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From: eeeeennnnnn
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  • Excuse my ignorance, but did Robert write this?

  • This The Real Deal ... A Hard Workin' Man's Way Of Talkin; To God .. Gospel .. They Call It The Blues ... And May God Bless All Those Who Keep It Alive ! Jojo Taylor

  • Thinking of Alan White ("Blind Owl") of Canned Heat when I hear this, yes siree, the real folk blues! (Don't forget to BOOGIE, hmmm, tasty!

  • Want this played at my funeral.

  • Roots of America

  • roots , muy cierto ...,

  • That guitar interlude gives me chills every time..

  • this is definitely the tune to devil got my woman with minor changes.

  • When I hear this song I feel as though I am communing with my long-late ancestors. Thank you so much for posting. Music of the gods. In other words, divine.

  • YAZOOOO!

  • does this sound really similar to devil got my woman, or is it just me?

  • @distortion896 Its not just you, when the first chords began to play I thought it was a mislabeled video.

  • @distortion896 it sound like it to me  and @lucydoris

  • @brohmanski

    No.

  • simples como tudo é;não dificulte!

  • the pictures in this montage are good! well done whoever made it

  • there are 4 deaf people in the world

  • God Bless all of you who love this stuff...it means that you have soul. I have the same soul, this stuff is moving, and so much better than what the world and its music have become...keep the old blue flowing....

  • Skip was one of the best Country Bluesmen, imo.

  • I can bet that Blind Owl was majorly influenced by Skip James ;)

  • @NFNitro ....so...you never heard Henry Thomas?

  • fuck - love the video ending! was that deliberate??

  • I couldn't care less who influenced who, or who's back Eric Clapton stood on to make millions. Clapton's Cream remake of I'm So Glad is a travesty... No one played like Skip James, used the tunings he did at the time, or had his insane intensity of suffering and anger.

  • @muhrvis too true.skip james was a

    brilliant singer, song writer,guitarist and

    he played some piano.

  • Amazing pictures. I find this time-era in America very fascinating.

  • y tmbn me influyen

    ke buena musica

    n_____n

  • yeah james influenced johnson who influenced john lee hooker who influenced bb king ray charles and eric clapton i belive that blues music is good anyways i mean if u listin to the slow blues music youll eventually feel the meaning of it

  • The picture at 1:55 on the left is mississippi john hurt right?

  • @nvanl yup

  • The pseudo-intellectuals of youtube...

  • my favorite skip james song

  • WOW I LOVE THIS POWERFUL!;)

  • Oh my! Skip James!! If I had one thousandth the talent this brilliant man had . . . I would be a damned cool cat . . .

  • Blues is the first joy's expression of american slaves, and not only one: in general, is the win of life against all illiberal and depressive conditions, same when sing of that wrong existence...

  • Blues is the first joy's expression of american slaves, and not only one: in general, is the win of life against all illiberal and depressive conditions, same when sing of that wrong existence...

  • slavemusic

  • Can anyone tell me what the tuning is on this? Thanks.

  • @karmathondrup I think he's using a open D minor (DADFAD) on this one. Whatever the case may be the songs definitely in the key of D.

  • Heh. Clutch also has a song called Cypress Grove

  • GREAT video. This music reached right into my brain and stopped me cold.

  • Love the way he sings this song so much, this whole song is eerie with a feeling of the old days. Definitely a keeper

  • So this is where Clutch got their song name

  • @Hossflex If you type in Neil fallon on you tube there is an acoustic version of Neil doing Regulator where he references Skip James, but he doesn't play the song he is talking about in the video and it's not on you tube as far as I have seen. would love to hear it..the vid that is on has people talking thru the whole thing but it's still worth a listen...

  • This is Skip James. He was awesome. He played in tunings and voicings that hardly anyone else used. Why does Robert Johnson have to be brought into any blues discussion?

  • @muhrvis because robert johnson was amazing

  • @HelloIzEveryone so was Skip James and Johnson would agree...Skip influenced Johnson among others read the comments below.

  • @DoctorSess but it's like your denying robert johnson's amazingness

  • not at all. Johson was a legend but its like YOU are denying Skip and others "amazingness" Skip James and the others came first, without people like Son House Robert prolly would never have made all the legendary songs he did...not trying to take anything away from Johnson, just dont take away from the others. thats the point.

