Prewar blues quiz #2 - Acoustic Guitar Forum

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Prewar blues quiz #2

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Author	Topic: Prewar blues quiz #2
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 10-22-2002 15:43 Just let me know if you are fed up these quizes. It is a lot easier to come up with the questions than find the answers. We still need answers to the following from the first quiz: 5) What is being killed in "Kill it Kid"? Or to ask it another way: what does Blind Willie McTell want you to do when you "Kill it Kid"? 9) The first recorded bottleneck song of Rev. Gary Davis Clue: it's not whistlin' blues Here are the new questions: 13) What song recorded in the prewar period has the same melody and arrangement as Rev. Gary Davis's Whistlin' Blues? For a bonus point: is it in the same tuning Davis used (Open D6)? 14) Name a blues about smelling bad. 15) Name a bluesman with a name that includes a carpenter's tool. IP: Logged
resin8er Member Posts: 1051 From: Fair Lawn, NJ, U.S.A. Registered: Feb 2002	posted 10-22-2002 15:47 Was it Blind Plane Chisel? IP: Logged
Dennis Roger Reed Moderator Posts: 1901 From: San Clemente, CA USA Registered: Sep 2000	posted 10-22-2002 15:52 14. Garbage Man Blues - Will Hatcher And not just about smelling bad... it's about dining from garbage cans. IP: Logged
I am Ubiquitous Member Posts: 27 From: SC/CA/USA Registered: Oct 2002	posted 10-22-2002 16:03 14) Whats that smells like fish by Blind Boy Fuller? IP: Logged
bill keitel Member Posts: 740 From: worthington mn. usa Registered: Nov 1999	posted 10-22-2002 16:15 There's a Dead Cat on the Line. Heap'o stinky songs out there! bk [This message has been edited by bill keitel (edited October 22, 2002).] IP: Logged
hoodadoo Member Posts: 2011 From: Westport, Ct., Registered: Mar 2001	posted 10-22-2002 18:48 For #15: the obvious to me was PEG Leg Howell. Peg being a carpenters tool, like a wedge. IP: Logged
mr mando Member Posts: 1026 From: Heart of the Alps Registered: Apr 2001	posted 10-23-2002 14:47 16) Who learned to play guitar from Joe Pat Dean and probably recorded under the pseudonym of "Sluefoot Joe"? 17) Who learned his greatest hit from his piano teacher Lee Green? IP: Logged
hoodadoo Member Posts: 2011 From: Westport, Ct., Registered: Mar 2001	posted 10-23-2002 16:13 Okay Adrian, you made me do my homework for # 15, Richard "Hacksaw" Harney. Oh Mr Mando, are you adding coal to the fire... [This message has been edited by hoodadoo (edited October 23, 2002).] IP: Logged
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 10-23-2002 16:32 Richard "Hacksaw" Harney was who I had in mind. IP: Logged
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 10-23-2002 18:19 A common, modern use of the word "carpenter" suggests a woodworker but older interpretations (and my experience of carpenters) is that the older defiinition (aligned with biblical use) is "an artificer in stone, iron and copper as well as in wood",. IP: Logged
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 10-23-2002 18:20 Question #18 Who taught Lee Green his "Vicksburg Blues"? He later called it 44 Blues. Was this the basis for Skip James' 22-20? [This message has been edited by Adrian Freed (edited October 23, 2002).] [This message has been edited by Adrian Freed (edited October 23, 2002).] IP: Logged
hoodadoo Member Posts: 2011 From: Westport, Ct., Registered: Mar 2001	posted 10-23-2002 19:41 # 18: Little Brother Montgomery IP: Logged
mr mando Member Posts: 1026 From: Heart of the Alps Registered: Apr 2001	posted 10-23-2002 22:20 # 16 Ed Bell is right. # 17 up to the song title 44 Blues right, but Green didn't teach Skippy, at least I didn't have it in mind. [This message has been edited by Administrator Freed (edited October 24, 2002).] IP: Logged
