September, 1841. Oh lord: this wounded heart of mine 1997. unknown white female. For I won’t be back tomorrow. socialize with their relatives; children an’ anythin’ like that, because people would In a contrasting atmosphere to Rev. I’m gonna get me a sweet fairy, I said, when I’m on my journey through; While there are around 25 sides (so far!) I’ll think of you in the cotton fields; You belong to that funeral train, The majority of blues musicians had descendants from Africa who were transported to America in the slave trade. An excellent heavy-voiced singer Campbell appears to shun the Devil rather than accept his company, blaming Satan for his own mistreatment meted out to the woman he loves. Well, de devil will be on one side an’ de pitchure of de Lord God on de othah one, an’ whichever bone dey cuss, if dey don’t git it, dey soul is sold to de devil; if dey does (“git it”) dey done sold deyself to de devil – but dey grab de bone, see. The station/depot was named McAlester. Lawdy, do remember me. Well, they come at ten Every day at ten o’ clock. Ah! This “gang” of slaves was arranged in travelling order, all being on foot except the children that were too young to walk and too old to be carried in arms. Born in Frayser, Tennessee, in Shelby County, on 26th. J.M. I done left old Hell, left old…, left old… From the New Testament (Matthew 23:24). Although this spirit is often depicted as a lovely woman there is “typically some little give away that she’s more than that, such as one goat, camel, or donkey foot. Mother would talk Century, published in 1929 (the year of Milton’s recording) as The Black Camel by Earl Derr Biggers. J.M. I'm a good‑hearted woman: but still i'm chained to the blues, Ma Rainey Lyrics provided by SongLyrics.com. PART 2 – The Coffle, Crossroads, and the Auction Block. Century black communities. Another is the Greek goddess Hekate/Hecate. Contrary to what some people believe, the blues is not “slave music.” Although it was cultivated by the descendants of slaves, the blues was the expression of freed African Americans. One ‘Margot the Marrakesh Mystic’ put a chapter entitled The Couscous of the Dead on the web. Whether you believe it or not. Aisha Qandisha  “causes death, illness and madness but also restores health and bestows wealth, abundance, fertility, and luck. She wears long robes as camouflage; the animal leg may not be immediately apparent.” (54). Footnote 18:  On her only 2 issued sides Alberta Brown, a fine underrated singer, Chris Smith suggests the clarinet is by the well-respected New Orleans musician Sydney Arodin. Footnote 11: Though listed in B. Footnote 15: Although this line by Johnson has been generally rendered as ‘feelin’ [a]shamed about my rider’, I don’t hear the ‘sh’ pronunciation and I am convinced (well, 99%!) Do Lord, do now, sho’ nuff do; They just come, just like cows, you now, comin’ to the children.” .(65). She has landed you in heaven or hell. DOCD-5575.] (57)   This runs: And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. Singing of an engine ‘draped in black’ this is, like several early recordings in the ‘race’ catalogues, incorrectly titled. Unlike Rev. Ain't robbed no train: ain't done no hanging crime Ibid. It is quite likely therefore, that the above-quoted verse from Last Farewell Blues was included in the 1893 song by the Unique Quartette featuring the ‘crossing verse’. (Anymore) Fails to take the siding. You know, uh, they believed (x 2) In 1928 Elder McIntorsh and Bessie Johnson lead the fiery singing and the celebratory shouts [on OKeh 8671] and include one verse harking back to The Coffle Song. 23-28. Check out Slave To The Blues by Ma Rainey on Amazon Music. There is a possibility that Hyde could be the Texas link for this verse re- appearing in the repertoire of singers in Alabama. December, 2004. (x 2) Do you hear me pleadin’, you’re gonna send me to my grave. They were chained six and six together. Mother has often told me of the heart-breaking scene. A. Slave to the Rhythm (Blooded) B1. I agree at least the accompaniment sounds like the same artist. an’ I know it. (7). (107)  (Footnote 15). In West Africa, a Hausa belief runs “If one dreams of a man who is sitting alone while passers-by do not seem to notice him, that man is going to die soon.” (71)  The Hausa were one of the major peoples (rather than a single tribe) enslaved in what was to become later, Southern USA. His “Lord, I’m worried, stays worried all the time” is more of an exclamation of sadness tinged with anger; than to do with religion. If there was only one candidate to take the left-hand track out of ‘Farewell Station’ on the train to Hell, with links to the camel; then Aisha Qandisha (pronounced A-eesha Qand-eesha) would be that candidate. 