Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues

Subject: Tishomingo Blues lyric?
From: Bill
Date: 06 Feb 98 - 06:45 PM

Can anyone send me the lyrics to Tisomingo Blues? Thanks for any help.

Bill Andersen [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Tishomingo Blue lyric?
From: Dale Rose
Date: 07 Feb 98 - 12:52 AM

Have you checked the Prairie Home Companion site? http://phc.mpr.org/ It might be there, tucked into a corner of the site. I would imagine that they have real audio recordings of it, too.

Subject: RE: Tishomingo Blue lyric?
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 07 Feb 98 - 06:53 AM

I'm goin' to Tishomingo

because I'm sad today

I wish to linger

'way down old Dixie way.

Oh my weary heart cries out in pain, oh

how I wish that I was back again,

In a place,

With a race,

Where they make you welcome all the time.

Way down in Missisippi

among the Cyprus trees,

They get you dippy

with their strange melodies..

to resist temptation,

I just can't refuse,

In Tishomingo,

I wish to linger,

where they play the weary blues.

Words & Music by Spencer Williams.

If there are more verses I'd love to hear them, My Pals and I have jammed to this tune once in a while, I don't know much about it, but I've seen Spencer Williams' name before, don't know much about him either.

Frank I.T.S.

Subject: Lyr Add: TISHOMINGO BLUES (Spencer Williams)
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 08 Feb 98 - 05:55 AM

Heh, Heh, I was digging around trying to find "Blackbottom blues" for Sharon and guess what I found....


Words & Music by Spencer Williams
Copyright 1917 Edward B. Marks music corp. Renewed 1944.


Oh Mississippi, Oh Mississippi, my heart cries out for you in sadness,
I want to be where, the wintry winds don't blow,
down where the southern moon swings low, That's where I want to go.....

(Chorus) I'm goin' to Tishomingo, because I'm sad today,
I wish to linger, way down old Dixie way.
Oh my weary heart cries out in pain, oh how I wish that I was back again,
with a race, in a place, where they make you welcome all the time.
Way down in Mississippi, among the cypress trees,
they get you dippy, with their strange melodies,
to resist, temptation, I just can't refuse,
In Tishomingo, I wish to linger,
where they play those weary blues.

(Verse) Tonight I'm prayin' Tonight I'm sayin' Oh lord please bless the train that takes me.
To Tishomingo, way down old Dixie way,
Where Southern folks are always gay, That's why you hear me say....

(Chorus) etc...

Wait 'till my buds find out we've never been playing the whole tune, just the chorus.

Frank I.T.S.

Subject: Lyr Add: TISHOMINGO BLUES (Peg Leg Howell)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 08 Feb 98 - 01:45 PM

Here is Peg Leg Howell's "Tishomingo Blues" from ll/8/'26 Might've been flip side of "Coal Man Blues" recorded same date. But it doesn't seem to be the song you're looking at here. That's life.

I'm goin' to Tishomingo because I'm sad today (repeat)
Pretty woman I love--she done drove me away.

I'm goin' to Tishomingo to have my ham bone boiled, (repeat)
These Atlanta women done let my ham bone spoil.

I woke up this mornin' 'tween midnight and day, (repeat)
I felt for my rider--she done walked away.

Can't you always tell when your good gal gonna treat you mean? (repeat)
Your meals is unreg'lar---your house ain’t never clean.

You can always tell that something’s goin' on wrong, (repeat)
When you come in your radishes out and gone.

When she come in she got a rag tied 'round her head, (repeat)
You think about lovin'--she swear that she's almost dead.

Sweet mama, what's on your lovin' mind? (repeat)
You can't quit me---turn on me on a dime.

I've got a lovin' fairy, she long & tall like me, (repeat)
[That's what I hear here. Must mean a fair skinned person.]
I love my brown skin--don't care where she be.


Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Tishomingo Blue lyric?
From: Bill Andersen
Date: 10 Feb 98 - 02:11 PM

Thanks to all who sent lyrics in response to my request. There seem to be a number of variations on the original lyric by Spencer Williams. Nobody ever accused jazz of being static.

Subject: RE: Tishomingo Blue lyric?
From: Jon W.
Date: 10 Feb 98 - 05:22 PM

Art, I haven't heard Peg Leg Howell's song but I'll bet the last verse says "I got a lovin' fair-brown..."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 08:26 AM

You can see the sheet music to TISHOMINGO BLUES at Indiana University Sheet Music Collections.

I guess the lyrics that Garrison Keillor sings must be something he made up himself.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:03 AM

"fairy" used to be slang for a white person.

"Fare thee well, fare thee well,
fare thee well, my fairy fey.
For I'm goin to Lousiana
for to see my Susiana,
singin polly wolly doodle all the day."

There's a Tishomingo in Oklahoma as well as in Mississippi. We saw a painted bunting at the National Wildlife Refuge there.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Peace
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:06 AM

"Tishomingo Blues" (1917) by Spencer Williams 1. Oh Mississippi ...



GOOGLE that. I think the lyrics are there.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:08 AM

Thanks for the link to the Indiana sheet music site, Jim. Judging from the cowboy and Spanish senorita on the cover of the song, I suspect the artist didn't read the lyrics and had the wrong Tishomingo in mind.

Not that all of Oklahoma is cowboy country...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Peace
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:09 AM

Dang. The lyrics are already posted above. SORRY!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:21 AM

Before I got involved with folk music, in the early 1950's, I was already a fan of traditional jazz. One of my early favorites was the legendary trombonist, Jack Teagarden, who did a lovely version of Tishomingo Blues. The melody was well suited to the instrument, and to his fluid upper register playing. His very distinctive singing style almost mimicked the sound of his horn. A great treat, if you can find a recording of it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Peace
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:44 AM

CD with Teagarden's version available for $15, here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:44 AM

Since we're in the genre, has anyone heard another blues which Teagarden performed, "Casanova's Lament?" The first verse:

    I was born at midnight,
    By mornin' I could walk.
    They called me Casanova;
    Had eyes just like a hawk.
    First time I saw a woman,
    I jumped my crib and tried to walk!

If anyone has more, please jump in.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Peace
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:45 AM

CD with Teagarden's version available for $15, here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Peace
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:47 AM

Sorry about doubling that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Peace
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:49 AM

You passed right by me baby
Like you never had been mine.
Passed me by and kept on goin
Like you never had no time.
I've always done alright with women
Since I reached the age of nine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 12:38 PM

Hear the Washingtonians play "Tishomingo Blues," the Spencer Williams tune, on this 1928 Brunswick recording at Red Hot Jazz:
Tishomingo Blues
An excellent instrumental.

Another great one here: Tishomingo Blues
Black Birds of Paradise, 1927, Gennett. Also the Spencer Williams song. Also instrumental; seldom played with lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tishomingo Blues
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 12:59 PM

The earliest American slang usage for 'fairy' was prostitute, found in print in 1856.
"I met eight men on their way to Kansas... a hard & rough looking set of fellows... they told me they stopped the night before at Bangor in a house of the "Farries" & [persuaded one of them] to accompany him to the Territory...She goes for the especial accommodation of the company, though under the name of the wife of one:" Arkansas Historical Quarterly.
1866- H. J. Harris, "Southern Sketches." You will tell us no more of the fairy. I dare say she has you irrevocably charmed."

I don't doubt the usage by Blacks of fairy for a "fair-skinned brown." (Jon W).