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Best BLUES lines

07 Dec 01 - 04:31 PM (#605922)
Subject: Best BLUES lines
From: Jim Dixon

There have been several threads about best lines from songs, but never one devoted to blues songs specifically, that I can find. I have been transcribing a 2-CD set of songs by Tampa Red, and I am struck by the number of good lines I have never heard before. That's surprising, since good lines tend to "float" and get used over and over in blues. (Or maybe I just don't get out enough.) Here are the ones I mean:

I'll kill your soul and dare your spirit to move.
--Title and refrain of song

Now, my food ain't fitting and my house ain't clean.
You're the dirtiest old woman I've ever seen.
--YOU'VE GOT TO DO BETTER

Now, if I should call you, mama, and you refuse to come,
Heart Spring Water sure won't help you none.
--GRIEVIN' AND WORRYIN' BLUES

Your road is clear and it ain't no hill.
Don't say you won't, 'cause I know you will.
--GIVE IT UP BUDDY AND GET GOIN'

Sweet woman, sweet woman, where did you stay last night?
Sweet woman, where did you stay last night?
You've got your dress on backwards and your clothes don't fit you right.
--SWEET WOMAN

Now you gonna catch hell because you stayed so long.
You just well to get it fixed before you carry it home.
--SHAKE IT UP A LITTLE

Baby, let's give a party, and let's have some fun.
I got the hot-dog, so you just bring the bun.
--I'M BETTING ON YOU

So when we get married, I'll never throw her down.
I will stay right with her till my mustache drags the ground.
--GOOD WOMAN BLUES

I'm not certain, but I think I understand. (2x)
You just cared less about me than you did for your other man.
--WAITING BLUES
(Note: I find the above line extraordinary for its plain-spokenness, and above all, humility – uncommon qualities in blues.)

I wasn't by myself. Everybody there saw it.
She was giving my jelly 'way and not getting nothing for it.
--SHE DON'T KNOW MY MIND

Now, I peeped in the window and this is what I saw:
A man crawling on his knees doing the cootie-cootie crawl.
--SHE DON'T KNOW MY MIND

For those interested in the old threads, here they are, oldest first, according to date started:
best single lines
YOUR Best original single lines.
Best single lines PART TWO
The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
BS: Best lines
Help: lines that jump out at you
BS: Your OWN best lines

07 Dec 01 - 04:35 PM (#605925)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Amos

Ya wanna know blues, tell you if I can
It's a two-dollar woman tied up to a one-dollar man

(Uncertain origin)

A

07 Dec 01 - 04:57 PM (#605934)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Stewie

Sometimes I think that you too sweet to die
Sometimes I think that you too sweet to die
And another time I think you oughta be buried alive

Richard 'Rabbit' Brown - 'James Alley Blues'

--Stewie.

07 Dec 01 - 05:09 PM (#605939)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jack the Sailor

I gave you a brand new car, Now you want a Cadillac
I gave you seven children Now you want to give them back

I don't know the song but I've seen B.B. King sing it three times in concert it always gets a big cheer from the audience.

07 Dec 01 - 05:09 PM (#605940)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Rory B

I'm throwing away my dust mop Got a brand new vacuum cleaner You outta hear me when I holler Eureka! Eureka!

I need a young man....to drive away my middle aged blues.

Middle Aged Blues Saffire The Uppity Blues Women

hugggs Rory

07 Dec 01 - 05:21 PM (#605945)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: John MacKenzie

Well I woke up this morning.
Jock

07 Dec 01 - 05:23 PM (#605948)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jack the Sailor

I gave you a brand new car, Now you want a Cadillac
I gave you seven children Now you want to give them back

I don't know the song but I've seen B.B. King sing it three times in concert it always gets a big cheer from the audience.