8 or 18, September, 1926. Thomas notes that “one can explore how far the medieval trans-Saharan trade in black Africans, from the coast of Guinea, was managed by Arab mullah -merchants in the first centuries after the Moslem penetration of Africa, long before Prince Henry the Navigator’s ships were seen in West Africa.” (14)  Prince Henry, “brother of the King of Portugal,” was responsible for the first shipload of African slaves to Europe “on 8 August 1444,” (15)  But with “the introduction of the camel (native to Asia) in AD 300, much bigger cargoes could be carried with greater ease and efficiency than had been possible with the gangs of human bearers, and the trans-Sahara traffic greatly increased. Aw! Make sure your selection [sic]  But the Arab dealer was no respector of persons, and when opportunity offered he did not hesitate to sell to the white slaver his allies of a different stock, along with the negroes [sic] whom he had bought from them.”. But if there is a possibility that Milton’s record drew on the design of an unusual railroad locomotive, it is far more readily apparent that this preacher was inspired by the title of the 4th. These slaves were sold in the urban markets of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Natchez, and especially New Orleans”. (38). The following year Blind Willie Johnson set down Take Your Stand [Columbia 14624-D] although he sings “take a stand”. By failing to-mmm-understand. s own time, being even more explicit in what has to be unique to the Delta blues king: but if they escape they prove very hardy and sound, able men. We’re gonna speak now upon the subject – the Black Camel’s Death. St. Clair wrote “many…came from Asante, marched, shackled, through the forest paths, and [got] their first sight of men with skin colour that was not black..” (58)   The governors of Cape Castle knew that “many of the people whom they bought did not originate from Asante, but came from communities conquered by, and subject to, the Asante empire, or who had been brought to Asante as slaves from further inland..” (59)   One, Governor Hippisley noted that a few of the slaves “were so pale in complexion as to be of North African or Middle Eastern appearance..” (60)   Sinclair added: “Hippisley speculated, correctly, that the interior of Africa was not a desert, as some Europeans believed, but luxuriant and well populated, and that the slaves brought to the Castle may have come from the whole of the vast area of sub-Saharan Africa, east as well as west, and even beyond..” (61)   Significantly, Sinclair notes: “It was only in the Asante invasion of 1807, during which men literate in Arabic who had seen the Mediterranean were found among the Asante army, that the British in the Castle began to understand..” (62), As has been seen the Arabic legacy of the slave coffle soon reappeared in the American colonies and later, US states. the Blues generally) Ms. Bogan had originated in Amory, Mississippi, but soon made Birmingham, Alabama, her home. While fellow Texan Henry Thomas used the song’s refrain when he cut Charmin’ Betsy [Vocalion 1468] also in 1929. by Doubleday . Comin’ through Rockwall. But mothers with infants had to carry them in their arms; and their blood often stained the whip when, from exhaustion, they lagged behind. Assign students to read the essay in this guide "What Is the Blues?" On Prayer Of Death-Pt.1 [Paramount 12799–] he includes a snatch of Take A Stand, perhaps likening this traumatic separation to the death of loved ones, where his guitar often completes a line. A.W. Be the first one to write a review. Sinner your train is comin’, I know she got to slack; [en her speed to stop] Tone the bell. This in effect gave the loco an extra cab giving a vague similarity to the hump of a camel (see pic.). Til the bell ring an’ the whistle blow; Another version of this number, at a similar tempo, was made some two months later by the Golden Eagle Gospel Singers with unidentified guitar, fiddle, and tambourine driven along by Josephine Tillman’s rich vocals. The period was  one when almost any new idea [re