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Long John/Lost John
Traditional Old-Time, Bluegrass; Breakdown and Song- Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky.
ARTIST: From Lightning and a group of convicts, Darrington State Prison Farm, Sandy Point Texas. Recorded by John and Alan Lomax, 1934.
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; 16 October 1928
'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 3 Oct 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 “Lost John” from Lomax:
1. It's a long John
He's a long gone
Like a turkey through the corn
Through the long corn
2. Well my John said
In the ten chap ten
If a man die
He will live again
Well they crucified Jesus
And they nailed him to the cross
Sister Mary cried
My child is lost.
Chorus: Well Long John
He's long gone
He's long gone
Mister John John
Oh Big-Eye John
O John John
It's a long John
3. Says-uh Come on gal
And-uh shut that door
Says The dog's is coming
And Ive got to go
Ch: Its a long John
He's long gone
It’s a long John
He's a long gone
4. Well-a two three minutes
Let me catch my wind
In-a two three minutes
I'm gone again
Chorus: He's long John
He's long gone
He's long gone
He's long gone
5. Well my John said
Just before he did
Well I'm going home
See Mary Lid.
Chorus: He's John John
Old John John
With his long clothes on
Just-a skippin through the corn
6. Well my John said
On the fourth day
Well to tell my rider
That I'm on my way
Chorus: He’s long gone
He's long gone
He's long gone
Its a long John
7. Gonna call this summer
Aint gon'call no more
If I call next summer
Be in Baltimore
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