Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues

Subject: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River...
From: WyoWoman
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 11:15 AM

Does anyone know the lyrics/chords to a song that goes, in part:

Which way, which way
Does that blood-red river run?
From the back door to the setting sun

I wish I could give you more to go on ...

WW

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River.
From: Jack (Who is called Jack)
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 05:04 PM

Sonny Terry & Brownie Mcghee used to play this.

If I can find it I'll post. Great song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River.
From: John Wood
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 05:16 PM

Darn!!I can remember singing along with this song.
Just can't seem to remember who sang it.
Got a feeling it was The Seekers or The Springfields or maybe Ian Campell Folkgroup......
Hope somebody comes up with an answer,
cos it's going to keep me awake

John.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River.
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 08:47 PM

I just posted something about Josh White elsewhere. He recorded it and it's on his CD "Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1, September 1929 - November 1933"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River.
From: WyoWoman
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 10:39 PM

Oh, yeay. Very cool. I had no idea the source of it lay in that direction. Many thanks.

WW

Subject: Lyr Add: RED RIVER BLUES (John Jackson)
From: woody
Date: 24 Sep 99 - 09:32 AM

This is the John Jackson version of RED RIVER BLUES from his CD Last Fair Deal Gone Down.

Which way, which way, your Blood Red River run?
My back window all to that rising sun.

Lord, I love her. Lord, I love her. Treat me so unkind.
Keep me worried, bothered all the time.

Red River, Red River, please tell me what to do,
Mm, what rest I can be.

Lord, I love her. Lord, I love her. Tell the world I do.
The way you mistreat me, comin' back home to you.

I'm gonna sing deep blue, and I ain't gonna sing no more.
The woman I love, lord, drove me from her door.

Which way, which way, your Blood Red River run?
My back window all to that rising sun.

Hope this is what you're lookin' for.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 22-Mar-03.

Subject: Lyr Add: RED RIVER (Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee)
From: Jon W.
Date: 24 Sep 99 - 12:22 PM

I could swear I posted this before but it didn't make it's way into the database so here is Sonny & Brownie's version again.

RED RIVER
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee

Which way, which way, that blood red river run?
Honey, from my back door to the risin' sun.

(let me tell you, boy)
I hate to see that risin' sun go down.
Makes me feel just like I'm on my last go round.

Well that stomper, Oh Lord (what'd he say, boy?) well send me six foot of clay.
(Why?) Well that blood river rising six feet every day.

(let me tell you)
Willis run into the camp, tell my brother Bill,
Well the woman that he's loving, sure gonna get him killed.

(what was her name boy?)
Crow Jane, Crow Jane, honey don't hold your head so high.
You realize darlin', you're gonna lay down and die.

(play me some blues there, boy)
(Harmonica break)
(do it one more time)
(Harmonica break)
(let me play a little guitar for ya)
(guitar break)

Well I heard, heard a mighty rumblin', Sonny and then I looked around.
Well that Northern and the Southern, tearin' that old depot down.

If you see me comin' babe, honey Oh, put your man outdoor.
Honey I ain't goin' explain yo-- Sonny may have before.

(Brownie: Let me tell you somethin' 'fore I play this)
(Sonny: Go ahead, tell me now)
If you see, see me comin' babe (Sonny: yeah) heist your window high,
If you see me leavin' little girl, hang your head and cry.
(Red River)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues
From: GUEST,Ken Brock
Date: 06 Apr 15 - 11:10 PM

The lyric asking where the red river runs, with the answer "from our front door until the rising sun", also appears at the very end of the Act 1 finale to the 1954 musical The Gokden Apple, by Jerome Moross and John Latouche. It is sung by a ship figurehead as Ulysses and his men go off tobring back Helen - all on Mt Olympus in Washington State in the year 1900.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues
From: GUEST,Ken Brock
Date: 06 Apr 15 - 11:17 PM

make that lyyric "down to the rising sun"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 18 Oct 16 - 02:49 AM

Th earliest recording I can think of with the "Red River run... rising sun" lyric is Edna Johnson accompanied by fiddle and guitar, January 12, 1924, "I'm Drifting From You Blues":

"Which a-way do Red River run
From my back window to the rising sun" (in AAAB lyrics)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdwvD4Epqrk

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 18 Oct 16 - 03:07 AM

This is her version of "I've Got Those Drifting From You Blues," copyrighted by Charles Booker Jr. of Philadelphia, who was born in Mississippi in about 1889.