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St. Louis Blues
Blues Song by WC Handy; Old-Time Fiddle and Bluegrass tune; US.
ARTIST: Bessie Smith WC Handy
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Written by Handy circa 1914; published in 1914.
RECORDING INFO: St. Louis Blues [Me II-AB 8] - Handy, W. C.
Herder, Ronald (ed.) / 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics, Dover dn500/500, Sof (1998), p301
Anastasio, Paul; and Ray Wood. Paul and Ray's Serious Swing Jam, Swing Cat 1496, Cas (1995), trk# B.03
Bowles, Sam. Folk Music in America, Vol.14: Solo & Display Music, Library of Congress LBC-14, LP (1978), trk# A.02 [1971]
Brewer, Jim. Jim Brewer, Philo 1003, LP (1974), trk# A.06
Broonzy, Big Bill. Big Bill Broonzy, Archive of Folk Music FS-213, LP (1967), trk# 4
Brown, Milton; & his (Musical) Brownies. Country and Western Dance-O-Rama, Western Records WS 1001, LP (196?), trk# 1 [1935/01/27]
Fahey, John. Blind Joe Death, Vol. 1, Takoma C 1002, LP (1967), trk# 2
Four Vagabonds. Four Vagabonds: Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3, Document DOCD 5637, CD (1999), trk# 18 [1943]
Hoopii, Sol. Sol Hoopii, Vol. 1, Rounder 1024, LP (1977), trk# 10 [1926-30]
Hoosier Hot Shots. Everybody Stomp, Properbox 63, CD (2003), trk# 4.06 [1940/10/02]
Jackson, John. Deep in the Bottom, Rounder 2032, LP (1983), trk# 4
Johnston, Neil. Mixed Bag, Voyager VRLP 314-S, LP (1974), trk# A.04
Laketown Buskers. Dance Around in Your Bones, Marimac 4006, Cas (1991), trk# A.06
Maggie Valley Country Singers. Maggie Valley Country Singers, Rural Rhythm RR-MVS 134, LP (197?), trk# A.10
Memphis Horns and Ann Peebles. River of Song. A Musical Journey Down the Mississippi, Smithsonian SF 40086, CD (1998), trk# 2.03 [1997/10/15]
Miller, Emmett. Minstrel Man From Georgia, Columbia Legacy CK 66999, CD (1996), trk# 6 [1928/08/09]
Quintette of the Hot Club. Django, 1935, GNP Crescendo GNP-9023, LP (196?), trk# 11
Ross, Danny. Flattop Guitar Man, Stoneway STY 117, LP (197?), A.03
Seeger, Mike; and Alice Gerrard. Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard, Greenhays GR 704, LP (1980), trk# 2
Sexton, Lee "Boy". Mountain Music of Kentucky, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40077, CD (1996), trk# 2.60 [1959]
Watson, Doc and Merle. Pickin' the Blues, Flying Fish FF 352, LP (1985), trk# 5
Wills, Bob; and the Texas Playboys. History of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, MGM SE-4866, LP (1972/1960s), trk# 8 [1935?]
Wills, Bob; and the Texas Playboys. Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol 9, Edsel 329, CD (1990), trk# 10-11 [1946/04/22]
RELATED TO: St. Louis Blues Yodel
OTHER NAMES: Saint Louis Blues
SOURCES: Kuntz; The Carter Brothers and Son via the New Lost City Ramblers [Kuntz, Phillips]. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 351-352. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1), 1994; pg. 206. Flying Fish 102, New Lost City Ramblers - "20 Years/Concert Performances" (1978). Folkways 2492, New Lost City Ramblers- "String Band Instrumentals" (1964). OKeh 45202 (78 kkRPM), The Carter Brothers and Son.
NOTES: "St. Louis Blues" is best known as an American popular song composed by William Christopher Handy in the blues style. It remains a fundamental part of jazz musicians' repertoire and was also one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song. It has been performed by numerous musicians of all styles from Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith to Glenn Miller and the Boston Pops Orchestra. It has been called "the jazzman's Hamlet". Published in September 1914 by Handy's own company, it later gained such popularity that it inspired the dance step the "Foxtrot."
