Lyr Req: Dust My Broom (Elmore James)

Subject: I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM
From:
Date: 17 Feb 01 - 04:10 PM

What does the lyric in Elmore James' most famous song mean i.e " I Believe I'll dust my broom " ?

I have always assumed it is a sexual innuendo - but maybe not ? Any help would be appreciated on the above e-mail address.

TM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Feb 01 - 05:35 PM

Certainly sounds sexual to me......a lot of blues phrases are.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Feb 01 - 06:49 PM

As you say, there may be sexual innuendo there, but not necessarily. Evidently, Robert Johnson got the expression from a blues by Kokomo Arnold - 'Sagefield Woman Blues' (Arnold recorded it in 1934). In turn, Elmore James took 'Dust My Broom' from Johnson. I have not heard Arnold's 'Sagefield Woman Blues'. Does anyone have a copy of the lyrics? It could shed some light on this.

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: DUST MY BROOM (Elmore James)
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Feb 01 - 07:14 PM

Dust My Broom
Written by Elmore James / Josea.

I'm gettin' up soon in the mornin'
I believe I'll dust my broom
I'm gettin' up soon in the mornin'
I believe I'll dust my broom
I quit the best I'm lovin'
Now my friends can get in my room

I'm gonna write a letter, telephone every town I know
I'm gonna write a letter, telephone every town I know
If I don't find her in Mississippi
She be in East Monroe I know

I don't want no woman
Who wants every downtown man she meets
I don't want no woman
Who wants every downtown man she meets
Man cause no good darlin'
They shouldn't lie her on the street yeah

I believe, I believe my time ain't long
I believe, I believe my time ain't long
I ain't gonna leave my baby
And break up my happy home

from: http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/lyrics/d/dustmybroom.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 17 Feb 01 - 10:00 PM

Verse from "Buddy Bolden's Blues" (Little Brother Montgomery version) runs

I thought I heard Judge Fogerty say "thirty days in the jailhouse, take him away, "thirty days in the jailhouse, GIVE HIM A NEW BROOM TO SWEEP WITH, take him away" I thought I heard him say.

Another song, but a clear implication

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM
From: RWilhelm
Date: 18 Feb 01 - 06:07 PM

Somewhere on Mudcat there is another discussion of this song. It sounds like one of those blues sexual expressions but from the context of the song I think it means he's leaving.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Feb 01 - 06:38 PM

Hi Earl, I agree with you that, given the context, it most likely simply means that he is leaving. Putting 'dust my broom' in the forum search box gives heaps of hits, including one that may be the one refer to - nothing definitive on this expression there either, but a very interesting thread:

Blues lyrics

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 19 Feb 01 - 04:33 AM

One of the RJ records I have says it is a phrase meaning to clean house and move on, though, like Stewie, I always assume a sexual innuendo to obscure phrases in blues- but that's my problem! I suppose it means you clean the house and bang the dust off the broom, and leave. Like shaking the dust off your feet as a metaphor for a clean start elsewhere?
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I BELIEVE I'LL DUST MY BROOM
From: GUEST,Debmo
Date: 09 Oct 04 - 12:06 AM

always wondered if it meant he was going to fly away like a witch! kinda like dust off the old car and take it for a ride. Or ...lol...maybe he said dust my ROOM?

Subject: RE: Lyr: I Believe I'll Dust My Broom (Elmore James)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Oct 04 - 05:02 AM

In the 60s I used to frequent a coffee house called L'Auberge in Richmond Surrey. This record along with Country Line Special by Cyril Davies stayed on the juke-bow for years while others changed. Cyril Davies was a local hero as he played regularly at a long defunct venue called Eel Pie Island. I saw many 'names' from the 60s play there, Long John Baldry etc. I have a later CD with the same version by Elmore James. I just remembered another record that stayed for ages on the juke-box, Pressed Rat and Warthog by the immortal Cream, which had a base line that was as near as dammit The Cutty Wren. You know the one that goes, 'Oh where are you going, said Milder to Molder?'
As for brooms or broomsticks, I can only hark back to Let's Jump the Broomstick sung by Brenda Lee. Jumping the broomstick of course meaning getting married.
Giok