One accurate version. Back in the early ’60s, Spottswood concentrated on the blues, and he inspired an entire generation of Washington blues fanatics. “Pretty women in Avalon, want me there all the time.” Maps of the Mississippi Delta failed to show the town, but in February 1963, Hoskins found it on an antiquated road atlas. The couple moved to Bentonia, near James’ birthplace, where he cut timber and eked out a living. Now those conjuring powers could do him little good. After leaving Washington, he put out three more records. James improvised the words on the spot after the engineer requested a “gun song.” Those lyrics still pack a wallop, even by the standards of gangsta rappers: All the doctors in Wisconsin sure won’t help her none. A piano song, “22-20 Blues,” combined murderous lyrics with masterful musicianship. “Skippy,” a precocious child, was versed on guitar and piano well before his teens. Stream ad-free with Amazon Music Unlimited on mobile, desktop, and tablet. But “Devil” and “22-20” were his most popular. This song is a cover of "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" by Skip James. James was born near Bentonia, Mississippi. Music Hard Time Killing Floor Blues Lyrics: Hard time here and everywhere you go / Times is harder than ever been before / And the people are driftin' from door to door / Can't find no heaven, I … Work Here The rest is history, or at least a footnote. James would eventually follow his father’s wayward lead, spending the ’20s rambling the South. Accordingly, Duck is called the "last of the Bentonia Bluesmen."[17]. In a way, James’ story is the truest story of the blues: He led an open wound of a life, and all he got for it was minor-league, post-mortem stardom. We’re back to the 10 Essential Delta Blues series today with another great song, Skip James’ “Hard Times Killing Floor.” & having said that, I have to immediately mention some issues with including the song in the series! The old musician eased into his repertoire as though it were a comfortable pair of overalls. (Ironically, James’ song was itself a cover of sorts: He had transformed a tepid Tin Pan Alley tune, “I’m So Tired,” into a delirious guitar-picking tour de force.). But that spring, James seemed to become a new man. Well, no one came to visit him in his sickbed—no one except the strangers who’d driven 3,000 miles to worship him. Now he’d lost the ultimate proof of his manliness in the most ignominious way. One of the legendary blues songs that has been covered many times is Skip James - "Hard Time Killing Floor" (Blues)... Hard time here and everywhere you go Times is harder than ever been before And the people are driftin' from door to door Can't find no heaven, I don't care where they go Hear me tell you people, just before I go For a while, he rarely left the apartment. This item: Hard Time Killing Floor Blues by Skip James Audio CD $9.98. Sickbed Blues #3. Humbled, James composed a new song, “Washington D.C. Hospital Blues.” The bluesman who’d once embraced damnation in “Devil Got My Woman” now sang as a lowly supplicant, grateful for the life-saving medical care he received. They sold in the hundreds, a respectable showing during the Depression, and were heard by black record buyers throughout the South—including a young guitarist named Robert Johnson. The Ontario audience had adopted Hurt as its “patriarchal hippie,” and he responded with enthusiasm, playfully bantering with his new white audience. Calt asserts these writers failed to see that in the case of Bentonia bluesman Jack Owens, "the 'tradition' he bore primarily consisted of musical scraps from James' table". Hard Time Killing Floor Blues This song is by Chris Thomas King and appears on the movie soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou? Guitar Tabs Universe He sounded like someone possessed, a one-man Southern Gothic drama. “Skip was kind of an appealing rascal,” she remembers. During the late summer, James logged his first recording session since the ’30s. But James’ next song, his disheartening chronicle of the Depression, “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” stunned the hushed audience, composed mostly of folkies more used to grooving to the warm sounds of songsters like Hurt. Even as James’ depression lifted, the ritual continued. [4] In July 1964, James and other rediscovered musicians appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. It was the summer of 1964, and three California college students—led by Washington-born John Fahey—had ventured into the Deep South not as civil rights activists, but as blues fanatics in search of their hero. He now seeks used classical albums, which he trades for cash. James had skipped out of Washington, leaving her for another woman. Johnson embodied a kind of Delta Dr. Faustus, and his celebrated iniquities earned him rock ‘n’ roll street credibility with an entirely new