07 Dec 01 - 05:26 PM (#605950)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: catspaw49

"It's plain to see it's you or me
.......And I ain't about to go.
Separation Blues, Pat Sky

Spaw

07 Dec 01 - 05:30 PM (#605953)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jack the Sailor

Well he walks right
He talks right
Plays guitar, that bluesy kind
He's got a way with women
And he just got away with mine!

07 Dec 01 - 05:46 PM (#605964)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ

I'm like a one-eyed catfish peepin' in a seafood store...
Shake, Rattle and Rollamong others

Get outta that bed and wash your face and hands
Get in that kitchen make some noise with them pots and pans

You men eat your dinner...coal dust and beans
I eat more chicken any man ever seen Back Door Man Willie Dixon

On the seventh hour
Of the seventh day
Of the seventh month
The seventh Doctor say
"He was born for luck"
Woman can't you see
I got seven hundred dollars Baby
Don't you mess with me.... Mannish Boy Muddy Waters

If my baby don't love me no more
I know her sister will...Red House Blues Jimi Hendrix

I woke up this mornin' and got myself a beer
The future's uncertain and the end is always near...Roadhouse Blues Jim Morrison

07 Dec 01 - 05:54 PM (#605970)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: alanabit

I don't know which song it was, but I once heard the line: "I'm gonna kill you and make you dead..." And I always used to think it was bad enough just getting killed...

07 Dec 01 - 05:54 PM (#605972)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Joe_F

Don't need no whisky, I don't need no rum,
Just need you, baby, when the summer come.

...

Look on yonder, see that eagle rise.
He was born on land, but he sure enjoys the skies.


-- Eric von Schmidt

07 Dec 01 - 06:20 PM (#605989)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jack the Sailor

Don't need no whisky, I don't need no rum,
Just need you, baby, when the summer come.

By Joe Summer

07 Dec 01 - 06:53 PM (#606008)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Stewie

A couple from the country lads:

My gal's got a mouse's ear
But she's gonna lose it when I shift my gear

Cliff Carlisle - 'Mouse's Ear Blues'

Gonna telephone to heaven to send me an angel down (x2)
If you haven't got an angel, St Peter, send me a high-steppin' brown

Jimmie Davis - 'Sewing Machine Blues'

--Stewie.

07 Dec 01 - 07:25 PM (#606027)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Morticia

And the wind is blowing cold tonight
Goodnight, Louise, goodnight

Louise:Paul Siebel

Just give me one thing, that I can believe in
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go

Angel from Montgomery: John Prine

The joke was on me
There was nobody even there to blush

Tom Thumb Blues: Bob Dylan

07 Dec 01 - 08:04 PM (#606063)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Bert

I don't want no skinny woman
I want one with plenty of meat
I want a girl who will rock all day
she won't even stop to eat.
Jimmy Rodgers

07 Dec 01 - 08:28 PM (#606086)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen

Hey, Stewie:

You my man. This is the second thread I've gone to post something, and see that you've already posted it. We must love the same stuff.

How about: Lookit that fellow right over yonder
Looks just like he'd like to ponder
Lookit that hair all around his mouth
Like he swallowed a mule and left the
tail hanging out.

From Mornin' Blues

Jerry

07 Dec 01 - 11:09 PM (#606175)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Rolfyboy6

"She walks like she got oil wells in her backyard" - Lightnin' Hopkins "Katie Mae".

"You know her daddy musta been a millionare, I can tell by the way she walks" - Sonny Boy Williamson II "Eyesight To The Blind" ----

The Mudcat tongue-in-cheek anthem: "Don't Start Me To Talkin', I'll Tell You Everything I Know" Sonny Boy Williamson II (to be sung gleefully) :

" Goin' down to Rosie's, from Fannie Mae's, Gonna tell Fannie what I heard her boyfriend say.

Cho: "Don't start me to talkin, I'll tell you everything I know, We got to beak up this signifying, Oohh, somebody's got to go.

------

Muddy Waters: "My home is on the Delta, Way down that farmer's road I'm leaving for Chicago, people I sure do hate to go."

