what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone

Subject: what's the name of this song?
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 11:01 PM

And who sang it? It was in the mid 60's.

Some of the lyrics are:

"When I woke up this morning, she was gone, solid gone."

Anyone know it?

khandu

---

Threads on this song:

Lyr Req: 'Solid Gone', or When I woke up this

Find Song Folk Blues 'Solid Gone'

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song?
From: GUEST,dr soul
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 11:19 PM

Group: The Youngbloods (featuring Jesse Colin Young), their first album

Song: Grizzly Bear - "Well, I used to love to watch her dance that grizzly bear, I guess she's gone to Frisco, to dance it there, but when I woke up this morning, she was gone, solid gone . . . "

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song?
From: GUEST,joe
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 11:22 PM

ooooh, yeh!, gimme, gimme, gimme!

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 05:48 AM

A Google search for Dance that Grizzly Bear (click) brings up some interesting stuff, but not the song you're looking for.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: SOLID GONE (Jim Jackson)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 05:52 AM

Solid Gone
(Jim Jackson)

  B7                  C7      B7      E     A7    E
  When I woke up this morning she was gone, solid gone
  B7                  C7      B7      E     A7    E
  When I woke up this morning she was gone, solid gone
  A7
  I used to love to watch her dance that old Grizzly bear
  E
  I hear she's gone to Frisco to dance it there
  B7                  C7      B7      E     A7    E
  When I woke up this morning she was gone, solid gone
  
  She treats me bad, I felt so sad
  She would not even tell me why, why, why she was gone
  I used...
  
  repeat first verse

Subject: Lyr Add: SOLID GONE
From: Suffet
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 06:47 AM

There is an old hobo song which is sometimes called Solid Gone because of one of its refrains. It is also called The Cannonball Blues, Baltimore to Washington, Buffalo to Washington, or The Hobo's Blues. Here's an excerpt:

My baby left me, she even took my shoes,
Left me a sitting and singing the blues,
And now she's gone, solid gone.

I'm sitting here crying 'cause she's gone,
I feel like I'm dying 'cause she's gone,
'Cause she's gone, solid gone.


This song may have been an inspiration for Jim Jackson's song cited above.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 09:23 AM

Joe, how'd you get the chords to line up so nicely in your posting, superglue or duct tape?

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: LR Mole
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 09:36 AM

Steve Miller mutters "solid gone" into some song on the "Children of the Future" LP, but the only line I remember to it is, "And I'm dreamin' 'bout a bulldog, but I'm too far gone to care, and I'm gooooooone...." etc.,etc.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: LR Mole
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 09:42 AM

Me again. The "Grizzly Bear" was one of number of dance crazes like the "Turkey Trot" and the "Buzzard Hop"(?), the only one of which still around is the "Bunny Hop", maybe because of the Bob Wills song by that name. Bring back the Mudcat Stumble!

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: CamiSu
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 10:30 AM

Anne Dodson attributes it to Mark Spoelstra on her Tranquility Grange album. Her words are slightly different, but mostly just enough to accomodate the gender change of the singer. Unfortunately the album is only available on tape. She can be reached at Anne Dodson

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: RWilhelm
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 06:46 PM

It was definitely first recorded by Jim Jackson in the 1920's (I don't even pretend to know who wrote these songs anymore.) It is probably even older because Jackson didn't start recording till he was in his 40's. His version had at least one more verse which I'll try to find tomorrow.

Jackson also recorded "Wild About My Lovin" which was covered several times in the 60's. But Jim was solid gone himself by then and never got the credit he deserved.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 07:51 PM

Hi, Charley - You can get chords to line up if you use the Preformat commands <pre> (beginning) and </pre> (end) to space chords. There's more about it in the Mudcat HTML Guide PermaThread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: MarkS
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 08:26 PM

Only "Solid Gone" I know is the version Suffet referred to earlier. This can be found on a Tom Rush album- don't remember which one, but a discography can help.
You can wash my jumper girl, starch my overalls,
I'm gonna ride that train that they call the cannonball
From Buffalo, down to Washngton.