generation of listeners. James, buoyed by the enthusiastic reception at Newport, now tried to accomplish the same. [3] His 1931 records are considered idiosyncratic among prewar blues recordings and formed the basis of his reputation as a musician. During the two-day session, James would record two dozen other songs, including the salacious “Special Rider Blues,” the morbid “Little Cow and Calf Is Gonna Die Blues,” and the apocalyptic “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” which were eventually issued as Paramount 78s. We started the year with 302 members. In summer ’65, biographer Calt visited the couple’s apartment. Cherry Ball Blues #9. Spottswood’s coterie began to reach beyond his collection. “Skip’s got mean things on his mind.’ ” Then she asked Calt to buy her a bottle of Scotch, which he did. According to Calt, the "rediscovery" of both James and Son House at virtually the same time was the start of the blues revival in the United States. This year, Spin magazine rediscovered Fahey in an article called “The Persecutions and Resurrections of Blind Joe Death,” a reference to Fahey’s nom de guitar. Spottswood believes that James felt no qualms about returning to the blues, unlike the Rev. “I mean, we were young, and we thought, “Wow, mind over matter.’ ”. Hurt—who’d never considered himself a bluesman to begin with—presented material already familiar to the crowd, which knew his 1928 tunes from a popular Folkways compilation, Anthology of American Folk Music. “It put you in mind of sitting in a corner on the backs of your heels, rocking back and forth, moaning,” says Talbot. Remembers Louisa, “He was sort of swaggering around in those shorts, which was in the old way of thinking—remember when this was back in the ’60s—an uppity thing to do.” James was feeling strong again, strong enough to show the devil in himself. City Lights: Your weekly guide to artsy goings-on, hitting your inbox Thursdays and Sundays. Events: A heads up about City Paper events, from panels to parties. His record collection attracted fellow students, aspiring musicians, and budding beatniks, all of whom hung out at Spottswood’s house in Takoma Park, analyzing the guitar playing on obscure 78s and arguing about who was the best bluesman. [1] His father was a bootlegger who reformed and became a preacher. [3] James was later an ordained minister in Baptist and Methodist churches, but the extent of his involvement in religious activities is unknown. The Yazoo label released a CD of his 1931 classics, Complete Early Recordings; distributor Shanachie reports that it’s already sold several thousand copies. “At the time, I didn’t have a very good car,” he remembers. “He was suffering from pain, but he was very vague about the location and the nature of it. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1931 Shellac release of Cherry Ball Blues / Hard Time Killing Floor Blues on Discogs. She remembers “a mauve flower with scalloped edges.”, “Then he said to me rather proudly, “I say to these young doctors, This would be really sad for someone your age.’ Basically he was saying he’d done it all. Tom Hoskins was the first of Spottswood’s followers to find one of the group’s disappeared idols—but that idol was not Skip James. Cypress Grove Blues #10. Download original Guitar Pro tab. [citation needed], James is sometimes associated with the Bentonia School, which is either a subgenre of blues music or a style of playing it. But just now, another matter seemed more pressing. “Of course, ol’ John would just have that gentle sort of smile and say, “Boy, that Skippy sure can finger pick.’ ”. The students worshiped the “lost” bluesman—among their idols, the 62-year-old James ranked as the most mysterious and most revered. He married Lorenzo Meeks on his deathbed. Read about Hard Times Killing Floor Blues by Little Albert and see the artwork, lyrics and similar artists. Learn & play tab for lead guitar with free online tab player, speed control and loop. James survived his misspent youth, and the story of his later years provides plenty more of the kind of misery that fueled his music. On a winter night in 1931, he’d boarded a segregated train to Grafton, Wis. Claiming that Hurt crammed too many notes into his finger picking, James lectured on “wasted motion,” a phrase he’d picked up from his father’s books. James had often been curt with his rough, “country” wife. The slow, mournful dirge hooked Spottswood. He worked on road construction and levee-building crews in Mississippi in the early 1920s and wrote what is perhaps his earliest song, "Illinois Blues", about his experiences as a laborer. Holmes learned to play in this particular style directly from Henry Stuckey, who reportedly taught James and Owens himself. James now sported Bermuda shorts and casual shirts. Hard Time Killing Floor Blues Tab by Soggy Bottom Boys. “He had a mercurial personality,” remembers