Best BLUES lines

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Leadfingers
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 08:56 PM

100 !!! and those previous two are from Richard Stilgoe .

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Leadfingers
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 08:55 PM

Never loan your mouthorgan not even to your dearest friend X2

Cos you may survive the blowin , but the suckin gonna get you in the end

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Leadfingers
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 08:52 PM

First line of the blues is always repeated a second time X 2

So when you get to the third line you got time to think up the rhyme

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 08:21 PM

When the blues catch a rabbit, he run one solid mile.
Poor little rabbit, cry like a newborn child.

Wish I was a headlight on some eastbound train,
I'd shine my light on cool Colorado rain.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Declan
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 08:15 PM

I always liked these lines from Muddy Waters' Busdriver Blues -

My Baby took off with a Bus driver, and you know that don't seem right.
He used to give her rides in the daytime, now she gives hum rides at night.

Also a blues I heard once about a man whos girlfriend has taken to the drink called "My sugar has turned to Alcohol".

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 03:59 AM

Well, Jim. I AM moving to Scotland later but I was born in Cleethorpes on the Humber Delta of Sunderland born parents. So I sound pseudo hipster with dark brown undertones. But if you want to read my post with a BSA please feel free.
Good thread innit ?

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 04:41 PM

Yeah, Martin Mull. I couldn't think of his name. Thanks fat B****rd.

By the way, I read your letter to myself in a broad Scottish accent. Am I right?

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: fat B****rd
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 03:18 PM

Hello, Guest Jim. I have the third one by Martin Mull and was just thinking of posting it when I read yours.
Southern Celt. Yes, it's an odd little song and I also have it by Leon Redbone.
I've always liked "I'm gonna fall on my knees, gonna raise up my right hand" C. Burnett.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 12:31 PM

How about:

Ever since my baby left me, I don't know what to think,
Ever since my baby left me, I don't know what to think,
Think I'll take another Valium and go and call my shrink.

I took my BMW down to the tune-up stand,
Yes I took my Beemer down to the tune-up stand
Said,"Fix the fuel injection - Please Mr. Tune-up Man."

Woke up this afternoon and found that both my cars were gone.
Yes I woke up this afternoon and both my cars were gone.
I got so goddamned mad I threw my drink across the lawn.

I can't remember where the first two came from, but the last one was from the star of Fernwood Tonight. And who says Yuppies can't get the blues?

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: ragtimeangel
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 07:47 PM

Always loved "Leavin' Trunk": Gonna pack my leavin' trunk.
                               Ain't had no whiskey--
                               The blues have got me solid drunk
                                    --Taj Mahal, among many others

And of course: Saint Louis woman, with all her diamond rings--
                She got that man tied to her apron strings.
                Without that powder and paint and all that store-bought                                 
                     hair--
                You that man of mine, he wouldn't go nowhere.
                               --W. C. Handy

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 07:42 PM

"I've got the blues before sunrise
Tears standing in my eyes
It's the most miserable old feeling
A feeling I do despise"

Blues Before Sunrise from LeRoy Carr

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,SouthernCelt
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 07:31 PM

Another tune Jimmie Rodgers did, a somewhat wierd little song called "Desert Blues", has somewhat odd lyrics:

Out on the wind-swept desert where nature favors no man
The buffalo found his brother at rest on the sun-baked sand
He says "Brother, what ails you? Has sickness got you this way?"
But his brother never said, 'cause his brother was dead, been dead since way last May.

Yes, big chief Buffalo Nickel, a mighty man in his day
Never once used a sickle to clear the bushes away
He'd go 'round from tent to tent and eat everything in sight
He loved him a squaw, every one that he saw, he loved a new one every night.

Last night on the wind-swept desert I heard a big Indian moan
I left my tent, I knew what it meant, and I knew I'd never more roam
It was gone when I made St. Fe, my legs were certainly sore
I'd lost fifty pounds on that hot desert ground and I'd lose that many more.

I've always wondered what hearing an Indian moan was supposed to mean and is St. Fe supposed to be Santa Fe shortened to fit the lyrical rhythm?

SC

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: oggie
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 03:48 PM

Loving's for the summer,
Leaving's for the fall.
Better to have a love that's gone
Than have no love at all.

Heard in 197? at the Turks Head FC in Lincoln, author unknown

oggie

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 03:39 PM

I always loved this line:

Blues jumped a rabbit, and he ran a solid mile.

~S~

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 03:12 PM

We're sensitive guys and we sing old out-dated songs.
We're sensitive guys and we sing old out-dated songs.
This record won't sell and the women all think we're goons.

Nobody likes our music; they wanna hear stuff that's loud.
Nobody likes our music; they all want stuff that's loud.
Don't fit with the folkies. Don't fit with the disco crowd.

Gonna finish this verse and then I'm gonna quit this band.
I'll finish this verse then I'm walkin' out on this band.
I'll leave my sweet mama and move to some unknown land.

(Suit's Crybaby Blues - R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders)

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 03:05 PM

Forgive me if I've restated a verse, but I just skimmed the entries above.

I ain't never had no two women at one time,
No, I never had no two women at one time,
To satisfy this boy takes six, seven eight or nine.

I prayed to the Lord to send me an angel down,
Yes I prayed to the Lord to send me an angel down,
He must've been outa angels 'cause he sent me old Thelma Brown.

What is it makes me love that Thelma Brown?
What is it makes me love that Thelma Brown?
Must be the same old thing makes a bulldog hug a hound.

What makes my grandma love my grandpa so?
What makes my grandma love my grandpa so?
He's got that same jellyroll he had fifty years ago.

I can't remember where I heard the first three, but the Grandma one comes from Lonnie Johnson.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 09:32 AM

If you don't want me, mama, you don't have to call,
Cause I can get more women than a passenger train can haul.
Jimmie Rodgers

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 09:28 AM

"She looks like a train wreck that happened last July" (Washboard Sam Soap & Water Blues.

RtS

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,SouthernCelt
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 08:47 AM

I think "Black Mountain" or "Black Mountain Blues" as some call it has some of the best lines:

On Black Mountain, little child will spit in your face (repeated once)
All the babies cry for whiskey, all the birds they sing bass

On Black Mountain, you can't keep a man in jail (repeated)
If the jury find him guilty, the judge gone go his bail

Goin' back to Black Mountain, me an' my razor an' my gun (repeated)
I'm gone cut 'er if she stand and shoot 'er if she run.

SC

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,bluerailroad
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 05:02 PM

oh honey why do you treat your mean so mean
oh honey why do you treat your mean so mean
when i ask you for water you always bring me gasoline

I'm heartsick baby ever since the death of you
Yeah i'm heartsick baby ever since the death of you
I'm sorry now i killed you, i know that was a bad thing to do.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Suzanne B.
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 04:39 AM

Troll - "Goin' up the country..."

I think that was Sippie Wallace.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 01:02 AM

Not sure I have the record anymore, but Tampa Red's "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" has some of the best lines.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Amos
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 12:35 AM

I have got the keys to the highway,
Lord I ain't got too far to go;
Bound to leave your town a-running,
'Cuz walking is a most too slow....

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 12:31 AM

Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin' too.
--B B King, "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother"

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: fat B****rd
Date: 11 Jul 02 - 03:02 AM

"Have to go so far to get my hambone boiled" Barbecue Bob.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Pean O'Graffey
Date: 10 Jul 02 - 06:35 AM

The lyrics I attributed to Jerry Garcia in my earlier posting belong in fact to Bob Hunter. Unforgivable. Profoundest apologies Bob.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Joe_F
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 08:32 PM

If I'm feeling tomorrow just like I feel today,
I'll pack my suitcase and make my getaway.

Probably the first blues I ever heard. When I was, oh, 3 or 4, there was some place we went & my parents let me put a nickel in the jukebox, and I always picked no. 4, St Louis Blues.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Songster Bob
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 04:00 PM

Well, two lines or couplets come to mind, I don't know which one is better:

I gave sugar for sugar, now you get salt for salt. /
If you can't get along with me, it's your own damn fault.

(from "James Alley Blues," by Rabbit Brown)

OR

I got a good woman, but my man don't want her 'round.

(from a non-existent song Pete Kraemer suggested that I try writing)


Songbob

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: John-S
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 03:52 PM

When I die I'll go to Heaven

Cos I've spent my time in Hell.

Keef

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Foe
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 03:43 PM

Cover that woman with chocolate syrup and boogie 'til the cows come home

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 02:37 PM

'I asked for water and you gave me gasoline...'

'I got a letter this mornin', how do you reckon it read?..'

