Lyr Req: ...rock away from here...

Subject: Goin Down to the River....maybe
From: Lane
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 01:37 AM

Looking for lyrics ... the first verse goes:

"Goin down to the river gonna take a long my rocking chair and if these blues dont get me I'm gonna rock, rock away from here...."

Or something close....

Thanks!

Subject: Lyr Add: ROCKING CHAIR BLUES (Bessie Smith)
From: Quincy
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 05:46 AM

Hi Lane.....think this is what you're after..

ROCKING CHAIR BLUES

lyrics by Bessie Smith, music by Bessie Smith and Irving Johns

Did you ever wake up with sorrow all on your mind?
Did you ever wake up with sorrow all on your mind?
He plays the blues to his congregation, hear his trombone whine

He'll make you love, he'll make you cry, he'll sit right down and moan
He'll weep and moan till I hear him say
Lord I wonder where my loving man is gone

Easy rider, you see I'm going away,
I won't be back until you change your ways
I won't be back until you change your ways

I'm going to the river carryin' a brand new rockin' chair
I'm going to the river carryin' a brand new rockin' chair
I'm gonna ask Mister Tadpole to move all his stuff from here

Blues jumped a rabbit, run him for a solid mile
Blues jumped a rabbit, run him for a solid mile
The rabbit turned over and he cried like a natural

There's also a sound clip here

best wishes, Yvonne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goin Down to the River....maybe
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 08:59 AM

The lyric you've posted is a traditional oral formular that has been used in any number of songs. Probably the best known use is in 'Trouble in Mind'

Brian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goin Down to the River....maybe
From: Lane
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 09:37 AM

Thanks for the help!

I know about half of this song and am thinking that there are other verses out there.... the one that Yvonne posted is not the same song, though I like those lyrics and would like to learn that one, as well....

Yes, the line is used in a number of songs... maybe I can narrow it down.. heres part of another verse that I can remember....

They arrested me in a town down south,
I had empty pockets and a dirty mouth,
they locked me up and threw away the key.
They gave me wormy food, I had a dirty bed.....

and I forget the lyrics from there.....

Thanks, all!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goin Down to the River....maybe
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 10:22 AM

... missing from a verse up above (blues jumped a rabbit):

...cried just like a natural-born child.

We just had a thread on that song too, on its own-- Blues Jumped a Rabbit. Use Supersearch though, not the filter, to find it-- that wasn't the thread title.

~S~

Subject: Lyr Add: MOTHERLESS CHILE BLUES
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Mar 01 - 10:58 AM

Lyrics also used in BBQ BOB song "MOTHERLESS CHILE BLUES"

If I mistreat you, girl, sho' don't mean no harm. REPEAT
I'm a motherless chile, and I don't know right from wrong.

Please tell me, pretty mama, honey, where'd you stay last night? REPEAT
You didn't come home till the sun was shinin' bright.

I had to go so far, girl, just to get my hambone boiled. REPEAT
These Alabama women gonna let my hambone spoil.

I did more for you, girl, than your daddy ever done. REPEAT
I gave you my jelly; he ain't give you none.

If you see two women always riding hand in hand, REPEAT
Bet your bottom dollar one got the other one's man.

I'm going to the river, get me a tangled rockin' chair. REPEAT
If these blues overtake me, gonna rock away from here.

Pretty standard lyrics but great tune 12-string tuned to D capoed to 4th fret (6th if you tune your 12-string a step low as is often recommended) lush percussive open sound. GREAT FUN

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 6-Jul-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goin Down to the River....maybe
From: Jeep man
Date: 07 Nov 03 - 11:26 PM

I heard a snippet by Bert Jansch and really liked it. Can anyone supply his lyrics or something close? Jim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goin Down to the River....maybe
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Nov 03 - 11:43 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goin Down to the River....maybe
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 09:50 AM

I'm goin down to the river, set in my rocking chair, (2x)
And if the blues don't find me, gonna rock away from here.
--from I Know You Rider in the DT (no attribution).

Goin' down to the river. Gonna take my ol' rockin' chair
And if the blues don't leave me, I'll rock away from there.
--from Trouble in Mind in the DT (no attribution)

Going down to the river, take my rocking chair,
If that blues overtakes me, rock away from here.
--from Boat's Up The River sung by Roscoe Holcomb (in an old thread)

When I get the blues gonna give me a rockin' chair(2x)
When the blues overtake, gonna rock rock away from here
--from Flip, Flop & Fly as sung by The Blues Brothers

Going downtown to get a rockin' chair
Gonna rock, baby rock, away from here
--from Rockin' With Red sung by Red Hadley.

I'm goin' down the river, goin' down the river,
Goin' to take my rockin' chair.
Goin' to the river, goin' to take my rockin' chair.
Blues overtake me, goin' to rock away from here.
--from Mr. Crump by W. C. Handy

Wish I was in shady grove sittin in a rockin chair
And if those blues would bother me, I'd rock away from there
--from Shady Grove in the DT (no attribution given)

Watch the evening sun go down sitting in the rocking chair.
If the blues don't get me down I'll rock away from here.
--another version of Shady Grove

I'm going down to the railroad tracks
And I'm going to bring my rocking chair
If these doggone blues don't leave my mind
I'm going to rock away from here
--from Don't Let Your Deal Go Down (no attribution)

I'm goin' down to the river,
Gonna take me a rockin'-chair,
If this trouble don't leave me
Gonna rock away from here.
--from Sun's Gonna Shine sung by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...rock away from here...
From: GUEST,Glenda
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 01:09 PM

My dad sang this song to my sons. I am trying to find out who sang it. Dad is not alive for me to ask and would love to know who sang.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...rock away from here...
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 02:23 PM

This site has it as 2:19 Blues. (The lyrics are not the same as the Armstrong/Bechet song of the same name, nor is it the 2:19 (Mamie's blues) of Jelly Roll Morton).

There is a recording on youtube: 2:19 Blues (Dr.Uke and Daughters) where a comment attributes the song to Bob Gibson. He can be heard singing it with Abilene here: Abilene/2:19 Blues - Bob Gibson (2:19 start at about 2:22 in - pity they couldn't have made it at 2:19!).

I haven't verified the attribution, but this review of the album the track is from Funky In The Country - review has that attribution too.


Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...rock away from here...
From: GUEST,jdell
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 10:49 AM

These words are from the 2:19 Blues

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...rock away from here...
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 10:56 AM

Maybe the song you are looking for is "All Night Long" by Burnett and Rutherford. Also sung by Clarence Ashley as "Richmond Blues" and also by one of Ashley's younger friends Clint Howard. I believe he used the same title.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...rock away from here...
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 20 Nov 17 - 01:58 AM

?... buy a rocking chair, blues overtake me gonna rock away from here." -- "Don't Care Blues," Mamie Smith on Okeh, 1920

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...rock away from here...
From: GUEST,GUEST Bruce
Date: 23 Sep 18 - 10:17 PM

You can find the version you're looking for in Bert Jansch's "Young Man Blues - Live in Glasgow 1962-1964". It's on Spotify.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ...rock away from here...
From: GUEST,Robert L. Kendrick by way of his daughter-in
Date: 16 Nov 19 - 07:31 AM

Gonna go down to the river
Gonna get me a rock'n chair
If these blues don't leave me
I'm gonna rock on away from here

Storm clouds are gathering
When the storms do come
I won't be here darling
For I'll already be home