Spottswood. (The students had already been mistaken once that summer for civil rights workers, and had spent a night in jail.) James left behind no rosy memories of the South, and except for his wife (who would soon join him up North), no family to speak of. Gene Rosenthal, a young latecomer to the blues cult, hosted the session in his parents’ basement. and included on the soundtrack album. Previously unreleased performances continue to be found and released but have been left largely unexplained, sometimes hours' worth at a time. As a youth, James heard local musicians, such as Henry Stuckey, from whom he learned to play the guitar, and the brothers Charlie and Jesse Sims. Newsweek and Time paid their respects. “Unlike Hurt, he wasn’t a happy person, and when he drank he would become vicious.”. She followed directions to a row house near Union Station, where the man lived in a second-floor apartment. At first, as the car barreled north toward Washington, D.C., the old blues singer pestered the driver with questions, demanding to know the name of every river, creek, and lake they crossed. A small but brawny man, he didn’t back down from confrontations; guns (like the Colt revolver he often carried) figured as prominently in his life as guitars. Fahey had grown up in Takoma Park; after Spottswood played him a Blind Willie Johnson 78, he was converted to country blues. James figured that after he regained his health, he could focus on his new career and become a blues star. Calt describes the song: “No blues pianist has ever displayed the arresting variety of instrumental phrases he uncorks after every vocal line of “22-20,’ which is probably the most impromptu, improvised effort found in blues recording.” In fact, Calt notes that the artsy Kronos Quartet covered it in the ’80s, but the classically trained musicians “could not capture the nuances” of the original. Louisa remembers that when she first visited James in the hospital, she found him lying on his bed, the white sheet pulled over his head like a funeral shroud. Few can resist the legend that he sold his soul to the devil, was poisoned by a jealous lover, and died a young genius’s death. Calt’s exhaustive biography sheds light on James’ little-known early life, previously documented in only a few paragraphs of obscure anthologies’ liner notes. Intrigued by a macabre title—Hard Time Killing Floor Blues—he asked the shop’s owner to play a nearly pristine 78 with a Paramount label. Film/TV Louisa Spottswood, now divorced and living in Philadelphia, recalls the almost Victorian manner in which James explained his problem. During jam sessions, James spiked his playing with complicated riffs and chord changes in an attempt to sabotage Hurt, who dutifully tried to keep up. He said, “No, but one night I was over at Benny Simmons’ barbershop, and this crazy old man came in drunk and claimed he used to make records with piano and guitar up North’….That had to be him.”. Soccer In a chilling couplet from his new song, “Sick Bed Blues,” he showed that he was only too aware that modern medicine had already made its final diagnosis: The doctor walked away, mumbling very low, Saying, “He may get better, but he’ll never be well no mo’.”. Spottswood began to see the many sides of his houseguest. In the hospital, one of the young admirers offered him a guitar; James no longer owned one. An unreleased session tape reveals James angrily pounding the piano to drown out Hurt’s earnest—if ludicrously out-of-sync—accompaniment. Hoskins, a novice guitar player, preferred sweeter, more polished music than that of James and Johnson. Like Hurt, James stayed for a few weeks at the Spottswood home until he could find an apartment of his own. "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" Hard times are here and everywhere you go Times are harder than ever been before Ohh ohhh ahhh Ohh ohhh ahhh People are driftin' from door to door Can't find no heaven, I don't care where they go Ohh ohhh ahhh Ohh ohhh … James' song "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" was featured in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? Louisa Spottswood and her whippet often visited the ailing bluesman. When Spottswood asked the newly enfranchised Hurt who he’d support in the ’64 election, the affable 72-year-old meekly replied that he didn’t want to anger anyone: “If I vote for Mr. Johnson, then Mr. Goldwater gonna be unhappy. Undaunted, Hoskins stuck out his hand and said, “Hey, John, my name’s Tom, and I’m from Washington, D.C., and I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”. When the pandemic came, our readers stepped up. “If he had been raised in different circumstances and had some level of academic training, he could have been an original thinker in any number of fields. But residents, if they remembered James at all, said he’d left years ago. a re-issue of Skip James - Hard Time Killing Floor Blues with different artwork, which was itself a re-issue of Skip James - Greatest Of The Delta Blues Singers, with bonus-tracks (08-11) and new artwork Hockey Director Martin Scorsese—who’s already depicted Jesus on celluloid—plans a biographical film about Johnson. Chords Diagrams. Catfish Blues. “Skip would play harder music to show that he was a better artist than John, or to try to show John up,” recalls Talbot. But in the state capital of Jackson, James found his real musical education. Freelancers Guide “He pissed all over me trying to get out of the car,” remembers Fahey. I’ll take my 22-20—I’ll cut her half in two. Esquire headlined an Oct. 1990 article on the Johnson cult “SATAN, NOW ON CD.”