Great Jim! Glad you used to get to play harp on Wednesday, because you don't get to play much with the harmonica club on Tues (he's always playing guitar or bass or something). I'll write more later, but I want to say that dude with the waxed moustache has an extremely awesome moustache. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
I'm shedding St James at the moment end had planned on posting it on the forum but this makes it hard to follow up. Kind of like when Christelle posted her "OLIVE summertime" day after I did... With the same backing track... :/
Great playing. Great singing. Great song! If you haven't heard Filip Jers/Primus motor version check it out! ---------- Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
It amazes me Jim, how you can sing so well sitting down, but I like how straight your sitting.
So now, who is the dude with the awesome moustache? He don't want FOP, he's a Dapper Dan man! Nobody has awesome moustaches like that anymore - he looks like he stepped off a World War I recruitment poster. I would totally have one like that myself, but that and mutton chops happens to be where Mrs. Payne draws the line.
I might, might, be able to get down there Tuesday night. Gonna try.
Folks, Jim does have some chops. I was down at the Harmonicollege campfire jam. I had consumed an undisclosed number of beers. Jim had played bass fiddle all evening - such is his devotion to the harmonica club, he almost never gets to play harmonica. It was sometime after midnight, everybody had gone to bed and it was just me and Jim by the campfire. So I played guitar for him and sang, he played harp. He's was working some chops. I told him so and he said he was just playing scales. Bullshit. He's a talented musician.
Very nice. I've St. James a few times at open mic on my Fm harp. I can't get my band to play it though. They said we already have too many depressing songs. :)
I'm always amazed at how many different versions of the lyrics there are. I think I like this set the best of any I've heard.
Yes, there are MANY version of the lyrics, and a handful of chord progressions to the same song. When I decided to learn this song I searched out the lyrics. After finding a few, I decided I did not like any of them. The song was not about "St James" at all. It was more about "The Gambler's Blues", which is the tune's alternate name. So I gathered what words I found here and there, reworded a few, added a few new lines and verses, and made a "tragic love story song". I claim this as my own rendition of this famous song.
@aussiesucker, it was loads of fun. Saddly, too many musicians kept showing up for the fun, until it got too crowded, too noisey, and too loud. The band leader pulled the plug on guest musicians to their practice. I still go, but just to listen.
@dave The man with the fine moustache and his wife are in their 90's. Their last name is Scarr. They come regularly to listen to The 1937 Flood practice and are a prized fans of the group.
--------- theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
Last Edited by on Jun 05, 2012 5:20 AM
This one is my favorite of the St. James Infirmary family: "reached down for my razor and then we knocked around, but when I pulled my pistol, I quickly smote him down." Awesome lyrics.
Nice version Jim, great singing and playing. I wish I had a bunch of musicians like that to back me up.
I humbly re-submit my own original re-working of the lyrics (I wrote these early last fall); some new verses and re-ordered the lyrics I liked from other versions. This recording was one of my entries in the BYBO3 challenge on this forum from last fall. The harp playing is not stellar, and it was my singing debut on this forum. I think I could do it much better now, and some back-up musicians would help too. ----------
Jim, I'd been thinking of doing the same thing, for pretty much the same reason.
Baba Blues has a nice version too. I think I first version I heard though was Louis Armstrong.
From Wikipedia- a list of some people who've covered it:
James Booker Duke Ellington Kermit Ruffins King Oliver Jerry Reed Artie Shaw Lead Belly Big Mama Thornton Jack Teagarden Billie Holiday Cassandra Wilson Stan Kenton Josh White Lou Rawls Bobby Bland Ramblin' Jack Elliott Doc Watson Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie Dave Van Ronk "Spider" John Koerner Janis Joplin The Doors Paul Butterfield The Animals The Standells The White Stripes the Stray Cats the Tarbox Ramblers Snooks Eaglin Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Tom Jones with Jools Holland
Jazz guitarists Marc Ribot and Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones, and pianist Allen Toussaint have recorded instrumental versions.
Cab Calloway can be seen singing it and dancing a slide dance in the Betty Boop cartoon Snow White. His performance was filmed, then transferred using rotoscoping. The Bing Crosby musical Birth of the Blues featured the song in 1941. Bob Dylan used the melody in his song "Blind Willie McTell" (released on Bootleg Series, Volumes 1–3), named for blues singer Blind Willie McTell (who had recorded a version under the title "Dying Crapshooter's Blues"); the song makes reference to the St. James Hotel in Minneapolis. Live versions appear on Joe Cocker's albums Joe Cocker (1972), and Live in L.A. (1976). The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo performed the song regularly on their tours of the US in the early 1970s. In November 1975, Lily Tomlin performed the song with Howard Shore and His All-Nurse Band on NBC's Saturday Night. Paul Shaffer was the piano player. In 2002, the song appeared in Osamu Tezuka's anime film Metropolis as performed by Atsushi Kimura. Van Morrison recorded a rendition on the 2003 Grammy-nominated album, What's Wrong with This Picture? and a live version on the limited edition album, Live at Austin City Limits Festival (2006). Eric Clapton and Dr. John performed the song during a 1996 concert. Arlo Guthrie performed it on NPR's Talk of the Nation on November 14, 2001. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band performed it at the 2010 Newport Folk Festival (recorded by NPR). Robert Crumb released a version on a CD included in the R. Crumb Handbook. Hugh Laurie recorded the song in 2011 on the album Let Them Talk adding an extended intro which sampled the songs "House of the Rising Sun" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want". In February 2012, Trombone Shorty and Booker T. Jones performed an instrumental version as the opening number of the "Red, White, and Blues" concert at the White House.
How's that for a standard! I'm always amazed how many wonderful places this song can be taken. This is the first version that I think I really like the entire lyric.
Jim: You have a cool scene going on down there. I cherish my time with your group. If you need spontobeat show this summer let me know. Walter
PS: I see mark ribot did a version. Mark and I grew up in the same town/same schools, and are the same age. I remember jaming with him in the local bar and wondering- where will this guy end up?
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Nate, Jimmie Rodgers (brakeman Jimmie, not the other 2) did a song called "Gamblers Blues" that's close enough to St. James maybe he could make that list. Jimmie, of course, is always on my list of awesomeness. So are you and Jim Rumbaugh. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
@mr so Nice set of lyrics, I may steal some or do a slight re-write, like: So I sat down there by my woman, and I held real close to her hand, and as I felt her grip lighten, she passed to the promised land.
@ nate thanks for the good words on the lyrics
@ nacoran That's quite a list of performers. I guess there always room for one more.
