Sleepy John Estes was taught to play guitar by his cousin Willie Newbern, both men also played medicine shows in Mississippi. Newbern was a master of the ‘personal blues’, style that Estes made his own over his long recording career. Newbern on the other hand had a very short recording career; it comprised of 6 songs recorded over two days in March 1929. On the second day, Hambone Willie as he was known, recorded what has become a standard in the Blues cannon, Roll & Tumble Blues.
Roll and Tumble Blues
Hambone Willie Newbern
Recorded 14th March 1929 Atlanta Georgia for Okeh Records
And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long
And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long.
And I rose this mornin’ mama and I didn’t know right from wrong.
Did you ever wake up and find your dough roller gone?
Did you ever wake up and find your dough roller gone?
And you wring your hands and cry the whole day long.
And I told my woman lord, before I left the town.
And I told my woman lord, before I left the town.
Don’t she let nobody tear her barrelhouse down.
And I fold my arms lord, and I walked away.
And I fold my arms lord, and I walked away.
Says that’s all right sweet mama your own trouble gonna come some day.
Newbern's tune was used by Sleepy John Estes on The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair in September 1929. Robert Johnson adapted the song for If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day, which was cut in 1936, lyrically very similar to the original.
And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long,
And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long,
Boy I woke up this morning, my biscuit-roller gone.
Twenty one years after Hambone Willie recorded the song that probably goes back way further, Muddy Waters went into the studio with Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica and Leroy Foster on drums and second guitar to cut eight sides including Rollin’ and Tumblin’. Muddy remembered the song from his youth. There was a slight snag with Muddy recording, he was at the time under contract to Chess and this recording was going out on the Parkway label. To get around his contractual problem it came out as a Baby Face Leroy Trio record.
The record features Muddy’s wonderful slide guitar playing which probably got him noticed by the Chess brothers who were unhappy that one of their artists was recording for another label. Muddy was soon in the studio cutting a version for the Chess owned Aristocrat label. Muddy’s version of the song was essentially the same as Hambone’s in the first verse, but Muddy changed it around in the second verse
Well, if the river was whiskey, and I was a divin’ duck
Well, if the river was whiskey, and I was a divin’ duck
Well, I would dive to the bottom, never would I come up
Well, I could a had a religion, this bad old thing instead
Well, I could a had a religion, this bad old thing instead
Well, all whiskey and women, would not let me pray
Muddy’s version of Rollin’ and Tumblin’ was never a hit, nor was Baby Face Leroy’s version. Ironically when Muddy rewrote the song as Louisiana Blues and slowed it down it became his second chart success when it made No.10 on the U.S. R & B Chart. Muddy had also used the slide guitar riff from Rollin and Tumblin on his 1948 recording of Down South Blues, which Chess did not release for over ten years.
Fresh Cream
Cream recorded Rollin’ and Tumblin’ on their 1966 album ‘Fresh Cream’. It features Jack Bruce’s harmonica as the lead instrument. The Twenty one year old Eric Clapton provided the rhythm, along with Ginger Baker’s tasteful drum work. It is one of the numbers where Cream came closest to capturing the sound of Delta Blues…even with Ginger’s drums.
It’s typical in the story of the blues that songs, riffs and ideas, both lyrical and musical are constantly evolving
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