Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad

Subject: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 09:45 PM

Lyr. Add: THE RAILROAD BLUES: an African Iliad
Floyd Canada. Tune: Dallas Blues

I. The WANDERLUST AND THE LONG FREIGHT TRAIN.
1.
Every time you hear me sing this song
You may know that I've caught a train and gone.
I get a letter, and this is how it read:
Stamped on the inside, "Yo lover's sick in bed."
2.
Give me my shoes and my Carhart overalls,
Let me step over yonder and blind the Cannon Ball;
That's the long train they call the Cannon Ball,
It makes a hundred miles and do no switchin' at all.
3.
Train I ride doan burn no coal at all,
It doan burn nothin but Texas Beaumont oil;
That's the long train they calls the Cannon Ball,
It makes a hundred miles and do no stoppin' at all.
4.
If you ever had the blues, you know jus' how I feel,
Puts you on the wonder, and makes you want to squeal;
When you take the blues and doan know what to do,
Jus' hunt you a train and ride the whole world through.
5.
Big Four in Dallas done burned down,
Burned all night long, burned clean to the ground;
But give me my shoes, and press my overalls,
If you doan min' my goin', baby, I'll catch the Cannon Ball.
6.
I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long,
This north-bound train will certainly take me home.
Number Nine is gone, Number Ten's switchin' in the yard,
But I'm goin' to see that girl if I have to ride the rods.
7.
I got the railroad blues, but I haven't got the fare,
The company sho' ought to pay my way back there.
The train I ride is sixteen coaches long
Dat's the train done take yo; baby home.
8.
I'm a goin' away, it won't be long;
When I hit Houston I'll call it gone.
When I git to Houston I'll stop and dry;
When I hit San Tone, I'll keep on by.
9.
How I hate to hear the *Monkey Motion blow, *'Name' of train
It puts me on the wonder, and makes me want to go.
Dat passenger-train got ways jus' lak a man,
Steal away yo' girl, and doan care where she land.
10.
I may be right and I may be wrong,
But it takes a worried woman to sing a worry song;
When a woman's in trouble, she wring her hands and cry;
But when a man's in trouble, it's a long freight-train and ride.

II. HOME AND MOTHER
11.
I went to the depot wringin' my hands and cryin'
Everybody's bound to have trouble some time;
If I'd a listened to what my mother said,
I'd been at home lyin' in my foldin' bed.
12.
When I git home, mother, I'm sure goin' to stick and stay;
Mother, you may beat me, but you'll never drive me away;
When I leave agin, hang crepe all on yo' doah;
If I ain't daid, I ain't comin' back no mo'.
13.
When I git home, mother, I'll tell you the truth;
I love you, an' I ought'n't left yo' roof;
You tol' me befo' I left yo' doah,
Many nights I'd sleep on the cold hard floah.
14.
My mother's daid, my sister's gone away,
That's the reason why I'm wanderin' around to-day.
I followed my mother right to her buryin'-ground,
You ouht to a heard me cryin' when they let her down.
15.
I went to the graveyard, peeped in my mother's face,
Ain't it sad to see you, mother, in this lonesome place!
Doan never leave yo' mother old and gray,
You'll be bothered. man, troubled all the day.

III. LOVE
16.
If you mistreat me, you certainly won't agin';
You can tell jus' how your trouble begin;
When you're in love, you can't control yo' min'.
Single man bound to git drunk any time.
17.
I got one girl, an' I'm goin' to git me two;
You look so sweet, baby, no tellin' what you'll do.
If you don't love me, please don't dog me around;
Be true with me, and I'll not leave the town.
18.
If I feel tomorrow like I feel today,
I'm gwine to ride the last train away;
If I had all you women's hearts in my hand,
I'd show you how to treat yo' nice black man.
19.
I'm goin' away, it won't be long;
You're gwine to miss me when I'm daid and gone.
You are my lover, turn the light down low,
I got somethin' to tell you jus' befo' I go.
20.
It's hard, man, but still it's true
To love some woman that never cares fo' you.
When you git one girl, you better git you two,
For there ain't no tellin' what the girls'll do.
21.
There's lots of trouble here, and more on down the road,
You always will find trouble, no matter where you go;
Trouble is a thing that never worries my mind;
But if you're in love, it'll worry you sometime.
22.
I'm goin' to town now, what you want me to bring you back?
I'm in love with you, baby, jus' anything you like;
Lemme tell you, girl, please doan wear no black;
'Cause when you think I'm daid, I'll come easin' back.
23.
Red River's on the boom; Guadaloupe's standin' still;
Brown woman on the train; black one on the hill.
You brown-skin woman, let me be yo' Teddy Bear,
Put a chain on my neck, an' I'll follow you everywhere.
24.
I'm goin' to tell you what the Mexican tol' me,
"I no lika you, you no lika me;"
All I want in this wide worl'
Is a pocket full o' dollars an' a Creole girl.
25.
I sent my girl to have her fortune told;
She come walkin' back with her mouth chock full o' gold.
Come, go with me, get your mouth filled with gold!
I wouldn't mistreat you to save nobody's soul.

