See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"
Single by Blind Lemon Jefferson
B-side "Where Shall I Be"
Released 1927 (1927)
Format 10" 78 rpm record
Recorded October 1927
Genre Blues
Length 2:54
Label Paramount (Cat. no. 12585)
Writer(s) Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson singles chronology
"One Dime Blues"/ "Gone Dead on You"
(1927)
"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"
(1927)
"Lonesome House Blues"/ "Sunshine Special"
(1927)
"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"
Song by Bob Dylan from the album Bob Dylan
Released March 19, 1962
Recorded 1962
Genre Folk
Length 2:43
Label Columbia/Capitol (U.S.)
Writer Blind Lemon Jefferson
Bob Dylan track listing
Song to Woody
(12)
"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"
(13)

"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" is a blues song recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1927 that became "one of his most famous compositions".[1] Son House used the melody on his 1930 recording of "Mississippi County Farm Blues".[2]

The song was later covered by Bob Dylan on his eponymous debut album Bob Dylan. He would go on to record the song again with The Band on The Genuine Basement Tapes years later.

Other artists to cover the song include B. B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins (as "One Kind Favor"), Canned Heat (as "One Kind Favor" on Living the Blues), the Grateful Dead, Mike Bloomfield, Keiji Haino, Diamanda Galás, Meindert Talma & the Negroes, Lou Reed, Furry Lewis, Chrome Cranks, the Dream Syndicate, Dave Van Ronk, Hobart Smith, Mavis Staples, Martin Simpson, and Thelonious Monster. The British band Half Man Half Biscuit recorded a parody titled "See That My Bike's Kept Clean" on their 1997 album Voyage to the Bottom of the Road

References

  1. ^ Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. p. 469. ISBN 1557282528. 
  2. ^ Obrecht, Jas. Son House's Deep Mississippi Delta Blues. Jas Obrecht Music Archive. Retrieved 5-13-11