(Anon.) "There's a long, long night train gonna carry me 'way from home"

07 Dec 01 - 11:15 PM (#606178)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: heric

I don't think that I can take it cause it took so long to bake it and I'LL NEVER HAVE THAT RECIPE AGAAAIIIIN

But seriously:

She's my best friend's girl and she used to be mine.

Muddy Waters

08 Dec 01 - 01:16 AM (#606225)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: WyoWoman

If I can't sell it, gonna keep sittin' on it, I ain't gonna give this good stuff away ... (Ruth Brown)

I need a little sugar in my bowl (Nina Simone)

Your love done shrunk. I want my money back ... (Saffire)

You're my hot little cookie And you bring out the boogie in me (Sonny Terry/Brownie McGee)

I'm gonna lay my head on that cold old railroad line, Let the 2:19 train ease my troubled mind ... (Ibid)

I'm a little bit like a lawnmower, baby Kinda hard to get me started, but then I just won't quit ...

Oh... that was me.

nivver mind

WW

08 Dec 01 - 03:16 AM (#606237)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Kaleea

Wow, those are some gooduns. One of my favorites is the late great Louis Armstrong in an early recording singing: Why must I be so black, and so blue?

08 Dec 01 - 12:48 PM (#606348)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: reggie miles

I know a woman, this is what she'll do, she'll make you tall and crazy, then she'll leave you small and blue.
I know a woman, five foot three, all day I try to get her into bed at night with me.
Honey won't you kiss me, tell me that you'll stay, lie down here beside me, till my blues go away.

oops that's me too

08 Dec 01 - 01:15 PM (#606353)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen

You're a good old wagon, Daddy, but you done broke down.

Bessie Smith

Jerry

08 Dec 01 - 04:43 PM (#606426)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Amos

If you want to (huh)
Please yo' Captain
Dig it deep boy (huh)
And raise it high

Bessie Jones
Road gang chant

08 Dec 01 - 04:47 PM (#606431)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Amos

Well, I ride on a mailtrain, baby,
Can't buy a thrill.
Well, I've been up all night, baby,
Leanin' on the window sill.
Well, if I die
On top of the hill
And if I don't make it,
You know my baby will.

Don't the moon look good, mama,
Shinin' through the trees?
Don't the brakeman look good, mama,
Flagging down the "Double E"?
Don't the sun look good
Goin' down over the sea?
Don't my gal look fine
When she's comin' after me?

Takes a Lot to Laugh, Takes a Train to Cry
Bob Dylan/Warner Bros

08 Dec 01 - 05:17 PM (#606440)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Arbuthnot

There's a Blind Lemon Jefferson line:

I asked my baby for fifty cents, she said There ain't a John in the yard!

and a Memphis Minnie line:

Iknow you got a cold and you can't smell So I'm going to give you something that I can't sell

There! That should lower the tone a bit!

08 Dec 01 - 06:09 PM (#606455)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ

If I had a nickel I'd find a game
If I won a dollar I'd make it rain
If it rained an ocean I'd drink it dry
and lay me down dissatisfied
Rex's Blues Townes Van Zandt

08 Dec 01 - 06:54 PM (#606468)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Alec

My li'll girl was hungry so I bought her a grocery store - Lightning hopkins

Squeese my lemon till the juice runs down my leg- ?

08 Dec 01 - 10:43 PM (#606548)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: kj...

Oh, when I die, please bury me In my ten dollar Stetson hat; Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain So my friends'll know I died standin' pat.

Get six gamblers to carry my coffin Six chorus girls to sing me a song Put a twenty-piece jazz band on my tail gate To raise Hell as we go along

St. James Infirmary of course.....but....who wrote it????

09 Dec 01 - 06:47 AM (#606665)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,The Burren Ranger

Blues in A Flat "Well I woke up this mornin' woke up yesterday mornin' too. Well I woke up this mornin' woke up yesterday mornin' too. And if I wake up tommorrow mornin' that'll be three days in a row." (anon)

09 Dec 01 - 01:42 PM (#606762)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Frogmore

My love is bigger than a Cadillac.