transportation] was given a try. Johnson being one of a ‘select’ group of blues singers who never recorded a sacred title; along with ‘wild’ artists such as Lucille Bogan, King Solomon Hill and Kokomo Arnold. This ‘first’ rail crossing saw the Katy cross the old Atlantic & Pacific – later the Frisco. Particularly Hekate: “Hecate’s image was once placed in Greek towns wherever three roads met.” (94)   i.e. Also check early blues.com. (Footnote 8) If a owner have more’n he needed, he hit the road with ‘em and sold ‘em off to adjoining farms.” (64), But the slave coffle had been around for some considerable time when Winn made these observations. By the 1820s, the then new states of Alabama and Mississippi had joined this evil trade. I got his word, got his …, got his word; So he readily recognized the blatantly sexual content even though Johnson’s phrase does not appear on any other blues-as far as I’m aware. Post-war discographical details from Mike Leadbitter. in the sixties was played this recording he expressed disbelief that the record company, ARC, actually issued this song, in 1937. In collaboration with my younger brother, Rex, and blues brothers, Alan White, Robin Andrews and Dai Thomas we intend to highlight the non-religious music of the African American before 1865; and at the end of the Civil War. J.M. It’s just been changed around a little bit. The Coffle Song is essentially a secular one with only the ‘I’ll pray for you when I rest’ line and the last verse having any religious reference. (136), Some 14 years later, Tennessee’s Son Bonds took the last line in the Henry Thomas song and adapted it to the refrain of Black Gal Swing [Bluebird B8852], I’ll be there in the morning if I live; (115) (Footnote 17)   Part of this epic song runs: Change cars on the Katy, leaving Dallas, Texas; I got his word, got his …, got his word; Texas blues man Little Hat Jones featured a variant of the song omitting the title phrase, which he called Bye Bye Baby Blues, [OKeh 8815] in 1930. Stream ad-free or purchase CD's and MP3s now on Amazon.com. anthracite, a cheaper grade of coal) on the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. It is not a long journey from the three-legged stool to the sexual symbol per se as used by Robert Johnson.. They wonder if his mother will be on the train to Heaven in ‘Can-yan land’. One of his biggest ‘hits’, Gates was to cut another 5 versions during the same year; one of which remains undiscovered. Aah! This dearth of camel references is replicated in Judika Illes’ Encyclopedia Of Spirits, from which I have unashamedly drawn so freely. New York City. Lady Alice Kyteler was accused of renouncing Christianity “to sacrifice roosters and peacocks at crossroads to a spirit named variously ‘Robin’ or ‘Robert Artisson’ or Filius Artis’. The dark shadow of slavery times and the coffles now  seems to invade Robert Johnson’s famous Crossroad Blues. In Green Diamond No.71. If i could break these chains: and let my worried heart go free Origins of ‘patting juba’ in the US (134). McAlester in later years how he happened on an old “memorandum book” written long before the Civil War by a geologist which included the entry that “the best coal was to be found at the ‘Cross Roads’.” (113)   As the said geologist had been part of “a government exploring party” at the time, McAlester took it to be authentic. Southern sounds in the rural landscape: bird calls, whistling in the Blues, role of the Take a stand, take a  …, take a stand; One of the very best in the genre (i.e. Virginia-1619) From The Elizabethan’s America. Mainstream Publishing. Fare you well, fare you well, fare you well; The experiment was a failure and “in 1902 was rebuilt with a new boiler of standard design.” (20). Gates got his Death’s Black Train title. I got stones in my passway an’ my road seem dark at night. 