. Once there, he chafed at medical opinion. But what about the other masters of the genre? His father disapproved of James’ blues-singing past. Fantastic song, as is the whole soundtrack. There, Hoskins asked a pair of elderly men if they knew a blues singer named John Hurt. Meeks died in 1977, and the couple are buried under a single tombstone in Philadelphia. In early 1931, James auditioned for the record shop owner and talent scout H. C. Speir in Jackson, Mississippi. Their last meeting had been at the ’67 Folk Life Festival in Washington, when the singer’s healthy plumpness had surprised Spottswood: “I still had this vision of him as a gaunt, gray-haired guy with a little bit of a stoop and really intense glare.”. “ “I’m sick,’ she blubbered. His cancer continued to spread, and in late ’68, doctors removed his testicles and the remains of his penis. He believed that he’d whipped his cancer, and put weight on his emaciated frame. He didn’t tell feel-good stories between feel-good songs; instead, James performed without patter, distilling his life’s miseries into his music. He packed a shabby old suitcase, and donned a dark suit and preacher’s hat. Other commentators have groped to describe James’ music. But James earned little money from those records. Postal Service, which airbrushed the stamp portrait of Johnson to eradicate the cigarette that hung defiantly from his mouth. Dick Spottswood’s wife, Louisa, became James’ fast friend. James at first refused, vowing to endure the agony though the doctors told him he couldn’t imagine the torment ahead if he postponed the procedure. “Skippy expected hero worship, which he pretty much got from most everybody, but Fahey was a pretty arrogant person.”, Fahey laughs sarcastically, remembering that James couldn’t pay his hospital or rent bills. James subsequently recorded for Takoma Records, Melodeon Records, and Vanguard Records and performed at various engagements until his death from cancer in 1969. That summer, Berkeley student John Fahey embarked on his cross-country car trip to find James. Like rabid jazz collectors before them, some of the younger blues converts road-tripped throughout the South, canvassing black neighborhoods for old 78s. Calt’s book traces the next three decades of James’ “lost years,” an extraordinary odyssey throughout the Deep South. Distrustful of the diagnosis back in the Mississippi hospital—the word “cancer” was whispered in a hushed tone—James had his own ideas about the bad mojo that was ailing him. Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues #4. [10] Because James had not been filmed before the 1960s, Keith B. “[I] found Mable alone, sitting in a darkened room,” Calt writes. Theater, Football One night at the Ontario, he caused a scene when he saw her dancing with one of the beatniks, Ed Denson. Strangely, Fahey’s own career would echo James’. Skip James’ mythos is less compact than Johnson’s. [8] Only 15 copies of James' original shellac 78 recordings are still in existence, and have become extremely sought after by collectors like John Tefteller. (Genes, Rosenthal’s label, has just released this session on a new CD, She Lyin’.) In 1991, the song was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recordings" category. During James’ previous convalescence, young worshipers had surrounded his previous sickbed, and Newsweek had come calling. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. He never made it out of Philadelphia. The slow, mournful dirge hooked Spottswood. Spottswood found James fascinating and enigmatic, and judged that his very presence was historic: “It was like the second coming having Skip here.”, James was more than an atypical bluesman; he was atypical, period. He bought that record for $1 (its only blemishes were crayon marks on the label), and then nabbed another, more worn-out record by the same singer for only 60 cents. Will you join them? Born in 1902, James was raised on a plantation on the edge of the Mississippi Delta, near a town called Bentonia. In the mid-’40s, odd-job wanderings brought James to an Alabama mining camp, where he married the camp cook, Mable. 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