Now I'm down here crying cause she's gone
Feel like I'm dying cause she's gone
She's solid gone
MarkS

Subject: Lyr Add: SOLID GONE (McKinley)
From: ddw
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 09:58 PM

To flesh out Mark's lyrics from the Tom Rush album.... This is from memory, mind you...

You can wash my jumper, baby, starch my overalls,
I'm gonna ride that train that they call The Cannonball
From Buffalo, down to Washington.

Yonder comes the train, comin' down the track
Carryin' her away but it will not bring her back
My Honey Babe, my blue-eyed girl

CHORUS: Now I'm down here crying cause she's gone
Feel like I'm dying cause she's gone
She's solid gone

You know my baby left me, even took my shoes
'Nuff to give a man them doggone worried blues
Now she's gone, she's solid gone

Yonder comes that train, whistlin' round the curve
Whistlin' and blowin', straining every nerve
And now she's gone, my blue-eyed babe

CHORUS

I'm goin' up north, goin' up north next fall
If my luck don't change then I won't be back at all
My Honey Babe, I'm leavin' you

REPEAT VERSE 1

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 17-Mar-02.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: ddw
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 10:00 PM

Ratz! I copied and pasted Mark's lyrics, but I guess it doesn't copy the line breaks. Maybe a Joe Clone could insert them....

david

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: Amos
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 10:10 PM

Second verse from memory to the "Grizzly Bear" is:

Well, she didn't even tell me,
Why she was goin'
Why she was goin'
(Repeat)
(Repeat chorus)

Regards,

A

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: GUEST,khandu
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 10:29 PM

thanks a whole wallup to all you guys!

khandu

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: Tom D.
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 12:31 AM

Just another voice in the choir--I can vouch for the Youngbloods and Tom Rush tunes that have the "Solid Gone" component on account of because I just gave my younger brother ALL OF MY VINYL FROM THE SIXTIES!! Included therein were both the Tom Rush and Youngbloods albums containing the two tunes identified elsewhere in the thread. (And, they were in pretty decent shape,too! Alas, the records have weathered the years better than I have!)

Tom D.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 03:49 AM

Earl, did Jackson record this under the title 'This Morning She Was Gone'? Do you have the 2 Jackson CDs on Document? If so, are they worth getting as a collection? I have a only a few Jackson sides.

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: THIS MORNING SHE WAS GONE (Jim Jackson)
From: RWilhelm
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 10:12 AM

Stewie,

Right, that's the title I have and he never uses the phrase "solid gone" in the song. I have volume 1 of the Document CDs and I will probably get volume 2 at some point. I am a big fan of Jim Jackson and I love the songs he does so I think the CDs are worthwhile. On the down side they include a lot of alternate takes that don't really add much.

THIS MORNING SHE WAS GONE
Jim Jackson

When I woke up this morning, she's gone
She made me mad
I felt so sad
She would not even tell me the reason why
Oh how she loved to dance that old grizzly bear
I guess she's gone to Frisco to dance it there
When I woke up this morning, she's gone

Repeat

She's gone, gone, gone
She's gone, gone, gone
Always the same, everybody knows it's true
The more you do for people the less they think of you
Now she left town and she throwed me down
She's gone, gone, gone

repeat first verse

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 11:20 AM

The original of course is the Carter Family's Cannonball Blues:
You can starch my jumper, wash my overalls
To catch that train that they call the Cannonball
from Buffalo to Washington

can you imagine what it must have been like for young guitarists in 1928 or so to hear that picking style for the first time and say WOW I didn't know you could play melody like that??!! I gotta learn to do that!! and many of them did. . . Maybelle is a wonderful role model

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: LR Mole
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 11:23 AM

Geoff Muldaur does this,too, either on "Sleepy Man Blues" of "The Blues Project"(not the band--the sampler)> {probably got swapped around Cambridge quite a lot in the middle sixties).

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: RWilhelm
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 11:48 AM

We are really talking about two different songs here. The song about the grizzly bear recorded by the Youngbloods was a version of the song recorded by Jim Jackson in the 20's. The song Tom Rush recorded as "Solid Gone" was a version of the Carter Family song. That song probably evolved from older songs about the assassination of William McKinley; that's why the train was going from Buffalo to Washington.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 07:38 PM

Earl, thanks for the info. I'll get the first volume at least.

