Sail On

Subject: Sail On, by Sonny Boy Williamson?
From: MandolinPaul
Date: 11 Jun 20 - 02:03 PM

I regularly perform this song that I learned from a Muddy Waters recording, called Honey Bee. The first verse goes:

Sail on. Sail on my little honey bee. Sail on.
Sail on. Sail on my little honey bee. Sail on.
I don't mind you sailing but please don't sail so long.

I'm sure I've seen it done by Sonny Boy Williamson and called Sail On, but can't find it anywhere. Frankly, I'm looking for it because I already do a bunch of Muddy songs, and would like to attribute someone else.

Has anyone seen this anywhere, or am I imagining things?

Subject: RE: Sail On
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 11 Jun 20 - 02:25 PM

Peter Green, the once and first Fleetwood Mac guitarist,
has not only name-checked this song,
but recorded it in recent years,
when working with the Splinter Group and Nigel I-forget-what-his-last-name-is.

Green attributes it to Muddy Waters
and makes no mention of Williamson.

Subject: RE: Sail On
From: MandolinPaul
Date: 11 Jun 20 - 10:13 PM

Thanks, keberoxu.

Subject: RE: Sail On
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 11 Jun 20 - 10:26 PM

The Amos referred to is Amos Easton. He released it in 1934. He used a few aliases.

https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/34351

I think this will help explain the whole who's who and got what from whom. Read p. 295 from the following link.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=-w-uGwm_LhcC&pg=PA295&dq=Sonny+Boy+Williamson,+Sail+On,+little+girl,+sail+on&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ah

Subject: RE: Sail On
From: MandolinPaul
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 10:54 AM

Amos Easton: Dude, I'll take it. You're a rock star, Starship. Thanks for finding that.

I've been reading biographies of bluesman lately, and have found that most of the big names "wrote" songs that were "based on" older songs by other artists. e.g. Howlin' Wolf's biography said that his song "Crying at Daybreak" was based on Charley Patton's song "Crying at Daybreak". The Wolf got a ton of stuff from Patton.

I think the answer is that almost all blues were written by Mr. Traditional or Mr. Public-Domain. :)

Subject: RE: Sail On
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 01:12 PM

Glad to be of help, MandolinPaul. It's interesting to watch the 'history' of various songs unfold over time. Some that come to mind are 'Corrine, Corrina' or 'Shenandoah'. Between those two songs alone there's gotta be a few dozen copyrights. And I think it was Mark Twain who said something like 'There's only one thing impossible for God, and that's to make sense of copyright law on Earth.' At times it sure looks that way.

Subject: RE: Sail On
From: Helen
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 06:09 PM

Hi Starship. Sorry to barge in on an unrelated thread but I can't PM you.

I thought you might like to know that the bagpipe song was identified, thanks to a combined effort, especially by you and cnd:

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=167801&messages=23

Subject: RE: Sail On
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 07:50 PM

Thank you for the heads-up, Helen. I'm happy it turned out to be a good song. It took four of us from different countries to find it. :-)