42-44.). She is a Lilith-like figure simultaneously dangerous and benevolent.” (50)   Among other theories of origin she is thought to possibly have been “Kadash, the sacred harlot.” (51), Like Lilith she has a voracious sexual appetite and if a man does not please her when making love to her “she may then drown him.” (52)   Definitely suited to the appellation ‘Black Camel Death’ on Rev. As no piano is present it is highly likely that Day himself switched to guitar. An’ uh, most times, they Get all your business right. p.p. Illes adds that Aisha Qandisha  is a “temperamental, volatile spirit, quick to scratch, strangle, or whip those who displease her or don’t obey her commands fast enough.” (53)   Finally, as already stated there is the telling manifestation. This was an experiment to burn ‘slack coal’ (i.e. Her eyes glowing like coals, she pursued all humans, but was particularly fond of catching men.” (56)   Now, THAT signifies (to me) Aisha Qandisha has to be the Black Camel of Death! Some seven years later the most famous reference appeared on record by Robert Johnson who often went to see Charley Patton play in the 1920s; along with Johnson’s main influence Son House. Learn more about blues, including notable musicians. Footnote 3: Indeed, Milton was also probably aware of Rev. Addeddate 2009-08-26 15:47:53 Boxid OL100020310 Identifier MaRainey-SlaveToTheBlues Source 78 . It seems to be from the period I have suggested (1840s and 1850s) that the attitude towards some secular songs expressed by many ex-slaves, in interview during the first half of the 20th. An ex-slave, Willis Winn, interviewed in 1937, told of  “The onliest statement  I can make about my age is my old master Rob Winn, always told me if anyone asked me how old I is to say I’se borned on March 10, in 1822. This is the case even when compared to Johnson’s own frenetic I’m Gonna Run To The City Of Refuge [Columbia 14391-D] also without slide guitar, for example. I’ll meet you on that other shore. A ritual from the latter “encourages bribing the Sidhe to save lives via the crossroads. De one goin’ tuh de left – dat’s de one dat yo’ do’s yo’ devilment wit. Me and the Devil. She originated in Sumeria and “The Sumerian Burney Plaque, (circa 2,300 BCE) is generally identified as Lilith. I got three legged truck-on, boy, please don’t block the road; The scars of slavery, both physical and mental, ran deep and so it is not surprising that some 60 years after the end of the Civil War, they would still be felt running through the Blues. Was walkin’ side by side. The implication being that the other 33 sides featured either unknown accompaniment or were performed a cappella. Referring to a favoured  Mississippi town (Itta Bena) his comments point up another vital role of the crossing/crossroad- as a pick-up place for aspiring hoboes including of course the blues singers. Footnote 6: This educational establishment, for African Americans, reverted back to its original title as the Morris Brown College in 1929. Not only does she love desolate places such as forests, seacoasts, and “especially the desert” she also loves crossroads. (1936-1941)[Document CD. Nothing is known of Tomlin except he had links with Atlanta, Georgia, home-base for Rev. This involved preparing couscous (a favourite. Since then, in the post-war period, there have  been a myriad of versions (either performed live and/or recorded) of Robert Johnson’s Crossroad Blues. “It was a crime of Europeans and Arabs and Africans and, in the truest sense, it was a crime of mankind.” (13)  not to forget the Americans! (Footnote 9)  Johnson observed: “ …in these years the trade was a practice without a name or center, a series of speculations made along the roads linking the small towns of the rural South into an attenuated political economy of slavery. A spiritual was sometimes used as a boat song for example. Given that he had recorded all 14 sides about the black/funeral train in 1926; some three years before Biggers’ The Black Camel was published. A 1900  map shows it as ‘McAlester’. Discographical details from Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943 (4th. J.M. If I never, never see you any (Glory!)more. If I never, never see you anymore. Influence of minstrelsy and early vaudeville-blues (Gen. XXIV:63). While slaves were legally not allowed to be literate, they chose song and dance as ways to document their stories of joy, pain and struggle. Given the oral tradition of the African American since slavery days, the sight of these black camels in the later 19th. Annihilated Rhythm Apparently the 12 inchers of this single were mislabeled stating that the B-side was Jones the Rhythm. Footnote 1: Although this term is attributed to a line in Charley Patton’s Magnolia Blues [Paramount 12943] (9) it sounds to my ears more like a woman’s name where I hear Patton sing ‘Merrer’ (Mary ?). Ch. (featured in blues by Charley Patton, Bessie Smith, Kokomo Arnold, Lizzie Miles, Big Bill Broonzy, amongst several others. Negro