Lyr Req: Four in the Morning (Jesse Colin Young)

Subject: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 10:24 AM

To my great shock, I accidentally discovered that Jessie Colin Young is alive and well in Hawaii and sells VERy expensive coffee! I'd like to sing Four in the Mornin' tonight. Anyone got a quick sourse for a lyric?

Thanks

Rick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Louie Roy
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 10:36 AM

Rick if you are talking about Faron Youngs 4 in the Morning i have the words and Chords and I'll Pm letme know LouieRoy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 10:49 AM

thanks Louie...different song.

Rick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 11:13 AM

Rick, is it this one? (WARNING--mucho pop ups)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 02:03 PM

Thanks Sorch...what a fuckin' AWFUL song! I liked JCY and the chord structure when I was 20. Forgot about the rest of it!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 03:00 PM

LOL! Ask and ye shall recieve.........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: clueless don
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 09:39 AM

The site Sorcha sent us to has this line:

"It dont make no difference now Cause I shot her dead she's dead"

I'm just working from long ago memory here, but I remember the line as "Don't make no difference now, 'cause I shot them both, in bed."

Could be that the version at the site is from a different source than the Jesse Colin Young recording. Or I may have committed a mondegreen!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: clueless don
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 09:07 AM

Last night at home I listened to the record, and JCY pretty definitely says "Don't make no difference now, 'cause I shot them both, in bed." At least, that's what I hear in the version on the "Soul of a City Boy" album.

Hey, maybe he shot them with a camera! or maybe not.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: JJ
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 09:14 AM

Ah, yes, Jesse Colin Young, born Perry Miller...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: cockney
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 09:44 AM

Is that the same "Youngbloods" bloke?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 10:41 AM

Yes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Abby Sale
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 11:43 AM

The link is to a version with The Youngbloods. I guess he recut it. Soul" is pre-them solo. Is that called the folk process?

Yes the LP has a number of differences - an extra verse "Nothing to drink and the sun ain't gonna shine... And a few word changes and the order of one verse different, etc. I'm also sure it's 'cause I shot them both, in bed."

Do you still want the transcription? Can't really do it 'till the weekend.

Rick, keep in mind this is not Classic Scots balladry honed by hundreds of years of processing - it's just a commercial song from the "folk" era and in an acoustic style.   Another 'my baby done left me so I shot her' (or me, or him, or her, or the cop) song.

I still much like the record, though. And especially the "Young Blood" record. I've never actually heard the Youngbloods - just another pop group, idn't it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 12:32 PM

Like Rick, I had fond memories of this song's overall sound and mood, the first few words of the opening verse, and, I suppose, the sound of Jesse's voice (the solo, pre-Youngbloods Jesse, that is) but was *completely* taken aback when seeing the complete murderous lyrics!

JCY was a fairly prominent solo "folk" artist (today we'd call him a "singer-songwriter") who moved to California and started a folk-rock trio, the Youngbloods, best known for one *huge* recording, "Get Together," one of their few numbers NOT written by bandleader Jesse Colin Young. ["C'mon people now, smile at each other,..."] I think, but am not sure, that the writer was Dino Valente (?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: M.Ted
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 04:31 PM

Just found out about Jesse's expensive coffee, Eh, Rick? Shows you haven't really been reading your threads all these years! I myself pointed it out in this thread:Song thats so Bad Its Brilliant For the record, Jesse never replied to my e-mail--so I still don't know who wrote "Hippie from Olema"--He was, in those days of flashy and overbearing Jimi Hendrix wannabees, a very subtle and tastful lead player--probably still is--

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: Candyman(inactive)
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 04:51 PM

"Hippe from Olema" was written by Lowell Levinger aka "Banana."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: M.Ted
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 09:15 PM

Thanks, Candyman--There is quite a bit about the Olema ranch in Peter Coyote's book, "Sleeping Where I Fall", no mention of the song, though--

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 11:36 PM

I've been thinking about "Four in the Mornin'" all day, since posting about it earlier. One thing that I failed to recall right away, and therefore didn't mention earlier, is that the guitar part was really very tasty, at least as appealing as the vocal, and also simple and clearly audible making it fairly easy to imitate/learn.

This was the type of song that was especially popular among pickers, perhaps moreso than among other listeners -- it was a number that a lot of guys heard and immediately wanted to learn and to play, and they did play it -- lick for lick, just like the original.

I heard it for the first time not from the record, but from an open-mike-type coffeehouse performer, and eventually heard it many more times, sung by many others. This was back when I was just beginning to play myself, still lacking in skill and confidence, so I was *not* one of those who learned to play it. A few years later, when I had developed sufficient ability, I had pretty much forgotten the tune, along with nearly everybody else.

Seeing those lyrics -- that certainly was a shockeroo!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Four in the mornin', Jessie C Young
From: clueless don
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 08:46 AM

Yeah. I had the same problem with a rock song, the Rolling Stones's "Midnight Rambler". I listened to it, and enjoyed it, for years before I finally listened to the words. Now it gives me a creepy feeling.

As to Four in the Mornin', I guess the songwriter was trying to string together a bunch of "bluesy sounding" verses in order to create an atmosphere. If we could lose the line about shooting his girlfriend, I think it would be an okay song, if incoherent.

Subject: Lyr Add: FOUR IN THE MORNING
From: Fortunato
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 08:48 AM

Four in the morning and the water's pouring down,
Stove don't work and my baby has just left town,

I'm lying on my back 'cause there just ain't nothing to drink,
Empty bottles on the floor and dirty dishes in the sink.

Nothin to drink and the sun ain't gonna shine,
I left my baby 'cause she wouldn't stop lyin',

I'm watching a cockroach crawling in an old bean can,
Says now when your baby's left you I bet it's tough to be a man,
Be a man.

Jimmie Joe come to see me with legs all bandaged up,
He was asking for some money and all I had was a buck,

I saw my baby and she took back all that she said,
It don't make no difference now, 'cause I shot them both in bed.

Four in the morning and the water's pouring down,
Stove don't work and my baby has just left town.