The song is also well-known as a fiddle and instrumental tune. It was in the repertoire of fiddler Clayton McMichen, who played the song on WSB radio in Atlanta with his Hometown Boys band in 1922. McMichen recorded an instrumental version of the tune in 1927. It was also in the early repertoire of Western swing fiddler Bob Wills. Milton Brown, who learned the tune with Wills, recorded his version in 1935, the same year Wills recorded the tune.
Other early country versions included the Callahans Brothers 1934; the Swingbillies 1937 and the Hoosier Hot Shots 1940.
The version with Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong on cornet was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993. The 1929 version by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra (with Henry "Red" Allen) was inducted there in 2008.
The song
The lyrics tell of a sophisticated woman from St. Louis, Missouri who has stolen the affection of the singer's lover. The opening line, "I hate to see that evenin' sun go down" may be one of the more recognizable lyrics in pop music, and set the tone for many subsequent blues songs.
Handy said he had been inspired by a chance meeting with a black woman on the streets of St. Louis distraught over her husband's absence, who lamented: "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea", a key line of the song. Details of the story vary but agree on the meeting and the phrase.
The composition
The form is unusual in that the verses are the now familiar "standard" twelve bar blues in common time with three lines of lyrics, the first two lines repeated, but it also has a 16-bar bridge in the minor key written in the habanera rhythm, popularly called the "Spanish Tinge", and identified by Handy as tango.
Handy's tango like rhythm is notated as a doted quarter note, followed by a sixteenth, and two quarter notes, with no slurs or ties, and is seen in the introduction as well as the sixteen measure bridge.
While blues became often simple and repetitive in form, the St. Louis Blues has multiple complementary and contrasting strains, similar to classic ragtime compositions.Handy said in writing "St. Louis Blues" his objective was "to combine ragtime syncopation with a real melody in the spiritual tradition."
W. C. Handy
Writing about the first time St Louis Blues was played (1914), Handy notes that "The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of Memphis Blues...When St Louis Blues was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightening strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels."
Researcher Guy Marco, in his book Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound in the United States, stated that the first audio recording of "St. Louis Blues" was by Al Bernard in July 1918 on the record company label Aeolian-Vocalion (cat. no. 12148). This is however not true, since Columbia's house band, directed by Charles A. Prince, had recorded a released instrumental version already in December 1915 (Columbia A5772). Bernard's version may have been the first US issue to include the lyrics though. However, by then Ciro's Club Coon Orchestra, a group of black American artists appearing in Britain, had already recorded a version including the lyrics in September 1917 (UK Columbia 699).
Since the 1910s, the number has enjoyed great popularity not only as a song but also as an instrumental. Many of jazz's most well known artists in history have given renowned performances of the tune. The following is an incomplete list of the hundreds of musicians of renown who recorded "St. Louis Blues", chosen as examples that are early in their careers and in the era of its greatest popularity.
1920 Marion Harris
1921 Original Dixieland Jass Band
1922 W. C. Handy
1925 Bessie Smith, backed by Louis Armstrong on cornet and Fred Longshaw on harmonium. One of the most famous versions.
1927 Sylvester Weaver
1928 Al Bernard as "John Bennett" (Madison 1642)[7]
1929 Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra with Henry "Red" Allen
1930 Rudy Vallee, Cab Calloway, the Mills Brothers, the Boswell Sisters
1935 Bob Wills
1939 Benny Goodman
1940 Earl Hines rendition "Boogie Woogie On The St. Louis Blues". Hines can be heard on the recording saying, "Aw, play it till 1954", the year the original copyright was to expire.
1943 Glenn Miller "St. Louis Blues -- March" as played by the U.S. Army Air Force Band, of which Miller was the commander.
1949 Art Tatum
1952 Chet Atkins first of several recordings, on "Chet Atkins and His Galloping Guitar"
1954 Louis Armstrong recorded the song numerous times, including a hard-rocking version on his album Louis Armstrong plays W.C. Handy.
1950s Moon Mullican sang and played the song on the Grand Ol' Opry.
