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Kentucky Blues/Lost John
Traditional Old-Time, Bluegrass; Breakdown and Song- Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky.
ARTIST: Source: Dennis 'Little Hat' Jones 'Kentucky Blues' recorded in San Antonio, Texas, on 14 June 1930 and issued as Okeh 8815. Note: the first four stanzas are from the transcription in Paul Oliver 'Songsters & Saints' Cambridge Uni Press 1999 p 70. The last stanza (omitted by Oliver) is my transcription from the reissue on Various Artists 'My Rough and Rowdy Ways Vol I' Yazoo CD 2039.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO:
From Meade Discography:
'Lost John' - Burnett & Rutherford recorded November 1926 (Co 15122-D)
'Long gone' - Travis Hale & E.J. Derry Jr recorded 6 June 1927 (Vi 20866)
'Lost John Dean' - Bascom Lamar Lunsford recorded ca February 1928 (Br 227)
'Long Gone' - Richard Brooks & Reuben Puckett recorded ca June 1928 (Br 273)
'Lost John' - Blevins & Blair of the West Va. Mountaineers; October 1928 (Gnt)
'Lost John' - Leonard Rutherford recorded 28 October 1929 (Gnt uniss)
'Lost John' - Southern Moonlight Entertainers recorded 27 Aug 1929 (Vo 5460)
'Long Gone From Bowling Green' - Allen Brothers recorded October 1934 (Vo 8217)
'Lost John' - Lonnie Glosson recorded 9 October 1936 (ARC uniss)
'Lost John' - Eldon Baker & His Brown County Revelers; 4 June 1938 (Vo 04217)
Meade does not put De Ford Bailey's harmonica recording (Oct 1928 Vi uniss) among the old-timey list above, but mentions it among blues recordings by Papa Charlie Jackson, Charlie Turner and Little Hat Jones. However, there is a fascinating 'Lost John' recording among the 1976 recordings of De Ford Bailey by David Morton and issued on CD as 'The Legendary De Ford Bailey: Country Music's First Black Star' Tennessee Folklore Society Records TFS-122. This is a 5-minute performance by De Ford singing and playing banjo, and proving himself to be quite adept at both. Charles Wolfe comments that it 'is not much like the familiar 'Lost John From Bowling Green' song associated with W.C. Handy but something much earlier, focusing on the character of Old John Booker'. (Stewie)
Columbia 15103 (78 RPM), Oliver Sims (1926). Columbia 15122-D (78 RPM), Burnett and Rutherford (1926). County 719, Kenny Baker- "Portrait of a Bluegrass Fiddler" (1968. Learned from his father). Mag 1018, Ted Powers- "Old Time Fiddler." Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH-002, Enos Canoy Band - "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" (1985). Okeh 40391 (78 RPM), Henry Whitter (1928). Rounder 0034, Jim Gaskin. Rounder 1004, "The Songs of Dick Burnett and Leonard Rutherford." Vocalation 5441 (78 RPM), Stripling Brothers (Alabama) {1929}. Vocalation (78 RPM), Southern Moonlight Entertainers (Tenn.) {1930}.Baker, Kenny. Portrait of a Bluegrass Fiddler, County 719, LP (1968), cut# 5. Burnett and Rutherford. Ramblin' Reckless Hobo, Rounder 1004, LP, cut# 5. Canoy, Enos. Great Big Yam Potatoes. Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Missi., Southern Culture AH002, LP (1985), cut# 25. Cohen, Andy; and Joe LaRose. Tuxedo Blues, Green Linnet SIF 1033, LP (1981), cut# 9. Cousin Emmy (Cynthia May Carver). New Lost City Ramblers with Cousin Emmy, Folkways FTS 31015, LP (1968), cut# 8. Gregory, W. L.; and Clyde Davenport. Monticello, Davis Unlimited DU 33014, LP (1975), cut# 14. Hash, Albert; and the Whitetop Mountain Band. Whitetop, Heritage (Galax) 041, LP (198?), cut#A.01. Holt, David. It Just Suits Me, June Appal JA 0038, LP (1981), cut# 3. Iron Mountain String Band (Galax). Music from the Mountain, Heritage (Galax) 101C, Cas (1992), cut# 3. Kottke, Leo. Greenhouse, Capitol ST-11000, LP (197?), cut# 11. Martin, Asa; and the Cumberland Rangers. Dr. Ginger Blue, Rounder 0034, LP (1974), cut# 9. Parham, Red; & the Haywood County Ramblers. 37th Old-Annual Old-Time Fiddlers Convention, Folkways FA 2434, LP (1962), cut# 5. Pegram, George; and Parham, Red (Walter). Music From South Turkey Creek, Rounder 0065, LP (1976), cut#b-1. Pegram, George; and Parham, Red (Walter). Pickin' and Blowin', Riverside RLP 12-60, LP (195?), cut# 3. Poston, Mutt; and the Farm Hands. Hoe Down! Vol. 7. Fiddlin' Mutt Poston and the Farm Hands, Rural Rhythm RRFT 157, LP (197?), cut#B.13. Stamper, I.D.. Red Wing, June Appal JA 0010, LP (1977), cut# 5 . Stripling, Lee. Hogs Picking Up Acorns, Voyager VRCD 349, CD (2000), cut#19. Sutphin, Vernon. Stoneman Family Old Time Songs, Folkways FA 2315, Cas (1957), cut# 21. Terry, Sonny. Folk Box, Elektra EKL-9001, LP (1964), cut# 54. Watson, Doc. Doc Watson on Stage, Vanguard VSD 9/10, LP (1970), cut# 6 Bascom Lamar Lunsford (listed as "Lundsford"), "Lost John Dean" (Vocalion 5246, c. 1928; on TimesAint01)
RELATED TO: Walk Along John; Feather Bed; Blowing the Train; Ruben/Ruben's Train; OTHER NAMES: "Lost Boy Blues," Lost John Dean from Bowling Green ; Long John; Long Gone; Long Gone from Kentucky
SOURCES: Kenny Baker [Brody], Rutherford and Burnett (Ky) [Kuntz], Ralph Troxell & Kenny Baker [Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 178-179. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 269-270. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 81. Lomax-FSNA 287, "Long John". Lomax-ABFS, pp. 75-79, "Long Gone" Courlander-NFM, pp. 102-103, "(Lost John)"; p. 261, "Long John"; Handy/Silverman-Blues, pp. 200-202, "Long Gone"; Silber-FSWB, p. 68, "Long John"
NOTES: G Major. Standard. AB (Phillips): AAB (Brody, Kuntz). Mark Wilson reports that folklorist/musicologist Alan Lomax links these songs (plural, for there are several tunes which use this floating title) to ante-bellum folklore about the character of John the Trickster Slave.
