| "Statesboro Blues" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Blind Willie McTell | ||||
| A-side | "Three Women Blues" | |||
| Released | 1928 | |||
| Format | 78 RPM Record | |||
| Recorded | October 17, 1928, Atlanta, Georgia |
|||
| Genre | Piedmont blues | |||
| Length | 2:30 | |||
| Label | Victor | |||
| Writer(s) | Blind Willie McTell | |||
| Blind Willie McTell singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"Statesboro Blues" is a blues song in the key of D written by Blind Willie McTell; the title refers to the town of Statesboro, Georgia. Covered by many artists, the version by The Allman Brothers Band is especially notable and was ranked #9 by Rolling Stone in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. In 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ranked "Statesboro Blues" number 57 on its list of 100 Songs of the South.[1]
Contents |
The lyrics, a first-person narrative, appear to relate the story of a man pleading with a woman to let him in her house; the speaker calls himself "Papa McTell" in the first stanza ("Have you got the nerve to drive Papa McTell from your door?"). Throughout the song, the woman, addressed as "mama," is alternately pleaded with (to go with the speaker "up the country") and threatened ("When I leave this time, pretty mama, I'm going away to stay"). Throughout the non-linear narrative, the "Statesboro blues" are invoked—an unexplained condition from which the speaker and his entire family seem to be suffering ("I woke up this morning / Had them Statesboro blues / I looked over in the corner: grandma and grandpa had 'em too").[2] Later versions, such as the one played by The Allman Brothers Band, have shorter, simplified lyrics.
As with many blues lyrics, it can be difficult to establish rules for the narrative order of the stanzas. In the case of "Statesboro Blues," Richard Blaustein attempted a structural analysis of McTell's song in an approach influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss;[3] it is unclear whether his results are applicable to other blues songs also.[4]
McTell borrowed part of the lyrics from a 1923 Sippie Wallace recording of "Up the Country Blues," which was later popularized by Canned Heat as "Goin' up the Country."
Because of the song, rumor had it that McTell was born in Statesboro; he was, in fact, born in Thomson, Georgia, though in an interview he called Statesboro "my real home." McTell made the first recording of the song on Victor,[5] on October 17, 1928 (Victor #38001).[6] The eight sides he recorded for Victor, including "Statesboro Blues," were described as "superb examples of storytelling in music, coupled with dazzling guitar work."[7]
The song is included on two McTell compilations:[8]
The song has since been covered by many other artists, including John Mayall, Dave Van Ronk, Chris Smither, David Bromberg, Brooks Williams, Alice Stuart, Deep Purple and The Devil Makes Three.
Taj Mahal made a "wonderful modernized version"[6] on his eponymous 1968 debut album.[9] His arrangement is credited with inspiring The Allman Brothers Band.[10]
The most familiar version of the song is by The Allman Brothers Band,[11] as recorded at the Fillmore East in March 1971 and first released on the 1971 album At Fillmore East. This version is famous also for Duane Allman's slide guitar playing, which, as Rolling Stone would write years later, featured "the moaning and squealing opening licks [that] have given fans chills at live shows."[12]
Allman's slide riffs on "Statesboro Blues" have been analyzed and transcribed in guitar magazines many times over[13][14][15][16] and the tones of Allman and Dickey Betts's guitars on the song were hailed by Guitar Player as some of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time."[17] After Allman's death in a motorcycle accident later that year, the performance was included on the 1972 album Duane Allman: An Anthology. In 2008, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Allman Brothers Band's version of "Statesboro Blues" as #9 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.[12]
The song is still a staple of The Allman Brothers Band's live shows, now often with Derek Trucks on slide. Dickey Betts also continues to play the song live.[18]