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02 Feb 07 - 09:06 PM (#1956164) Subject: Lyr Add: Af.-Am. Songs of Religion, Cards, Craps From: Q (Frank Staplin) Lyr. Add: IT'S AWFUL SAD WHEN THE HOLY GHOST IS GONE You can play the ace and tray, But it sho' will lead you astray. It's awful sad when the Holy Ghost is gone. You can weep and you can moan, But hell goin' be yo' home. It's awful sad when the Holy Ghost is gone. You can play the ace and deuce, But God'll catch you with no excuse. It's awful sad when the Holy Ghost is gone. You can pass the whiskey round, But you must lay yo' body down. It's awful sad when the Holy Ghost is gone. Sung by Ed Lloyd, NC; MS of N. I. White 1925. Also collected 1919 by W. B. Jeffrey, but each stanza is 'given gravy' by adding 'um-m, umm-m' at the end of each verse. N. I. White, 1928, "American Negro Folk Songs," Religious Songs No. 18A, p. 78. See THE GAMBLER (2) in the DT, from Louise Pound, "American Ballads and Songs." (One verse given here for comparison: My father was a gambler, he learnt me how to play, (2x) Saying, 'Son, don't go a-begging when you hold the ace and tray, When you hold the ace and tray.' Singing of Minnie Dowd, coll. Frances Barbour 1917, Arlington, MO. H. M. Belden, 1940, Ballads and Songs, p. 472. Not African-American and not religious, but 'ace and tray' mentioned. Probably not related. Lyr. Add: (OH, CRAP-SHOOTER) Untitled, No. 17 of Religious Songs. Oh, crap-shooter, Oh, crap-shooter You can shoot all ober dis world, You can shoot from de six, from de seven, to de 'leben, But God knows you can't shoot er inter heben. Oh, back-biter, Oh, back-biter, You can bite all ober dis world, You can bite from de six, to seben, to de 'leben, But God knows you can't shoot er into heben. Oh, schemer, Oh, schemer, You can scheme all ober dis world, You can scheme from de six, to seben, to de 'leben, But God knows you can't shoot er inter heben. MS of A. H. Williamson, Alabama, coll. 1915-1916. No. 17, Religious Songs, p. 77; N. I. White, 1928, "American Negro Folk-Songs." More verses? More songs that fit the thread title? (I remember card players who would not call the bet if they held aces and trays). |
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02 Feb 07 - 09:15 PM (#1956171) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Af.-Am. Songs of Religion, Cards, Cra From: GUEST,Dale Big Crap Game as it is called today and frequently sung locally, but that wasn't always its name. http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/blairnigger1239.html |
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02 Feb 07 - 11:20 PM (#1956233) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Af.-Am. Songs of Religion, Cards, Craps From: Q (Frank Staplin) "I Got Mine" and relatives are secular, not songs which bring religious themes into the lyrics. Similarly, I wouldn't include Blind Willie McTell's "Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues," here. Thread 4868: Crapshooter |
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03 Feb 07 - 05:36 PM (#1956870) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Af.-Am. Songs of Religion, Cards, Craps From: 12-stringer I suppose what you're looking for are songs which use gambling motifs and metaphors in religious manner, which neither of these songs quite do. But what the hey! (Maybe in the song-sermons of some of the 1920s race-label preachers?) "Dyin' Crap Shooter Blues" (Porter Grainger), as recorded by Rosa Henderson, about September 1927, Pathe 7535 and other labels, vocal with piano. This is the original version, from which McTell later lifted his own remake, and it has a bit more conventional religious content. Jim Johnson gambled, night and day, With crooked cards and dice. A sinful man without a soul, His heart was cold as ice. He said, "I feel so doggone blue I want to die today, And Satan is a fellow To take my soul away. I want you all to know The way I want to go. "I want eight crap shooters for my pallbearers, Let 'em all be dressed in black. Nine men going to the graveyard, And only eight men coming back. I want a jazz band on my coffin, A chorus girl on my hearse, And don't you say one good word about me Cause my life's been a doggone curse. "Send poker players to the graveyard, To dig my grave with the Ace of Spades. Have police in my funeral march, While the warden leads the parade. I want the judge who jailed me fourteen times To put a pair of dice in my shoes. Then let a deck of cards be my tombstone, I've got the dyin' crap shooter blues. "Now I ain't never been on the level, I know that I'm dyin', going to the devil, My head is aching, my heart is thumping, I'm going down below, bouncing and jumping, Now don't be standing 'round me crying, Everybody Charleston when I start dying. Now, one foot swinging and a toenail dragging, When I'm a-riding in the cemetery wagon. Mr Devil, here I come with the dyin' crap shooter blues." "The Dying Gambler," as recorded by Blind Willie McTell and Kate McTell, 22 April 1935, Decca 7093. Kate McTell sings the verses, and Willie plays slide guitar and joins on the chorus. I'll tell you of a poor young man, he gambled night and day, He fell sick, down in his deathbed, he tried but he could not pray. His friends all left him, one by one, and he began to cry, Said "Boys, oh, boys, don't leave me now, for I believe I'm going to die." (Chorus) Now, tell me, where is the gambler, I wonder where the poor man's gone? (x2) One man turned around and looked at him and said to him, "Oh, well, I believe to myself you are going to die and if you do, you're sure going to hell." His body began to grow so weak, his frame began to shake, He said to the man who ran the game, "I now see my mistake. I always thought I was a fool, my conscience had me told, While I was trying to be someone, the devil had won my soul." Chorus "Don't take my body to no churchhouse, say nothing over my remains, Somebody will think that I am saved, and in hell I be in chains. My dice and cards will be burning my hands, I see it and know it well, And gamblers, if you do not change, I'll meet you when you come to hell." Chorus Rev W M Mosely recorded this on Columbia 14185-D, as "Gambling Man"; Rev J M Gates cut 3 separate masters for different companies in 1926 (all as "The Dying Gambler") which were released on numerous labels. I suppose it is the same as "Wonder Where is the Gambling Man?" by the Norfolk Jazz and Jubilee Quartette (Paramount 12716). There is at least one hillbilly recording, "The Gambler's Dying Words," by Harkreader and Moore (Paramount 3025; transcript in New Lost City Ramblers Songbook). Every version is pretty much the same, and its transmission is almost certainly via church hymnals, rather than orally. Most of the recordings are by black singers, though the lyrics sound to me as if they come from a white composer. The melody is very "folky." If authorship has been attributed, I don't know about it. It's not in Jackson's Spiritual Folk Songs, though it should have been. The second verse of the McTell rendition is a little ungainly, as it combines 2 stanzas of the original into a single 6-line verse. The Harkreader-Moore text includes half a stanza that the McTells omitted, plus a fourth verse that was also left out altogether: Oh, boys, you've always stood by me in every kind of game, And to go away and leave me now, you ought to be ashamed. His friends turned and looked at him and said to him, "Oh, well, I believe you're going to die tonight, I'm sure you're going to hell." *** His mother heard that he was dying, in the gamblers' den, She went to where he was, in aid, no help there she could lend; The tears were streaming from his eyes, and he began to groan, "Oh, mother dear, oh, mother dear, I've done made hell my home." |
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03 Feb 07 - 05:57 PM (#1956883) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Af.-Am. Songs of Religion, Cards, Craps From: Q (Frank Staplin) As noted and linked in my post, McTell's classic "Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues" (well-covered in Mudcat threads) lacks the religious component of the two examples I gave. I am looking for more verses or songs which incorporate religious themes or references into cards and craps. |