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25 Jul 05 - 03:51 PM (#1528028) Subject: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: Le Scaramouche I've been listening to Willie Dixon's 'My Babe' and had a nagging feeling that I knew the melody from somewhere else. Then it hit me. This Train! So which is the chicken which is the egg? |
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25 Jul 05 - 04:03 PM (#1528038) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: Le Scaramouche Just realised the answer. This Train had been recorded plenty before My Babe was written. So never mind. |
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25 Jul 05 - 10:02 PM (#1528330) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: Q (Frank Staplin) In 1911, Howard W. Odum printed a number of Oh, Babe, My Babe, Babe verses and songs from southern Negroes. If you are comparing late versions of 'My Babe" and "This Train," you may be right, But both have pre-WW1 antecedents. See Odum, Howard W., 1911, "Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes, The Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 24, July-Sept. 1911, no. XCIII, pp. 255 ff. Some of these; "Baby, What Have I Done," with the lines: Oh me! Oh my! Baby What have I done? Where were you las' Saturday night When I lay sick in my bed? You down town wid some other ole girl, Wasn't here to hold my head. "Oh MY Babe, Won't You Come Home" paints the reverse picture. Or the man demands freedom, "Where the rounders do as they please, babe!" "Oh, babe, take a one on me," is there. "Things Ain't the Same, Babe, Since I Went Away" "Baby, Won't You Let Me Bring My Clothes Back Home?" 'Well I started to leave and got way down the track, got to thinkin' 'bout my woman, come runnin' back, Oh Babe!' Etc. Chicken and egg, indeed. |
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29 Jul 05 - 09:22 AM (#1531123) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: GUEST,Pioneer. Can someone please provide lyrics for "My Babe" as recorded by Little Walter, I believe, and "This Train is Bound For Glory" by Woody Guthrie? |
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29 Jul 05 - 09:50 AM (#1531160) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: GUEST I think that "My Babe" in versions recorded by both Little Walter and Bo Diddley on Chess Records was a direct re-write by willie Dixon of the recording of "This Train" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The Tharpe record came out about ten years before the Little Walter which was recorded in Jan '55. Both songs contain the line "...'fore day creepers and midnight ramblers." The song would be much older than that I'm sure. Dixon plays double bass on the Walter record. Maybe Dixon was inspired to emulate Ray Charles by Rays secular re-working of a gospel number into "I got a Woman". Interestingly, one of the 2 guitar players on Walters "My Babe" record is Robert Junior Lockwood, one time travelling companion and contemporary or Robert Johnson. |
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30 Jul 05 - 01:25 PM (#1531597) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: GUEST,Pioneer. I see the fragments coming together before my very eyes and yet still no lyrics to ponder on why and how? these songs evolved. Fascinating information GUEST -thanks! |
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30 Jul 05 - 02:12 PM (#1531621) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: Le Scaramouche My baby don't stand no cheatin', my babe Oh yeah she don't stand no cheatin', my babe Oh yeah she don't stand no cheatin', She don't stand none of that midnight creepin' My babe, true little baby, my babe My babe, I know she love me, my babe Oh yes, I know she love me, my babe Oh yes, I know she love me, She don't do nothin' but kiss and hug me My babe, true little baby, my babe My baby don't stand no cheatin', my babe Oh no, she don't stand no cheatin', my babe Oh no, she don't stand no cheatin', Ev'rything she do she do so pleasin' My babe, true little baby, my babe My baby don't stand no foolin', my babe Oh yeah, she don't stand no foolin', my babe Oh yeah, she don't stand no foolin', When she's hot there ain't no coolin' My babe, true little baby, my babe She's my baby (true little baby) ... And don;t remeber the lyrics of 'This Train' but contains the lines: This train don't carry no gamblers, No cowpokes, no midnight ramblers, this train |
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30 Jul 05 - 05:09 PM (#1531727) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: Q (Frank Staplin) Not much on "This Train (Bound for Glory)" on Mudcat. Some early recordings: 1922- Florida Normal Industrial Institute Quartet 1925- Wood's (Famous) Blind Jubilee Singers 1828- Southern Plantation Singers 1929- Biddleville Quintet. 1939- Sister Posetta Tharpe Looking for early texts, but haven't found any. |
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31 Jul 05 - 01:38 AM (#1531907) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: GUEST,Pioneer. Thanks Scaramouche you're a star! and Q keep up the good work. |
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31 Jul 05 - 07:38 AM (#1531962) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: Q (Frank Staplin) "My Train" not in "Woody Guthrie Folk Songs," 1963. Only found it on tribute albums by other singers. It was a hit for him, however. |
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31 Jul 05 - 08:55 AM (#1532005) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: Mo the caller Nothing to do wiyh "My baby takes the morning train" then |
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12 Mar 21 - 03:08 PM (#4097356) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: GUEST "This Town" by Roger Miller uses the same tune. |
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12 Mar 21 - 03:37 PM (#4097357) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: GUEST,# Neat discography regarding 'My Babe' written (I think) by Willie Dixon for Little Walter. http://www.deaddisc.com/songs/My_Babe.htm |
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13 Mar 21 - 12:00 PM (#4097471) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: GUEST,Jerome Clark In his magisterial "Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong" (1981) Norm Cohen writes (p. 630) that "This Train" was first recorded by Wood's Blind Jubilee Singers in August 1925. Between them and 1931 three other Black singing groups released their own versions. Cohen says he can find no reference to it earlier than 1925, though other vernacular songs in circulation also used the railroad as a Christian metaphor. I infer that "This Train" was composed sometime in the early decades of the last century. |
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14 Mar 21 - 10:29 AM (#4097591) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: mayomick Guthrie included lines from This Train in his fictionalized autobiography , Bound For Glory. ‘This train don’t carry no gamblers, liars ,cheats or big shot ramblers’ |
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14 Mar 21 - 11:52 PM (#4097681) Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Babe' Meets 'This Train' From: EBarnacle Just scanning the title of this thread made me think of "The Bear missed the Train," which is a parody of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen." Is that the real object of this search? |