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 10-24-2002 11:28 I am having trouble nailing this one. There were a lot of 44 blues recorded in the same period: Roosevelt Sykes, "44" Blues, (OKey, 1929?), Document DOCD-5116. 2. Lee Green, Number Forty-Four Blues, (Vocalion, 1929?), Document DOCD-5187. 3. James Wiggins, Forty-Four Blues, (Paramount, 1929?), Document DOCD-5103. 4. Roosevelt Sykes, Kelly's 44 Blues, (Victor, 1930?), Document DOCD-5117. 5. Little Brother Montgomery, Vicksburg Blues, (Paramount, 1930?), Document DOCD-5109. 6. Lee Green, Train Number Forty-Four, (Vocalion, 1930?), Document DOCD-5188. 7. Lee Green, 44 Blues, (Decca, 1934?), Document DOCD-5188. 8. Little Brother Montgomery, Vicksburg Blues No.2, (Bluebird, 1935?), Document DOCD-5109. 9. Little Brother Montgomery, Vicksburg Blues Part 3, (Bluebird, 1936?), Document DOCD-5109. 10. Monkey Joe, New York Central, (Vocalion, 1938?), Document DOCD-5412. 11. Big Maceo, Maceo's 32-20, (Bluebird, 1945?), RCA 07863 66716-2. 12. Otis Spann, S.P. Blues, (Vanguard, 1965?). IP: Logged
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 10-24-2002 11:43 So which of those 44 blues is about a gun and which is about a train? Which do you suppose Skip James was asked to base a song on? "Mr. Laibly, the manager of that recordin'...ask me,'Skip, the 44 Blues is out...havin' a fast sale. Do you think you could compose us a blues about a gun that would kinda come up to that requirement? Make a pretty fast sale? "I said:'I don't know, how about .38 Special ?' "'No, I got that.' "I say: 'Well, how 'bout 44 .40?' "'I got that already...' "He say: 'How about 22-20?"' IP: Logged
mr mando Member Posts: 1026 From: Heart of the Alps Registered: Apr 2001	posted 10-24-2002 21:16 I was thinking of Roosevelt Sykes. "44 Blues" was his greatest hit. IP: Logged
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 10-26-2002 10:35 It is reported that Little Brother Montgomery had a nervous breakdown during a performance of Vicksburg Blues, playing it for hours and hours refusing to stop until he was eventually dragged off to a mental institution. Incidentally, Skip James did watch him play. IP: Logged
hoodadoo Member Posts: 2011 From: Westport, Ct., Registered: Mar 2001	posted 10-26-2002 10:42 Thank you! IP: Logged
Tom Austin Member Posts: 3404 From: Occidental, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999	posted 10-26-2002 11:24 thanks for the Little Brother story, Adrian. Gives new resonance to Woody Mann's song on Heading Uptown. (it's called Vicksburg Blues or Little Brother, I forget.) IP: Logged
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 10-26-2002 15:51 I realize I should mention my source of that story was Stephan Calt's Skip James book which is not without its flaws... For example he says of John Cephas: "As a black musician in a field where guitarists beneath the age of 50 were invariably white, Cephas was an anomoly, as well as a pedestrian player whose career only bloomed once the 1960's generation of blues singers died off". [This message has been edited by Adrian Freed (edited October 26, 2002).] IP: Logged
hoodadoo Member Posts: 2011 From: Westport, Ct., Registered: Mar 2001	posted 10-26-2002 17:56 A couple of books I had to delve into were "The Blues Who's Who", "Blues From the Delta", "The Blues Makers", "Big Road Blues", and "The Land Where the Blues Began". IP: Logged
Adrian Freed Member Posts: 2360 From: Berkeley, CA, USA Registered: Oct 2000	posted 04-08-2007 23:38 I just added this pre-war blues quiz to BluesAintBad.com. Any experts out there want to challenge us with a postwar blues quiz? IP: Logged

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