10 Dec 01 - 12:28 PM (#607198)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Brian Hoskin

Ain't it hard to stumble when you got no place to fall
I ain't got no place in this world at all.

- that's from memory, and I can't remember who it's from, but I'm sure Stewie can remind me?

10 Dec 01 - 05:46 PM (#607446)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: pattyClink

I'd rather drink muddy water, and sleep in a hollow log

10 Dec 01 - 08:59 PM (#607567)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: ddw

Now don't you criticize the kind of folks who might gather
At my kind of place 'cause nothin' looks sadder
Than a self-rightous soul who falls off his high horse
And winds up stupified at the watering trough

From "My Kind of Place" by Paul Geremia

10 Dec 01 - 09:18 PM (#607578)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,allie

Why am I thinking of Blind Melon Chitlin?

Own-gong-ging-gong, o-way. -Cheech and Chong

allie

10 Dec 01 - 10:24 PM (#607621)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Stewie

Hey Brian, I can't place the artist either. I know it comes from a blues called 'I'm A Stranger Here'. I thought Sonny and Brownie, but their blues of that title is different. Here's what sticks in my mind - maybe it will prompt someone's memory as to who sang it:

Ain't it hard to stumble when you've got no place to fall?
Ain't it hard to stumble when you've got no place to fall?
In this whole wide world I've got no place at all

I'm a stranger here, I'm a stranger everywhere.
I would go home but, honey, I'm a stranger there

Hitch up my buggy, saddle up my black mare
Hitch up my buggy, saddle up my black mare
Goin' to find me a fair deal in this world somewhere

--Stewie.

11 Dec 01 - 07:58 PM (#608084)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: ddw

kj,

I don't think you'll ever pin down who wrote St. James Infirmary. It's just a varient of The Unfortunate Rake and Streets of Loredo with the scene shifted to a Greenville, S.C. VD clinic. Somebody might copyright an arrangement, but I think the song is basically trad.

cheers,

david

11 Dec 01 - 08:08 PM (#608087)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: ddw

LEJ,

the words you posted above,

On the seventh hour Of the seventh day Of the seventh month The seventh Doctor say "He was born for luck" Woman can't you see I got seven hundred dollars Baby Don't you mess with me...

and attributed as being from Mannish Boy by Muddy Waters are also to be found, verbatim, in Willie Dixon's Hootchie Kootchie Man. Wonder which came first?

Not that it really matters, mind you, since blues tunes swap lyrics back and forth all the time and Willie did play bass in Muddy's band for a long time. Just a point of curiosity....

david

11 Dec 01 - 08:12 PM (#608090)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: ddw

Jim Dixon,

Thanks for posting that info about Tampa Red's 2CD set — it's one I'll definitely hunt down. I was just reading through your selection of great lines and realized you didn't post one of my favorites of his:

Copper brought her in, she didn't need no bail
She shook it for the judge and put the cop in jail

From "No Matter How She Done It."

Great song!

cheers,

david

12 Dec 01 - 11:27 AM (#608383)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: LR Mole

I'm gonna stop my cryin', and leave you alone
You don't believe I'm leavin, YOU CAN COUNT THE DAYS I"M GONE..
"Milkcow Blues Boogie"

12 Dec 01 - 12:29 PM (#608418)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ

ddw...sometimes I wonder who invented these lines anyway. Jimmy Page stole it from Muddy, who stole it from Robert, who stole it from Son, who probably stole it from Blind Lemon, who probably stole it from somebody sitting on his porch playing a diddley bow. This stuff somehow has the strength of archetypal imagery, which is the magical thing about traditional music.

12 Dec 01 - 03:44 PM (#608547)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jenny the T

Big boss man, can't you hear me when I call? Well you ain't so big--you just tall, that's all.

