Walkin' Blues
| "Walking Blues" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Son House | |
| Released | 1985 |
| Format | Paramount test pressing |
| Recorded | Grafton, Wisconsin, May 28, 1930 |
| Genre | Blues |
| Length | 2:54 |
| Writer(s) | Son House |
"Walkin' Blues" or "Walking Blues" is a blues standard written and recorded by American Delta blues musician Son House in 1930. Although unissued at the time, it was part of House's repertoire and other musicians, including Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, adapted the song and recorded their own versions.
Besides "Walking Blues", Johnson's 1936 rendition incorporates melodic and rhythmic elements from House's "My Black Mama" (which House also used for his "Death Letter") and slide guitar techniques Johnson learned from House. In 1941, Waters recorded the song with some different lyrics as "Country Blues" in his first field recording session for Alan Lomax. It served as the basis for his first charting song, "(I Feel Like) Going Home", for Chess Records in 1948. He later recorded "Walkin' Blues" with lyrics closer to House's and Johnson's for his first single, released by Chess in 1950. Various musicians have recorded the song over the years, usually as an electric ensemble piece.
Several songs with the title "Walking Blues" were recorded before 1930 but are not related to House's song. Also, the lyrics "woke up this morning feeling down to my shoes" and "I got the [epithet] blues" were used in early blues songs. Son House combined these to make the couplet he used for his 1930 Paramount Records recording session. Paramount made a test pressing, which was unissued and lost until 1985, that incorporated the couplet in the usual blues structure (with the first line repeated):
I woke up this morning, feeling round for my shoes
I got up this morning, feeling round for my shoes
You know by that, people, I must have got the walking blues
In 1941, House performed a different "Walking Blues" accompanied by Willie Brown, Fiddling Joe Martin, and Leroy Williams, recorded by Alan Lomax and John Work for the Library of Congress/Fisk University Mississippi Delta Collection. The session made a great impression on Lomax, which he attempted to describe many years later in The Land Where the Blues Began. No other verse of this song shares the walking theme, the melody is different, and the verse structure is very different (the whole couplet is repeated):
...
Wikipedia