cities Skiffle version don't appear in the above quoted Dupree versions.
I can put this down to (a) my memory, (b) Ray Bush & Avon Cities group changed the words, or (c) Avon Cities based their recording on the first (1946) Dupree version. The joys of the folk/blues process.....

Nice to hear from you Roger. I miss the Caversham Folk Festival, especially the skiffle sessions in the Clifton Arms.

                         Cheers, Dave Illingworth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 10:36 AM

This was recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in the early 60's but he had been playing it for some years before that I'm sure.
He gave it a different title, I think it was "Honey What's Wrong With You". Some verses vary a bit but it's definitely the same basic song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blu
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 02:40 PM

What could he possibly mean by "did away with my bond"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blues'
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 05:33 AM

Could the missing word be a fish (or a bait: branling -worm-?)

RtS
(Thimbles O'Hooligan, the Washboard of Mass Destruction)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Champion Jack Dupree 'Fisherman's Blu
From: GUEST,Wotsch
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 01:48 PM

thanks a lot, boys and girls!

wotsch

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fisherman's Blues (Champion Jack Dupree)
From: GUEST,Erik, Denmark
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 07:31 AM

I remember one more verse in the mentioned Avon Cities' Skiffle Group version:
Hey, Hey, Mary – gonna fish today,
so you better think of the good fishing where to sell

- or somethig like that. English is not my first language.

Subject: Lyr Add: FISHERMAN'S BLUES (Champion Jack Dupree)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 03:50 PM

This seems to be a different version than the one that Stewie tried to transcribe, but this is the only one I could find on either Spotify or YouTube:


FISHERMAN'S BLUES
As sung by Champion Jack Dupree on "Blues Legends" (2011)

1. I believe, Mary, some man been fishin' in my pond,
Caught all my fishes and did away with my bond.

CHORUS: I say, hey-ay-ay, Mary, some man been fishin' in my pond.
He have caught all my fishes (hoo, well, well) and did away with my bond.

2. Sometime I put my hand in the water and I play this(?) mighty fine,
When I been fishin' right 'long here, mama, for some time.

3. I bought a brand-new pole and a new hook and line,
'Cause I'm gon' fish here, mama, because it's on his mind.

SPOKEN, DURING INSTRUMENTAL BREAK: Now let's fish here, mama.—Yes, yes.—I got good bait.—Ah, I use it from the O.P.A. (?)

4. Now the green grass grows all around the edge of my pond.
I have to cut a path through the middle to try to carry my fishin' on.

5. Now my fishes ain't so big, but they swims awful deep,
And I don't want nobody swimmin' around there even once a week.

6. Hey, now, goodbye, Mary; I'm going to fish today,
And all I want you to do is find me a good fishin' way to stay.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fisherman's Blues (Champion Jack Dupree)
From: GUEST,Alan Balfour
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 01:40 AM

For what it's worth Dupree first recorded Fisherman's Blues on New York, 18 April 1945 for Joe Davis. See   http://www.wirz.de/music/duprefrm.htm (scroll down to item 15)