McTell: They got me killed for forging
I was listening to my American Roots Music Radio on Pandora and this smoldering couplet drifted by:
They got me killed for forging
and I can’t even write my name
— “Death cell blues” by by Blind Willie McTell
Man, there’s an awful lot of history and commentary there in 13 words.
I had to rush right out and buy it, and used that as an excuse to try out emusic, which Chris Hamrin had been saying some nice things about.
No tag for this post.
August 26th, 2006 at 21:03
American Roots Music Radio has been posted to
http://pandorastations.crispynews.com
Got any more?
Stop on by and thanks.
Tim
August 26th, 2006 at 22:37
Thanks! I do have one other station that I listen to quite a bit, but I have no idea how to describe it :-). I’ll go ahead and post it, though, and worry about descriptions later.
About an hour later: Yeah, after way too much futzing around (it had to have a picture, no?) I added my other (wildly eclectic) station, cleverly titled “Lots o’ crazy stuff“. Now we’ll see if anyone cares :-).
Since I don’t “own” the station you posted for me, I can’t do things like add an image to the station. Is there a way for you to pass ownership over to me so that I can edit the associated information? I realize that this is what I get for not posting it myself, but I figured I’d ask.
August 27th, 2006 at 14:22
I was just re-listening to the excellent set When the sun goes down: The secret history of rock & roll (a 4 CD overview of blues from early and proto-blues of the 1920’s through to the early electric blues of Chicago in the 1950’s). I was really struck by how similar “Judge Harsh blues” by Furry Lewis (from disc 2) is to McTell’s “Death cell blues”. There are important differences, but several of the verses are almost identical. Lewis doesn’t include that great couplet about forging, though.
I’m not sure sure when McTell recorded his song, but the Lewis song was recorded in 1928. Without more info it would be hard to say anything definitive about who might have influenced who, or whether they’re both just drawing from that great shared pool of song ideas that so much folk music used to come out of.
August 27th, 2006 at 19:33
I’m listening to American Roots Music Radio right now. I’ve gone ahead and made it the featured station of the day
Email pandorastations@gmail.com with the location of the image you want attached and I’ll get it in there.
Thanks for coming by.
Tim