In 1920, W.C. Handy published 'Long Gone' with words by the black song writer Chris Smith, (see: Version 10) based on a Kentucky folk song, known variously as 'Lost John', 'Long John' or 'Long John Dean'. The sheet music claimed that it was 'Another Casey Jones' or 'Steamboat Bill'. Everyone was singing its seven verses but 'eventually you will sing "Long Gone" with a hundred verses' - an acknowledgment of the reworking of songs in oral tradition. Abbe Niles stated that the song was based 'on an actual event' in which a black trusty in the jail at Bowling Green, Kentucky, was to be the victim of a test on the efficiency of a pack of new bloodhounds. John Dean fixed 'a steep trap in a barrel on its side, over which he jumped as he started; the lead hound followed the scent into the barrel and the trap; the rest stopped to investigate', by which time Long John was well away. The story probably came from Handy who had embroidered a version he had given to Dorothy Scarborough which she retold in a paper to the Texas Folk-Lore Society. In this, Long John was escaping from 'a Joe Turner' (presumably the legendary 'long-chain man' who escorted convicts to prison) and made use of a barrel to decoy the dogs. The incident did not appear in either the song as rewritten by Handy, or in the versions. collected or recorded.[Paul Oliver 'Songsters & Saints' Cambridge Uni Press 1999 p68]
Charles Wolfe remarks that the family of songs has several branches, including the old-timey 'hillbilly' song, a blues harmonica solo version by De Ford Bailey (Victor, 1920's), a vaudeville song ("Lost John Dean from Bowling Green"), and a work song "Wake Up, Dead Man"). Tom Rankin (1985) differentiates the different melodies using the title: Enos Canoy, Burnett and Rutherford, Henry Whitter, De Ford Bailey and Oliver Sims' (the latter three are harmonica versions. Enos Canoy originally learned the tune on the harmonica and transferred it to the fiddle). The tune was recorded by the Northwest Alabamian (Fayette) of August 29, 1929, as likely to be played at an upcoming fiddlers' convention (Cauthen, 1990).
The Lomaxes believe this to be based on the story (coming from W. C. Handy's book "Blues"; see page 215 in Handy/Silverman) of one Long John Green, who was known for his ability to move. When the prison where Green was staying acquired a pack of bloodhounds, they allegedly decided to conduct a test by giving him a head start and then sending the hounds after him. But Green was too fast (he also managed to trick the hounds by catching one in a trap), and escaped them.
There’s an interesting version by Little Hat (“Kentucky Blues” Version 11) who was a singer/guitarist that worked in and around San Antonio, a far cry from Kentucky. However, Oliver notes that, in a compact form with short songs, 'Long Gone' was used as a work song by prisoners. Five recordings of it were made by Lightnin' Washington and his gang for the Library of Congress at Darrington State Prison, Texas, in 1933-36. As Oliver points out, Little Hat's version is quite distinct - 'he was clearly drawn to the image of the submarine slipping away from its enemies; a more telling use than Smith and Handy's text which merely had 'a gang of men' try to capture Dean 'so they chased him with a submarine' [Oliver p70].
Here are the lyrics to “Kentucky Blues/Lost John” from "Little Hat" Jones:
Well whiles we here tryin' to have our fun
'Spose the law jumped up and said, 'Nobody run!'
Well, you know I'm long gone, from Kentucky
Long gone, an' got away lucky
'Cause I'm gonna leave so keen
I'll be just like a submarine
Well, my woman poked her head out the window of the bed
Said, 'Please don't let them kill Mister Little Hat dead'
I said, 'No use worryin', sweet mama, I ain't gonna be here long'
Tell her not to sing this worryin' song
'Cause I'm gonna leave so keen
I'm gonna be just like a submarine
Well an officer, you know the man, they call him Austin Jack
Stopped and put the bloodhounds right on my track
'Cause the hounds they couldn't catch my scent
You know, they couldn't tell where Little Hat went
'Cause I left so keen
People, I was just like a submarine
Well here comes the Santa Fe just puffin' and flyin'
Oughta seen me when I reached up and caught them blinds
They said, 'There's another long gone - from Kentucky
Long gone - an' he got away lucky
'Cause he's ever so keen
He's just like a submarine'
I want to sing this song, ain't gonna sing no more
'Cause I'm leavin' San Antonio, I don't plan on coming here no more
Well, I don't play the dozen and neither the ten
'Cause you keep on talkin', I leads you in
Well you keep on talkin' till it makes me mad
Well I'll tell you 'bout the money that your father had
'Cause I don't play the dozen, I declare man, and neither the ten
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