spirituals, the blues, jazz, and so on were all ways for Black people to communicate in a special way only they could understand. This scenario is made quite clear in another of Gates’ recordings around the same time. They also felt that the work songs were a sign of their slaves' contentment and happiness. should be adjusted accordingly, with the bracketed appellation “sic’. Ah! Hoodoo doctors and the chanting preachers (Ibid. They cares nothin’ for the gospel light. Due for publication in early December, 2009. Gates get his influences? Effectively, the slave trade created the genre "Blues" music. father; father sold from mother an’ children. Here’s my hand, here’s my hand, here’s my hand; (Glory!) PART 3 – The ‘Original’ Crossroads, Crossings and the Blues. While on his initial version, (and his recording debut) Rev. (ch. You can imagine her holding her heart in chains during this dreary memory. Modal songs in the South and proto-blues This had been recorded several times in the old timey/hillbilly catalogue (135)  commencing in 1925. Lawdy, do remember me. This features the upbeat rhythm imparted by the Delta Boys and some of the most inspired(?) (Footnote 2) From Independence, Missouri, the state border, the 850-mile trail was by the time of the Santa Fe railroad project a well-defined route. But it won’t be long till my Jesus come, Kwan Yin’s entry reveals all animals “are sacred…but especially horses.” (47)   A point could be stretched for the inclusion of a fifth: Sacha Huarmi. “Such tribes as could not be enslaved successfully, as the Manyema of the upper Congo, were adopted as allies by Arab traders, and became themselves slave traders and raiders of the most inveterate and relentless character. You’ve got to go. This train is comin’. Ms. Peets discovered that it was general knowledge “some old women would stealthily disinter corpses in the cemetery for mysterious reasons.” (55) (Footnote 7) This led her to asking questions but “People wee [sic] evasive about the reasons –they merely expressed awe at the perpetrators’ stoutheartedness. Century. By his subsequent marriage to a Chickasaw girl he became entitled to citizenship in the Choctaw Nation. (120). Howell only includes a couple of verses on the record: My girl’s in trouble, The blues is neither African nor Islamic—rather, it’s an African American creation shaped by some of the most enduring contributions of West African Muslims to American culture. There’s some men – and some women; The next morning but one we started with this Negro trader upon that dreaded and despairing journey to the cotton fields of Georgia. whippoorwill, steamboat and train whistles, plantation, auction and church bells, street cries NB: take 1 remains unissued and the matrix heard was 59980-2 (79). J.M. Gon’ get me a fairy, I’d beat the train to the crossing and burn the trestle down. At the first of these more detailed sessions in or around the autumn of 1893, the quartet cut The Last Farewell [Edison cylinder 705]. Possibly the last pre-war recording to feature the crossing is a Library of  Congress side by ‘Big Boy’ simply titled Blues (see Railroadin’ Some. You’ll seek me down by the old gum tree, Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943 (B. Raise ‘er to my hand. Has all deeds an’ your wicked thoughts; (112)   The story is told by one J.L. In 1920, Mamie Smith was the first black woman to be recorded. (116)  Maybe the southern part of the town  Thomas referred to was where  the black section was located. of the day we left, and reached St. Louis the next Monday at 8 P.M.” (11)   After some time steaming down the Mississippi River without much interest (at least to Lincoln), he was suddenly confronted at St. Louis by a coffle of slaves. Sinner, you stand a-tremblin’ an’ you don’t know what to do; And when we’re moldering in the clay, His lengthy spoken introduction with occasional guitar to his version of Do Lord Remember Me (called Goodbye) is an invaluable insight into not only this particular song but also the often stark reality of slavery from the sharp end, in the southern states – the Peculiar Institution. It [the train] blowed for the crossroad, Field hollers She is a ‘great’ spirit venerated by Algeria’s Ouled Nail, a Berber tribe who are famed for their beautiful and independent dancers,” (49)    The Berbers in North Africa would have been involved in the sub-Saharan slave trade and their countless coffles.