If people want to check out the provenance of the Carter Family song, they should read Norm Cohen's 'Long Steel Rail' pp 413-425. There is an in-depth discussion of its relationship to Charlie Poole's 'Whitehouse Blues' and other McKinley pieces. Cohen points out that the Carters' song is a traditional blues even though the tune is similar to 'Whitehouse Blues'. The 'jumper' and 'overalls' line is a staple of blues imagery - for example, Tommy Johnson's 'Lonesome Blues' begins 'Won't you iron my jumper, starch my overalls'. Cohen gives several earlier examples.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: GUEST,ojblues
Date: 26 May 01 - 04:23 AM

anybody got the chords to the tom rush cover of this one?

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 May 01 - 09:54 AM

Mother Maybelle did a nice version of the original Cannonball Blues (Solid Gone) on the Nashville at Newport album.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: MarkS
Date: 26 May 01 - 12:48 PM

I can remember doing the Tom Rush cover in C, but I will be darned if I can remember the breaks and turnarounds.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: GUEST,Morifa20
Date: 19 Jun 10 - 04:38 AM

Hamish Imlach plays Solid gone together with Bert Jansch and Archie Fisher. On YouTube !
But who know the lyricks from his version ?

Greatings from Holland.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: PoppaGator
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 06:00 PM

I've been looking for the lyrics to the Carter Family/Tom Rush song of this title. Should have known where to look in the first place!

I remember hearing/reading something during the last Presdential campaign that some of Obama's workers sang their own lyrics to this song, building around "from Buffalo down to Washington" as the refrain. Anyone know any more about this?

I began looking for the words after working up a guitar arrangement from memory. Pretty simple three-chord stuff, tricky only when you try to play the melody against an alternating bass...

One caveat about the lyric ~ my memory of the first line goes:

Wash my jumper, baby, iron my overalls...

("Iron" pronounced, roughly, "aahrn.")

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 18 - 06:42 PM

The Youngbloods did Grizzly Bear in the 1960s. It wasn't until I saw this thread that I realized the lyrics were "solid gone". I thought the girl's name was Sally. I heard it as "When I woke up this morning, she was gone, Sally had gone"

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: SuperDave
Date: 17 Nov 18 - 09:42 AM

Interesting use of "jumper" in this song, as this is not an often-used term in American English. British English, of course, uses it to describe what Americans call a "sweater", but this is not the kind of clothing that would be ironed or starched as the lyrics state (at least in some versions). There is a (somewhat outmoded) usage of "Jumper" as a workingman's shirt or jacket, according to Merriam-Webster.

For those interested in the Rush performance and/or chords, see here

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: clueless don
Date: 19 Nov 18 - 08:19 AM

I will echo GUEST from 14 Nov 18 - 06:42 PM. Since I started reading this thread, I have been recalling listening to the Youngblood's Grizzly Bear on the radio back in the day. I realized that my ears always heard

She was gone ... Sally's gone

Don

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 16 Aug 19 - 07:09 PM

Cannonball Blues was the first track on the Utah Phillips album, Good Though. He spaces the song out with lots of jokes and stories between verses. It's on Youtube, well worth a listen.

Subject: RE: what's the name of this song? - Solid Gone
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Aug 19 - 07:45 PM

Getting a bit labyrinthine.

White House Blues/Solid Gone got popular in England in the 1960's after it appeared on THe Charles River Valley Boys album. They seem to have got a lot of their repertoire from The Carter Family. In the book Baby Let Me Follow You Down - the history of The Charles River Boys is recorded. They were young guys with connections with Boston University, which the Charles River flows past.

She's Gone -The Grizzly Bear Somg appeared on The Blues Project compendium Elektra album performed by Mark Spoelstra. The album was immensely influential for all English folk guitarists. The English Blues duo Peabody and McNulty used this song and Slapping on my Black Cat Bone off the album and were omnipresent on the English folkscene in the 1970's.,

Lightning Hopkins made a widely reviewed album with a song called She's Gone, as one of the tracks.