The Regular Friday Post
Rando Lyrics: Doesn't have a vicious bone in her body Well, it ain't tasteful
Last week’s rando lyrics: The lyric, “But I still love you baby Although my heart's sore” is from "Dirty Work At The Crossroads”, a song written by Rick Ravon Darnell and performed by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown as Track 5 on the album “The Original Peacock Recordings”, featuring recordings of Mr. Brown’s works from the 1950s.
“Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's 1950s recordings fuse the energy of big-band horns, the shuffles and boogies of R&B, and his own white-hot guitar leads. Greatly influenced by fellow Texans Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker, Brown absorbed their smooth, melodic, single-string solo technique, but added a rough-edged intensity to his explosive style. The slow blues "Dirty Work at the Crossroads" added Jimmy McCracklin's rolling piano to Brown's bold and brash guitar work…” From an Amazon review by feature writer Marc Greilsamer.
(Ed. Although the lyrics of the song are mostly about a lover who is unfaithful, the title and phrase “dirty work at the crossroads” has a long history, both as an allusion to ancient folklore about the mystical and supernatural nature of “the crossroads”(>Link<), as well as more recent (18th century: >Link<) references and especially in American blues music as part of the legend surrounding Robert Johnson and his song “Crossroads” or “Cross Road Blues” >Link<)
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown: “Brown served in the military during World War II.[3] His professional music career began in 1945, playing drums in San Antonio, Texas.[5] He was given the nickname "Gatemouth" by a high school teacher who said he had a "voice like a gate".[1] His career was boosted when he attended a concert by T-Bone Walker in Don Robey's Bronze Peacock Houston nightclub in 1947;[1] Walker became ill, and Brown took up his guitar and quickly wrote and played "Gatemouth Boogie", to the delight of the audience.[6] >Link<
The writer behind the song, Rick Ravon Darnell, is a sort of forgotten gem. Interestingly he only gets credit for a few songs, and part of that may be due to confusion over songs written under his name. Originally he wrote as Ravon Darnell, and only later switched to Rick Darnell. Interesting fellow: >Link<
“Dirty Work At The Crossroads” Lyrics
[Chorus]
Dirty work at the crossroads
Lord what it's sad about it
Dirty work at the crossroads
Lord what it's sad about it
That's why you got my cryin'
And it's more that a heart can bounce
[Verse 1]
I know you didn't love me
But my best friend you did it though
I know you didn't love me
But my best friend you did it thought
But I still love you baby
Althought my heart's sore
[Instrumental]
[Chorus]
- Repeats as above to outro
Once Again: The “ME!” Section…..
What I’m Listening2: Just click the LINK >Crossroads and Blues<
I listen widely to songs across many genres - check out this playlist on Amazon Music - this feature doesn’t get much love, probably because I always leave it at the bottom of the page. Moved it up here today (Yes - AGAIN!). My conversation with Mika, The Cat is at the bottom today, yes again. 25 songs featuring music I like and it’s “public” so you should be able to access it even if you don’t subscribe to Amazon. Yes, it’s my petty little dig at Spotify for their perfidy in withholding royalties from artists like me, again….
Shameless Self Promotion Section:
My song is out! Link: “Long Road Back”click on link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even (boo, hiss) Spotify
The following is an editorial rant and reflects only the author’s personal opinions:
News update! Neil Young has returned his songs to Spotify, where he will receive all the royalties he is due, and some that rightfully belong to independent artists who produce legitimate music but don’t meet Spotify’s arbitrary and in my humble opinion, unlawful, threshold for distributing royalties. Spotify insists it just can’t tell the difference between an independent artist with legitimate songs and someone who produces 35 seconds of rain hitting a tin roof then sells it as a sleep aid. This may be because Spotify is mostly owned by the record labels who might not otherwise get the $1.50 or so that I’m due in royalties, cuz that’s the amount they really need just to stay solvent…(s).
Alternatively, maybe Spotify is just owned by assholes.
Thus endeth the rant.
Welcome to The Regular Friday post!