(don't know the original author; it's been covered many times)

JtT

12 Dec 01 - 04:21 PM (#608566)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: John MacKenzie

When the women all heard that King Brady was dead
They went on home an' they dressed in red,
Came a-slippin' an' a-slidin' up an' down the street,
In their loose Mother Hubbards an' their stockin' feet Don't know what it's called or who wrote it, nor yet any more of the words, but it's on a Brothers Four album.

If it wasn't for bad luck, wouldn't have no luck at all. Clapton & others
Failte.....Jock

12 Dec 01 - 06:12 PM (#608625)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: ddw

Jock,

The first one is from Duncan And Brady (sometimes called Duncan's 'Lectric Car or King Brady). Not absolutely sure who the original tune was by, but (somebody correct me if my memory's faulty) I seem to remember it as a good 12-string piece done by either Leadbelly or Blind Willie McTell — more likely the former....

Hoyt Axton covered it well.

LEJ. Fully agree. Sometimes I think if you learned about 15 verses you could do 80 per cent of the blues tunes out there....

I think the magic is in how the music can make the words sound so good over and over. —— On second reading, that seems to be about the same thing you said, isn't it?

cheers,

david

12 Dec 01 - 06:57 PM (#608640)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Bobert

Brian,

Dylan must have been paying attention to your song because in his "She Belongs to Me" (approx. 1965) he wrote:

She never stumbles, she's got no place to fall She never stumbles, she's got no place to fall She's nobodys' child, the law can't touch her at all

As for a few of my favorite lines:

"I'm so evil, my shadow won't even follow me"

And of course Johnny Winter in TV Blues, "If you don't get the picture, I'm going to have to do so work on you."

And someone posted a Paul Siebel line from "Louise" I epecially like his last verses to "Legend of the Captain's Daughter"..."time is now and will be long ago" and his "Jasper"..."last time I saw Jasper, he was running down the road, with his botts on backwards just in case it snowed"

13 Dec 01 - 01:57 AM (#608834)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Mudlark

Don't know what this is from...it was sort of spoken....."Telephone ringin'......sounds like a long DIStance call..."

13 Dec 01 - 02:30 AM (#608838)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lepus Rex

Hah! I see this thread, open it up, thinking I'm going to add "I'll kill your soul and dare your spirit to move" to the list. And it's the first song in the first post. Damn! Now I've got to think about it... :)

---Lepus Rex

13 Dec 01 - 02:33 AM (#608839)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lepus Rex

p.s.---That Tampa Red 2-cd set rocks. :)

---Lepus Rex

13 Dec 01 - 06:48 AM (#608877)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Steve Latimer

Mudlark,

That's from Muddy Waters' "Long Distance Call" the next line is a beauty. "Picked up the receiver, the caller said 'another mule's kickin' in your stall".

It occurred to me the other night when I was at Rick Fieldings "O' Brother" tribute night, where would Blues & Bluegrass music be if "bail" didn't rhyme with "jail"?

13 Dec 01 - 07:39 AM (#608886)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Troll

Goin' up the country, goin' to my childhood home (2X)
Been a long time comin' but I'm gonna be a long time gone.

Well, since you left me baby, I've had some time to myself.
Yeah, since you left me baby, I ain't even tried to find somebody else.
When you told me you was leavin', it almost came as good news.
I've sat down and thought it over. I think i'm better off with the blues.
Now that is some kind of bad woman. I don't know who did this song but it sounds very Chicago-ish. I heard it on the radio and this is all I can remember. I'd like the complete lyrics if anyone has them.
If no response here, I'll start a lyric thread.

troll

14 Dec 01 - 06:53 AM (#609547)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler

"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!)

14 Dec 01 - 04:16 PM (#609900)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST

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

14 Dec 01 - 04:22 PM (#609902)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ

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(?)

14 Dec 01 - 04:34 PM (#609913)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: gnu

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.

14 Dec 01 - 04:36 PM (#609915)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ

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(?)

