Скачать или смотреть "Blue Ghost Blues" - Lonnie Johnson (1927)

Continuing on the Halloween theme this week... we have the excellent "Blue Ghost Blues" by Lonnie Johnson.

From the first line, you can tell it's gonna be a scary tale:

"MMmmm - I feel myself sinkin' down.
My body is freezin' I feel something cold creepin' around.
My windows is rattlin', my doorknob turnin' round and round.
This haunted house blues is killin' me - I feel myself sinkin' down."

A later verse seems to possibly indicate that the "blue ghost" perhaps has a more material presence:

"The blue ghost is got the house surrounded - Lord! And I can't get away
They got shotguns and pistols standin' all around my door.
They haunt me all night long so I can't sleep no more.
The blue ghost haunts me all night, the nightmare rides me all night long.
They worry me so in this haunted house, I wish'd I were dead and gone."

Johnson was a New Orleans jazzman who worked the riverboats with Charlie Creath out of St. Louis in the early 20s. In 1925 he won a blues contest and the prize was a contract with Okeh records - so he followed destiny and became a blues guitarist. His singing and playing made him one of the most popular Okeh artists of the late 20s.

Thankfully, he continued to also also play jazz guitar, recording with Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, Duke Ellington, and Eddie Lang, among others.

This was one of my first big wantlist records - which eluded me for years. Funny story - when I was new to 78 collecting, I bought a copy of this tune on the Decca label, only to find out that Lonnie had re-recorded this tune in the late 30s with piano and bass accompaniment. Same tune but something was missing. It took me a while longer to find this original Okeh recording.

Recorded on November 9, 1927.
Released as Okeh 8557

Credits:
Lonnie Johnson - guitar, vocals