1957 Louis Prima recorded the song on the album The Wildest Comes Home!
1967 Mina sang an orchestra version at italian TV program Sabato Sera (saturday night).
1970 Jula de Palma sang a beat version of this song in a successful concert recorded in the Lp "Jula al Sistina"
1976 The Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action (album)
1985 Doc Watson recorded the song on the album "Pickin' the Blues" and has played his version for many years.
1998 Stevie Wonder recorded the song on Herbie Hancock's Jazz album Gershwin's World and won the two Grammys for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocals in 1999.
2001 Dexter Romweber
2009 Adam Gussow recorded the song in a youtube performance video. He also has broken the song down and offers it on his website for performing on the harmonica
Other recordings include Louis Prima, Artie Shaw, The Esquire Boys, and "The Merri Men" (a spin-off group from Bill Haley & His Comets). It was also recorded on piano rolls.
It also has been used in the Malcolm McLaren song "About Her" from the soundtrack of the motion picture Kill Bill: Vol 2. The song covers both "St. Louis Blues" and a Zombies song "She's Not There".
Clarinet solo
With traditional New Orleans and New Orleans style bands, the tune is one of a handful which includes a set traditional solo. The clarinet solo with a distinctive series of rising partials was first recorded by Larry Shields on the 1921 Original Dixieland Jass Band record; it is not found on any earlier recordings nor published orchestrations of the tune. Shields is often credited with creating this solo, however alternative claims have been made for other early New Orleans clarinetists, including Emile Barnes.
"St. Louis Blues" Bessie Smith by WC Handy 1914
Single by Bessie Smith Released 1925 Format 78 rpm record
Recorded January 14, 1925, New York City, NY
Length 3:11 Label Columbia Records14064-D
I hate to see that evening sun go down
I hate to see that evening sun go down
'Cause, my baby, he's gone left this town
Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
If I'm feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
I'll pack my truck and make my give-a-way
BRIDGE: St. Louis woman with her diamond ring
Pulls that man around by her
If it wasn't for her and her
That man I love would have gone nowhere, nowhere
I got the St. Louis Blues, blue as I can be
That man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me
I love my baby like a school boy loves his pie
Like a Kentucky colonel loves his mint'n rye
I love my man till the day I die
Original lyrics: "St Louis Blues" (1914)
by William Christopher Handy, 1873-1958
1.
I hate to see de ev'nin' sun go down,
Hate to see de ev'nin' sun go down,
Cause ma baby, he done lef dis town.
Feelin' tomorrow lak Ah feel today
feel tomorrow lak Ah feel today
I'll pack my trunk make ma get away.
BRIDGE: St. Louis woman wid her diamon' rings
Pulls dat man roun' by her apron strings
'twant for powder an' for store bought hair
de man I love would not gone nowhere.
Got de St. Louis Blues jes as blue as Ah can be
Dat man got a heart lak a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't gone so far from me.
[Spoken: Dog-gone it!]
2.
Been to de Gypsy to get ma fortune tole
To de Gypsy done got ma fortune tole.
Cause I'm most wile 'bout ma Jelly Roll.
Gypsy done tole me, "don't you wear no black"
Yes she done tole me "don't you wear no black"
Go to St. Louis you can win him back.
BRIDGE: Help me to Cairo make St. Louis ma-self
Git to Cairo find my ole friend Jeff,
Gwine to pin ma-self close to his side
If Ah flag his train I sho' can ride.
I loves dat man lak a school boy loves his pie
Lak a Kentucky Col'nel loves his mint an' rye
I'll love ma baby till the day Ah die.
[Spoken: Dog-gone it!]
3.
You ought to see dat stovepipe brown of mine,
lak he owns de Dimon Joseph line,
He'd make a cross-eyed o' man go stone blind.
Blacker than midnight, teeth lak flags of truce
Blackest man in de whole St. Louis
Blacker de berry sweeter is the juice.
BRIDGE: About a crap game he knows a pow'ful lot
But when worktime comes he's on de dot
Gwine to ask him for a cold ten spot
What it takes to git it he's cert'nly got.
A black headed gal make a freight train jump the track
Said a black headed gal make a freight train jump the track
But a red headed woman makes a preacher ball the Jack.
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Extra Choruses (optional)
Lawd, a blond-headed woman makes a good man leave the town,
I said a blond-headed woman makes a good man leave the town,
But a red-headed woman makes a boy slap his papa down.
Oh ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
I said ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
If my blues don't get you, my jazzing must.
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