IV. MARRIAGE AND DOMESTIC TROUBLES
26.
If I get drunk an' down, who's goin' to take me home?
For yonder stands my babe with a hobble on.
My babe sees me standin' in the bar-room door,
An' I swore to her I'd never git drunk no more.
27.
Ain't it hard when yo' wife puts you out of doors,
Leave yo' standin' cryin', you ain't nowhere to go;
You get the blues so bad, you can't control yo' mind;
You love yo' wife, but she'll worry you some time.
28.
You can always tell when she doan want you 'round,
Yo' meals ain't ready, an' yo' bed's turned upside down;
Then you stay out late, git yo' name straight,
Befo' you come agin' to yo' baby's gate.
29.
My heart is forever breakin'
Children in the do' screamin',
It may be cloudy an' a rainin',
Keep me worried an' a singin'.

V. TRIAL, DEATH AT HANDS OF THE LAW, AND FINAL WILL
30.
I ain't a goin' to die, jus' goin' to sleep away,
To-morrow's goin' to be my trial day;
Yonder comes my girl, a hundred in her hand,
Sayin', "Please spare my man, Judge, if you can."
31.
I went to the court-house an' stood right on the stage,
Tol' the judge to give me justice, to let me have my way.
He read my papers, I was guilty of my crime;
Then I axed for 98, but he give me 99.
32.
I went to the jail-house; first thing I spy,
Jail-house key, and you ought 'o hear me cry,
"Look here, woman, can't stand to see you go,-
Hang my case, Judge, an' I'll meet you further down the road."
33.
When I die, ship me to my mother;
If my ma doan want me, ship me to my pa;
If my pa doan want me, bury me in the sea,
Where the whales and de sharks'll make a fuss over me.
......................

This is a selection made by the collector of the song, which had some 80 stanzas of four lines each. Unfortunately, we may never know the whole song.
The crime of which he is guilty may be of shooting a rival, for Webb says in one verse are the lines-
Wish I had my pistol, my cold Forty-One,
I'd shoot that couple just to see 'em run.

The song contains lines or part-stanzas from several songs which were popular in the 1890-1920 period. Collection date before 1915 but not stated.

From "Notes on the Folk-Lore of Texas," W. Prescott Webb, Jour. American Folk-Lore, vol. 28, no. 109, 1915, pp. 290-299.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 10:05 PM

Thanks for posting this, Q!

Are you saying that there is one known composer {Floyd Canada ?} or that Floyd Canada collected these verses?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 10:10 PM

Added note:
Collected in Beeville, TX, 90 miles south of San Antonio.
"An African Iliad" was added to the title by Dr. Webb; I believe that the section titles are his, as well.
Floyd Canada was found in a pool hall for Blacks, playing guitar with other musicians.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 10:11 PM

Wow, thanks, Q. Another great and important contribution to the DT and Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 10:31 PM

The song was performed by Floyd Canada; the form and arrangement of stanzas is his, but the verses show his collection, inclusion and mastery of, a number of secular African-American songs of the period.

At the time of collection, several of the songs from which lines came would not have been known to Dr. Webb. In the article covering this and other African-American songs that he collected, he remarked that this song was "the most valuable find of my collection- a negro song which I have with conceit named "The African Iliad."

Rarely does one find an extended performance of this type; many collections are of half-remembered fragments. Early 'race' recordings, of course, are seldom much longer than three minutes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 08:49 AM

Q -- that is a gem. You deserve all our thanks for turning it up and posting it.

Nothing could do more to illustrate how different the concept of time was for both singer and hearers before our media world. Instead of muzak, here's a singer creating "entertainment" (if you will) or merely a musical accompaniment to the clack of the balls on the table, for maybe as long as half an hour at a stretch. That's a case of the blues singer as central to the day's experience, as indispensable as a bottle of beer or a cigar.

It's reminiscent of the Slavic cafe balladeers who could improvise endlessly for hours on mythic themes, still singing in the 1930s.

Wow, I'm in awe. This is a piece of the world we try so hard to rediscover when we explore the roots of where our music came from. A world in which the role and presence of home-made music was utterly different. Where a song could last an afternoon.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: Alba
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:31 AM

Wonderful Q. Simply wonderful.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
As always...with respect,
Jude

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 01:00 PM

Bob, reading through articles in JAFL, I frequently run across comments reading somewhat like this: "I obtained a version of 95 lines...," followed by a small selection, or reference to a shorter published version.
Buried in some dusty archive, or perhaps lost if the author's papers were not preserved, are many long versions, which, as you say, were typical of the pre-radio-phonograph days and truly the 'roots' of the 'folk' versions most of us know.
Editors demanding brevity or conformity to 'proper speech' (such as W. W. Newell who censored American dialects and rural forms), and collectors who failed to recognize the significance of their sources, have contributed to the loss of much that was folk.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Railroad Blues- An African Iliad
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 03:03 PM

Q-

Excellent work as usual.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble