Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues

To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café ^TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=13914
11 messages

Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues

23 Sep 99 - 11:15 AM (#116850)
Subject: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River...
From: WyoWoman

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 ...

23 Sep 99 - 05:04 PM (#117009)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River.
From: Jack (Who is called Jack)

Sonny Terry & Brownie Mcghee used to play this.

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

23 Sep 99 - 05:16 PM (#117013)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River.
From: John Wood

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.

23 Sep 99 - 08:47 PM (#117093)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River.
From: Wally Macnow

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"

23 Sep 99 - 10:39 PM (#117125)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Which Way Does That Blood-Red River.
From: WyoWoman

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

24 Sep 99 - 09:32 AM (#117242)
Subject: Lyr Add: RED RIVER BLUES (John Jackson)
From: woody

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.

24 Sep 99 - 12:22 PM (#117311)
Subject: Lyr Add: RED RIVER (Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee)
From: Jon W.

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)

06 Apr 15 - 11:10 PM (#3700174)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues
From: GUEST,Ken Brock

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.

06 Apr 15 - 11:17 PM (#3700176)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues
From: GUEST,Ken Brock

make that lyyric "down to the rising sun"

18 Oct 16 - 02:49 AM (#3815264)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott

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

18 Oct 16 - 03:07 AM (#3815266)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red River / Red River Blues
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott

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.