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: rube1
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 02:29 PM

I finally figured out just what it was The woman wanted convenience, but I want love Ain't but one thing that I done wrong Thinking about her life, and not my own But now I don't care no more I don't care what you do Babe, I don't care no more

-Sonny Boy Williamson

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: fogie
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 05:32 AM

I am just a city boy Im really not the country kind I miss city streets and the neon lights Train goin round the bend You know I've bin up a line to nowhere, but now I'm taking me back where I belong I've been here once and I dont think its too nice Train goin round the bend, Train goin round the be-e-e-nd. And how true those words are! Well done Lou.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Blues=Life
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 04:54 PM

I got to play in a jam session at a 4th of July party with some incredible professionals, (didn't even take out the guitar, stayed with harmonica, "A man's got to know his limitations!" *g*), and 5 to 6 songs into the jam, the question arose... what next? I'm not shy, I took off with my theme song, "Built For Comfort" (I'm 6'4", 230 lbs., 42 years old, what else should I have for my theme song!)

Some folks are built like this, some folks are built like that,
but the way I'm built, Now don't you call me fat.
I'm built for comfort, baby. Ain't built for speed.
I got everything that a good girl ever needs.

What a band, what a night. Life is good. Blues

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Mark Clark
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 01:26 AM

I always liked one of Furry Lewis' lines:

There's only three women I ever loved in my life, (2)
My mother, my sister, my girlfriend and my wife.

And I think it was Junior Wells who used to sing:

People come and ask me, how does a poor man do, (2)
Sews patches on his clothes, stuffs newspaper down in his shoes.

Brownie McGhee's “Pawnshop Blues” included the line:

I asked the pawnshop man what're those three balls doin' on the wall, (2)
He said “I'll bet you two to one buddy, you won't get your stuff out of here at all.”

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Pean O'Graffey
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 07:13 PM

See here how everything
leads up to this day
and it's just like any other day
that's ever been...
- Jerry Garcia (?)

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 12:09 AM

From TRUCKING LITTLE WOMAN (Big Bill Broonzy):

"She can look up as long as you can look down."

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: CraigS
Date: 16 Dec 01 - 07:59 PM

Some people sing the blues just because they know the song, But hear me singing, you know my time ain't long

Little David Alexander

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: DancingMom
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 09:56 PM

by The Bluesman, the Healer, John Lee Hooker. Sharon

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: DancingMom
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 09:43 PM

Hey, hey.

Doin' the shout, I'm gonna do the shout, Got a letter from my baby, she's on her way home, we're gonna lock up the door, if anybody calls, say we're not at home, if the telephone ring, we're not at home. We're doin the shout, me and my baby. Gonna shout all day, gonna shout all night, Me and my baby, I was so glad to see my baby back home. Shout, baby.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: gnu
Date: 15 Dec 01 - 10:30 AM

Gee !!! Apparently, I had a few too many last night. Country Blues... how childish of me to write trash like that in a serious discussion. Real Blues... oh yeah... Lay down Sally, and spread your cream white thighs. I been waitin all night long just to hear you sigh...

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 10:32 PM

"What's that smell like fish, oh baby, I really would like to know? Oh, what's that smell like fish pretty mama I really would like to know? Said, that ain't puddin', baby, That ain't pie That's the stuff that I got you by...."

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: gnu
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 05:21 PM

Perhaps the gremlins are trying to tell me something ?

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 05:09 PM

Mudcat Gremlins?!

My above double posts went in 14 minutes apart.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: gnu
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 04:45 PM

A terse PM would have sufficed. That's more embarassing than my post.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 04:36 PM

When the train left the station
It had two lights on behind
The red light was my Baby
The green light was my mind

Love in Vain by...er...Robert Johnson(?)

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: gnu
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 04:34 PM

Been kinda lonely in the saddle since my horse died... wait, that's country blues... sorry.

You picked a fine to leave me you bitch, four hungry children and the truck's in the ditch... damn !!!

You've painted up your tits and curled your pubic hair; Ruby, are you copulating, goin down somewhere ? Oh, RuuuuuuUUbyyyy, ..... I wonder if there's a meeting somewhere tonight ?

OK, I'll slink away now.

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 04:22 PM

When the train left the station
It had two lights on behind
The red light was my Baby
The green light was my mind

Love in Vain by...er...Robert Johnson(?)

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 04:16 PM

Sometimes I think that you're too sweet to die and another time I think you oughta be buried alive - Richard Rabbit Brown, James alley blues

Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 06:53 AM

"May seem funny honey, funny as can be
We have seven children and none of 'em look like me"
(Gonna move to the outskirts of town)
RtS (work Xmas nosh today then only 5 more working day, Yipeeee!)