29 Apr 02 - 10:27 PM (#700877) Subject: Catfish Blues From: Doc Does anyone have the lyrics to Catfish blues? I am working off a great CD by Honeyboy Edwards and tried to get the lyrics off harry's Blues lyrics onlinhe, but the bandwidth was exceeded.. |
29 Apr 02 - 10:42 PM (#700881) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Catfish Blues From: Bobert Yo, Doc. I love Honey Boy's version but Jimi Hendrix's is, in my opionion, at least equal, and a little easier to snitch lyric from... |
29 Apr 02 - 11:14 PM (#700899) Subject: Lyr Add: CATFISH BLUES (Robert Petway) From: masato sakurai This is Robert Petway's version (1941).
CATFISH BLUES
1 Well I lay down down last night : well I tried to take my rest
(Source: Michael Taft, Blues Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, Garland, 1983, p. 216) ~Masato
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29 Apr 02 - 11:14 PM (#700900) Subject: Lyr Add: CATFISH BLUES (David "Honeyboy" Edwards) From: Tweed Is that CD “Mississippi Delta Bluesman” by any chance? I think the words are included in the liner notes. If you don't have the liners, here's the lyrics: CATFISH BLUES
1. If I was a catfish, swimming in the deep blue sea,
2. Yes, I'm going, yes, I'm going, and your crying won't make me stay.
3. Well, my mama told my papa just a day before I was born, 4. (Repeat #2)
5. Well, I'm going, mama. Yes, I'm going. I might get lonesome here. *The last phrase of the second line of each verse is repeated four to six times.
Hope that's the version you're hunting. |
29 Apr 02 - 11:25 PM (#700909) Subject: Lyr Add: CATFISH BLUES (sung by Muddy Waters) From: Rolfyboy6 CATFISH BLUES
Well, I wish I was a catfish, swimmin’ in a, oh, deep, blue sea.
I went to my baby’s house and I sit down oh, on her steps.
Well, my mother told my father, just before, hmmm, I was born,
Well, I feel, yes, I feel, feel that I could lay down. Oh, time ain’t long. By McKinley Morganfield (and yes, Muddy titled it “Rolling Stone”) And except, of course, for Robert Petway and Tommy McClennen who recorded it separately in 1941, well before Muddy. Petway and McClennen were close friends and partners and it isn’t certain which originated the song, if it wasn’t already traditional. For more on this Background on Catfish Blues
Jimi Hendrix recorded what were essentially Muddy’s words. |
29 Apr 02 - 11:56 PM (#700921) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Catfish Blues From: masato sakurai Honeyboy Edwards says it was made by Robert Petway:
"'Catfish Blues' is Robert Petway's song. He just made that song up and used to play it at them old country dances. He just made it up and kept it in his head. You call that mother wit. He remembered every verse he ever sang; didn't have towrite down nothing. I learned the 'Catfish' from Robert. Robert and Tommy McClennan and me, we'd be together all the time." (David Honeyboy Edwards, The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards, Chicago Review Press, 1997, p. 32) ~Masato |
30 Apr 02 - 12:23 AM (#700932) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Catfish Blues From: Rolfyboy6 Honeyboy is one of the last people alive who might know. He was around the Delta then. And then up in Chicago in the early 40s. I'll take his word for it. |
01 May 09 - 10:27 AM (#2622603) Subject: youtube & origins Catfish Blues From: katlaughing Thanks to VirginiaTam's thread, I found a wonderful version of this on youtube HERE by a remarkable young man. He also has a link to some of the background of the song at THIS SITE. I have not read it, so do not know how accurate it is, but this young man seems very sincere and knowledgeable besides very talented and versatile. Check out some of his other videos, too. Well worth it, imo. |
01 May 09 - 10:39 AM (#2622613) Subject: RE: Lyr Req;youtube video & origin links Catfish B From: VirginiaTam Awww Kat... you beat me to it. |
17 Dec 10 - 04:14 AM (#3055373) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Catfish Blues (David 'Honeyboy' Edwards) From: dilly daly of Adelaide Does anyone know the chord progression for Robert Petway's song?Bought a book with the song in and to help me play it and it says it's a one chord song.I can't produce the great sound of Robert's version with an AM chord no matter what i do to it!!!It's such a good song!!! |
17 Dec 10 - 05:34 AM (#3055410) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Catfish Blues (David 'Honeyboy' Edwards) From: GUEST Mr Petway's version is, in my humble opinion, by far the best. Interesting to see the lyrics in writing :) The absolutely sovereign coolness of Petway's somewhat slurry phrasing leaves some room for interpretation, I guess. I might have gotten some of the words completely wrong, haha - but I still think the song is just about the bestest piece of human culture ever. Peace. |
18 Dec 10 - 02:57 PM (#3056612) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Catfish Blues (David 'Honeyboy' Edwards) From: Jim Dixon I have listened to Robert Petway's version at YouTube, and I have a couple of corrections/additions to the lyrics from Taft: I hear line 7 as: I'm gwine to write, write me a letter baby : I'm gwine to write it just to see In lines 4 and 8, during the repetitions of the final phrase, he sometimes inserts the word "poor" before "me." |