Published By
Lamont Jack Pearley
When most hear the term singer songwriter, they usually think James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and the like. I love them both..as well as the others that have taken on that title from that era.
That leads me to who I believe is one of the truest and purest forms of singer songwriters, that hollered the blues against the streaks of a slide on a national guitar. My inspiration to pick up a dobro and belt the blues….Eddie Son House.
If you really break down the lyrical content of Son House, you will hear a story of heart break, in it’s most simplistic form. What makes his lyrical content so amazing is the way he can take such a complex emotion, and in three or four words make you not only understand, but feel it…nearly a century or half century later, depending on when you first heard it. For example in Death Letter Blues there is a lyric that goes like this, ” it’s hard to love someone/who don’t love you”. That could be chalked up as a very simple statement with not much depth….but stripped of the performance, which is what makes it more than just resonate in your chest, that is the stripped to the core emotion of the human existence.
Straight to the point with no chaser, no pun intended, Son House gets to the route of the pain of human relations and existence that we all share, feel and experience…in pretty much every song he’s written. Preachin’ Blues, one of my all time favorites depicts, at least to me, the struggles between carnal and spirit….and the fact that this is happening in the worship house.
Son House is truly a singer songwriter, who may not necessarily speak about social issues, but it is surely there. Levee Camp moan for instance has lyrics that express t he conditions of hard working people living in poverty and how those conditions actually have a huge effect on the decision making when it comes to human interactions and relationships.
Thinking of all of this drives home the fact that the blues really has made an impact on Music as a whole. Pick any genre, any artist….I’m sure they’d agree if they’ve studied the heritage and lineage of music…
Lyrics to Levee Camp Moan by Son House
You know I had a job on the levee
I had a good looking woman who lived in Hughes
I had a job on the levee
I had a good looking woman she lived in Hughes
You know that pretty little thing
She kept me with the government fleet blues
You know on every pay day
She’d be standing around the landing crying
On every pay day
She’d be standing around the landing crying
She be saying why don’t that big boat hurry and
Bring home that man of mine?
You know on every pay day
She could, she could hear the big boat when she blow
Well on every pay day
She could hear the big boat when she blow
But when I done not get the check
She told me she couldn’t use me no more
But I said that’s all right big girl
Honey, that’s all right for you
Yeah, hoo
little girl that’s all right for you
I say you treat me low down and dirty
See, baby, that’s the way you’s do
I packed up all my clothes
Left her settin’ in the back door crying
Aye yeah I left her settin’ in the back door crying
You know that done run the poor girl crazy
I believe she gonna lose her mind
You know don’t come here honey
Throwing up your doggone hands
Don’t come here baby
I said throwing up your doggone hands
You know I, I been your dog
Ever since that I been your man
But I said baby when you get lonesome
Set right down and write to me
Yeah — yeah — set right down you can write to me
You know I can read your little writing baby
Don’t care where in this world I’ll be
You know love
make you do things you don’t want to do
You know love
make you do things you don’t want to do
You know from love sometime
Will leave you feeling so sad and so blue
Oh, Listen here honey
Think about poor me some time
Yeah, hoo
think about poor me some time
You know I feel so bad
When you roll across my mind
You know if you never no more see me
You’ll forever be on my mind
If I never no more see you
Yeah, you’ll forever be on my mind
You know every time I think about you honey
I just can’t keep from crying
Oh it’s so hard
To love when they don’t love you
Ah, yeah, yeah, when they don’t love you
You can’t do nothing baby when they do not want you
But I tell ’em look it here, baby
Your little trouble is coming home some day
Yeah just like I tell you
Your little trouble is coming home some day
I said you gonna be sorry
That you treated poor me this way
Full Song Lyrics: http://www.lyrster.com/lyrics/levee-camp-moan-lyrics-son-house.html#ixzz3pPFe85LU
Read more at http://www.lyrster.com/lyrics/levee-camp-moan-lyrics-son-house.html#ygJUX88GIxGmf95R.99