For Today
No “Song To Play” today. Is it the blues? Sorta, but if so, it’s mostly the “Gotta Get My Taxes Done, Before My Accountant Comes Callin’” Blues… (hey, Bob…soon, brother…)
Gotta get the taxes done, now (Gotta get done) Gotta get my taxes done, now (Gotta get done) Man name Bob on my trail, now (Baaaad man name Bob) Take ALL my hard earn money, if I don' get those taxes done...
Listening to some of the blues songs from the masters on this week’s playlist can definitely put you in the mood to hear more… or write your own…
Other Voices:
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Disclaimer Section
This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI, things I link to might though. -Michael Acoustic
*Exception: For the next few weeks at least I’ll be testing out a beta feature offered on Substack that produces an AI image based on a text input - the image of the week can be seen in the upper left corner of this post… (it’s not me in the pic, just sayin…)
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*Note: I want to make clear that I have no association with and receive no benefit of any kind from the company whose product I’m going to recommend here: I’ve been using Boveda humidity packs and holders for a couple of years. As I’ve mentioned I live in a somewhat mountainous region at an altitude of around 2000 ft ASL. Not Denver league, but not lowland either. Humidity is low most of the time and fluctuates a lot. So keeping my guitars healthy is important. I’ve used various humidity solutions in the past, these seem to work for me. FWIW
I’ll probably run this little blurb for a couple more weeks. One reason is that I’m sold on this as a way of protecting my guitars from humidity fluctuations that can result in cracked guitar tops, sides, bottoms and maybe even necks. Also - I recently bought a guitar off of Reverb and it shipped with a Boveda humidity pack in the case, and my favorite local guitar shop has them in all of the acoustic guitars hanging on the walls, even the ones that are customer guitars in for repairs. Again, I’m receiving no compensation, recognition or anything from the company and I’ll readily admit I think they’re pretty (maybe even very) pricey. But they work, so… cheaper than a cracked top at the soundhole (shudder) repair…
Some Links for today
(None of these result in compensation to me in any way, and I’m not endorsing any of them, but some of my readers may find them interesting)
From Blues Guitar Unleashed: BGU is just a great site for guitarists. Mr. Hamlin’s main fare is electric guitar and especially blues/jazz, but every guitarist will learn something…
Playing Behind Muting Fingers Yeah, I didn’t know what that meant either, but he explains it in the video…
From the Disc Makers Blog:
Your Music On CDs And LPs Aimed especially at indie artists (Yeah, it’s not like the labels need Disc Makers. But you do…).
Musical Directors What’s a musical director? Find out here…
Electronic Press Kits Unless your label is already taking care of this here’s how to do it (and let’s face it, if you’re signed to a label, you’re not even here reading this, you’re off spending that advance on stuff…).
From Carvin Audio:
Stereo Imaging And Spatial Effects I’m the first one to admit this is some advanced stuff and not for the faint of heart. But if you’re recording and mixing your own stuff you should probably know how to talk to your producer and audio mastering engineer. Or don’t and just, y’know, see how it goes, I guess….
From Acoustic Guitar Magazine:
Discover More On Guitar 12 ways to challenge yourself. Nobody’s gonna do it for ya… just sayin’.
From Songtown:
Melody And The Power Of Three It’s syllables. C’mon, we’ve talked about syllables on here before. These guys mean it!
Unleash Your Creativity Are you keeping yours on a leash? Let it out, let it breathe, let it run wild!
Thank You To Our New Subscribers!! This Week’s Conversation With Mika, the Cat:
So, this is new… Where I’m standing is a short hallway leading to a laundry room and pantry, and the door to the garage - she’s in the kitchen area blocking my way. No particular reason, sometimes a meow, mostly just daring me to walk past her without offering treats. I know she’s making Bambi eyes in this photo, but don’t believe it. She can be a vicious, spiteful, straight razor totin’ kitty when you’re between her and treats.
Mika: (in a Samuel L. Jackson,”Pulp Fiction” sort of way)…“Treats, human. Do you have them?”
Me: “…sigh…”
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic
“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”
Michael ... my brother introduced me to Gatemouth Brown many, many years ago ... probably in the early-90s?
Anyway, he and other members of my family are all blues aficionados. They saw Gatemouth perform at clubs in St. Louis (my hometown). They even traveled to Nashville to see him. Steve (my brother) still has a couple of Gatemouth's CDs.
It's neat to see you feature him here. Thanks!