Lyr Req: Levee Camp Moan (Texas Alexander)

Subject: Lyr Req: Levee Camp Moan by Texas Alexander
From: HardLuckChild
Date: 01 Jul 04 - 11:03 PM

Does anyone know the lyrics to this wonderful, primal tune?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Levee Camp Moan by Texas Alexander
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Jul 04 - 11:12 PM

Here's what I was able to transcribe from a sound sample at Barnes & Noble:

Oh, they have cured me of forgin'. I can't write my name.
Lord, they have cured me of forgin'. I can't write my name.
I went all around....

Subject: Lyr Add: LEVEE CAMP MOAN BLUES
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 12:13 AM

LEVEE CAMP MOAN BLUES
Texas Alexander, 1927

1 Lord they accused me of murder : I haven't harmed a man
2 Oh they accused me of forgery : I can't write my name
3 Oh I went all around : that whole corral
4 Lord I couldn't find a mule : with his shoulder well
5 Oh I worked old Maude : and I worked old Belle
6 Lord I couldn't find a mule : Maggie with his shoulder well
7 Mmm : mmm
8 Mmm : Lord the at morning bell
9 Lord she went up the country : and but she's on my mind
10 Oh if she don't come on the big boat : she better not land

(Source: Michael Tuft, Blues Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, Garland, 1983, p. 4)

I think I have another set of transcription somewhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Levee Camp Moan by Texas Alexander
From: Nerd
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 01:23 AM

Walter Savage (I think) sings another version of this in Alan Lomax's film The Land Where the Blues Began.

He sings (and this is just from my memory):

They got me 'cused of murder, ain't never harmed a man
Got me 'cused of forgery, Can't even write my name
Got me 'cused of taxes, I ain't got a dime
Got me 'cused of children, ain't one of them is mine

Subject: Lyr Req: LEVEE CAMP MOAN (from Joe Savage)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 02:27 AM

That was enough to lead me to the lyrics in the Lomax book, Nerd. I think the singer was Joe Savage, but there was a Walter Brown present and participating during the interview.

Got me 'cused of thieving.
I can't see a thing.
They got me accused of forgery
And I can't even write my name.

Bad luck,
Bad luck is killing me.
Boys, I just can't stand
No more of this third degree.

(sing-speak)
Now listen here, boys,
I wanna tell you sumpin.

(singing)
They got me accused of taxes,
And I don't have a lousy dime.
They got me accused of children,
And ain't nar one of them mine.

Bad luck,
Bad luck is killing me.
Boys, I just can't stand
No more of this third degree.

(sing-speak)
Boy, now looka here, I wanna tell you one mo thing.

(singing)
They got me 'cused of perjury,
I can't even raise my hand.
They got me 'cused of murder,
An I have never harmed a man.

Bad luck,
Bad luck is killing me.
Boys, I just can't stand,
No more of this third degree.
I'm gone,
So, baby—so long.


source: The Land Where the Blues Began, Alan Lomax, 1993; pp. 254-55
(no tune)

---

I imagine this is on a Lomax CD, but I have no idea where to find it. The version by Alger "Texas" Alexander is on a Yazoo CD, Before the Blues, Vol. 3: The Early American Black Music Scene

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Levee Camp Moan by Texas Alexander
From: Nerd
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 04:24 AM

Yeah, that's it, Joe. And you're right, it was Joe Savage. Joe's singing on the song was amazing, hyper-dramatic and riveting.

Sad thing was, Evidence recorded a song called "Joe's Prison Camp Holler" from Joe, which I thought would be this song. But it turned out to be a different one, if I recall.

Subject: Lyr Add: THIRD DEGREE (from Eric Clapton)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 04:25 AM

A version credited to Eddie Boyd and Willie Dixon (who else!) and called third degree has the words as follows (as sung by Clapton on his "From the Cradle" CD:

Got me accused of peeping, I can't see a thing
Got me   accused of petting, I can't even raise my hand

CHORUS: Bad luck, bad luck is killing me
Well I just can't stand no more of this third degree

Got me accused of murder, I ain't never harmed a man
Got me accused of forgery, I can't even sign my name
CHORUS

Got me accused of taxes,I ain't got a dime
Got me accused of children, and ain't nary one of them was mine

CHORUS


RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Levee Camp Moan by Texas Alexander
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 07:02 AM

Surely "Levee Camp Moan" describes a type of song rather than one set of lyrics. So one performer's "Moan" would be completely different to another's in the same way that one person's "worksong" would differ to another.
There are no words set in concrete.

Subject: Lyr Add: LEVEE CAMP MOAN
From: masato sakurai
Date: 08 Jul 04 - 10:40 PM

From Eric Sackheim, The Blues Line (Ecco, 1993, pp. 124-25):

LEVEE CAMP MOAN
(Texas Alexander)

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Lord they accused me of murder
                              murder murder
                                           I haven't harmed a man
Lord they accused me of murder
                                           I haven't harmed a man
Ohhhhhhh they accused me of murder and I
                                        haven't harmed a man

Oh they accused me of forgery and I
                                  I can't write my name
Lord they accused me of forgery
                                  I can't write my name

Oh I went all around
                     that whole corral
I couldn't find a mule
                      with his shoulder well
Lord I couldn't find a mule
                      with his shoulder well

Oh I worked old Maude
                         and I worked old Belle
Lord I couldn't find a mule
                            Maggie, with his shoulder well

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
                         Lord that morning bell

Lord she went up the country and
                                 well she's on my mind
Well she went up the country
                            but she's on my mind

Oh if she don't come on the big boat
                                    she better not land
Lord if she don't come on the big boat
                                       big boat
                                                I mean she better not land

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Lord if she don't come on the big boat
                                       I mean she better not land

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Levee Camp Moan by Texas Alexander
From: Nerd
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 07:41 AM

Well, Hootenanny, these are all clearly versions of the same song. As for "there are no words set in concrete," well, yeah! It's folk music, innit?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Levee Camp Moan by Texas Alexander
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 09:08 PM

Don Kent points out in his note to the Yazoo reissue that Alexander's 'Levee Camp Moan Blues' is only nominally a blues. Even though he is accompanied by Lonnie Johnson on guitar [and Kent suggests that only a guitarist with Johnson's skills could follow the free metre of the singing], the piece is essentially a field holler. See also Dave Evans 'Big Road Blues' p 27: 'They [field hollers, field blues, arwhoolies] are a sort of worksong sung in the fields and levee camps ... They tend to be loosely structured, highly embellished and rythmically free, often consisting of falsetto whooping or hollering with no words or a very minimal text. Some, of course, do have more complex texts. Vocally they are very much like the blues, and they were an important ingredient in the original creation of the blues, but without an accompaniment they have quite a different function from blues'.

Kent also reminds us in his note to Yazoo 2017 that Alexander was the only successful blues singer who was not self-accompanied and, second only to Blind Lemon, was the most influential in spreading the Texas repertoire.

--Stewie.