14 Dec 01 - 04:45 PM (#609925)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: gnu

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

14 Dec 01 - 05:09 PM (#609940)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Lonesome EJ

Mudcat Gremlins?!

My above double posts went in 14 minutes apart.

14 Dec 01 - 05:21 PM (#609952)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: gnu

Perhaps the gremlins are trying to tell me something ?

14 Dec 01 - 10:32 PM (#610167)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Desdemona

"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...."

15 Dec 01 - 10:30 AM (#610361)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: gnu

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...

15 Dec 01 - 09:43 PM (#610762)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: DancingMom

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.

15 Dec 01 - 09:56 PM (#610768)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: DancingMom

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

16 Dec 01 - 07:59 PM (#611272)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: CraigS

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

07 Jul 02 - 12:09 AM (#743599)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jim Dixon

From TRUCKING LITTLE WOMAN (Big Bill Broonzy):

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

07 Jul 02 - 07:13 PM (#744038)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Pean O'Graffey

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

08 Jul 02 - 01:26 AM (#744193)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Mark Clark

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

08 Jul 02 - 04:54 PM (#744594)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Blues=Life

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

09 Jul 02 - 05:32 AM (#744969)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: fogie

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.

09 Jul 02 - 02:29 PM (#745246)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: rube1

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

09 Jul 02 - 02:37 PM (#745254)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy

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

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

09 Jul 02 - 03:43 PM (#745287)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Foe

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

09 Jul 02 - 03:52 PM (#745295)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: John-S

When I die I'll go to Heaven

Cos I've spent my time in Hell.

Keef

09 Jul 02 - 04:00 PM (#745301)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Songster Bob

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

09 Jul 02 - 08:32 PM (#745481)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Joe_F

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.

10 Jul 02 - 06:35 AM (#745684)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Pean O'Graffey

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

11 Jul 02 - 03:02 AM (#746304)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: fat B****rd

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

09 Oct 03 - 12:31 AM (#1032205)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jim Dixon

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

09 Oct 03 - 12:35 AM (#1032208)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Amos

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....

09 Oct 03 - 01:02 AM (#1032224)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,pdq

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

09 Oct 03 - 04:39 AM (#1032262)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Suzanne B.

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

I think that was Sippie Wallace.

14 Jan 07 - 05:02 PM (#1936550)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,bluerailroad

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.

15 Jan 07 - 08:47 AM (#1937160)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,SouthernCelt

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

15 Jan 07 - 09:28 AM (#1937194)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Roger the Skiffler

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

RtS

15 Jan 07 - 09:32 AM (#1937198)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Uncle Phil

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

15 Jan 07 - 03:05 PM (#1937477)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jim

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.

15 Jan 07 - 03:12 PM (#1937484)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jim

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)

15 Jan 07 - 03:39 PM (#1937510)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: wysiwyg

I always loved this line:

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

~S~

15 Jan 07 - 03:48 PM (#1937519)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: oggie

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

15 Jan 07 - 07:31 PM (#1937754)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,SouthernCelt

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

15 Jan 07 - 07:42 PM (#1937766)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen

"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

15 Jan 07 - 07:47 PM (#1937776)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: ragtimeangel

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

16 Jan 07 - 12:31 PM (#1938415)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jim

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?

16 Jan 07 - 03:18 PM (#1938584)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: fat B****rd

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.

16 Jan 07 - 04:41 PM (#1938697)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: GUEST,Jim

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?

17 Jan 07 - 03:59 AM (#1939139)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: fat B****rd

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 ?

17 Jan 07 - 08:15 PM (#1940017)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Declan

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".

17 Jan 07 - 08:21 PM (#1940018)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Joe_F

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.

17 Jan 07 - 08:52 PM (#1940031)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Leadfingers

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

17 Jan 07 - 08:55 PM (#1940035)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Leadfingers

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

17 Jan 07 - 08:56 PM (#1940036)
Subject: RE: Best BLUES lines
From: Leadfingers

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