  • without people like Skip James* (Son House as well)

  • @DoctorSess alright

  • Robert Johnson was most influenced by Willie Brown, Son House, Charley Patton, and Lonnie Johnson, all of whom were local musicians in the Clarksdale/Greenwood area. He especially liked Lonnie Johson and often falsely claimed to be Lonnie's brother. There was also a local unrecorded guitar player named Ike Zinneman who spent a year mentoring Robert. Son House said Robert Johnson was a musical laughingstock before Robert spent a year under the tutelage of Ike Zinneman.

  • Yep, that's what I've heard, too. But that doesn't change the fact that Johnson became a blazing player nevertheless. I mean, a funky cat is and remains a funky cat even though there have been, are and will be other cats just as funky around. Personally, I hate putting good players down with "they were merely influenced by this-and-that". It's good, of course, to bring up overshadowed greats, but I think that can as well be done without shunning those perhaps more reputated.

  • Don't forget Peetie Wheatstraw...

  • @NunzOnDrugs He was heavily influenced by Scrapper Blackwell and James Arnold as well - he took a lot of his guitar style from Scrapper.

  • @NunzOnDrugs If influenced by the likes you have mentioned, even then, all Musicians record music that has spectated all with these characters left and right. A man, this man 80's years ago, has played infinitude music which new and old in duration plays forever: do you listen?

  • Robert Johnson was definitely influenced by Skip James as well as Charlie Patton, Son House and Lonnie Johnson. He was one of the first recorded Delta blues men to learn his craft from recordings of his predecessors.

  • 1:51 thats Mississippi John Hurt settin' there listnin'

  • Monoculture cropping, crazy way to farm. Looks like hard work!

  • Johnson grew up hearing skip and blind lemon Johnson.Not infuenced?

  • Just because he recorded before Johnson doesn't mean Johnson was influenced by him.

    I can name anything 6 years before I started recording but that doesn't influence me. Son House is more of what you all might be looking for as an influence on Robert.

  • No chance, there is so much of James in Robert, he also said that he was influenced by him.

  • Yes Canned Heat I agree!

  • I paid my child support

    this week, with my 7 th grade education

    why can you not leave me alone

    aint he 18 yet

    when will you leave me darlin alone

    Dr ruths rifle

  • Concupiscence

  • Good one, you can hear the influence of Robert Johnson in this. I'm half way thinking Johnson didn't die, but just changed his name. Thanks for posting.

  • Other way around.

  • Skip James influenced Robert Johnson, not the other way around. James was 9 years older than Johnson and recorded this song 5 years before Johnson recorded anything.

  • Robert Johnson just gives me the heebee-jeebies.

  • @wbdeford I thought it was Son House that Robert Johnson was influenced by.

    Check yurr sources.

  • @likelionsdo93 Robert Johnson was influenced by the music of lots of people, including both Son House and Skip James.

  • This was recorded 6 years before Johnson started recording.

  • intro sounds a lot like devil got my woman

  • almost exactly!

  • You can really hear where Canned Heat found their sound. This is just great.

  • I'd just like to thank one of my favorite bands for, introducing me to Skip James. Thank you Clutch, and Neil Fallon.

  • Thing about Skip James, you can feel like a ghost is singing to you if you are in just that mood. It can be scary and beautiful at the same time.

  • Me too, today is my first time hearing his music. In case you havent heard it already check out hard time killin floor.

  • Damn... thanks for posting this..... just starting to get into Skip....been asleep for too long I guess......anyways... hope all you other blues men have a great weekend and peace

  • I'm gonna get a Skip James album soon, I love Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues and Devil Got My Woman. Soooooo chilled out man. I like the twang he picks on his guitar, it's so distinctive and I've only heard a handful of songs lol!

  • Skip James has the most incredible voice of any bluesman I've ever heard...

  • i suffer but also I try to look at the bright side of life. Always look at the......Anyhow, I love this. these guys had the right idea to let their emotion come through the guitar. listening and playing are great ways to get the blues off your chest.

  • i would like to

  • Thank you for posting this tune and these impressive pictures.

  • this is as good as it gets

  • You have misconstrued my comment. You have taken a general comment, and took it rather personal.

  • Missed Hendrix, saw Skip James, Fred McDowell, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb. Muddy several times, once in a black club (midnite-7am show), Hound Dog T, I think, JB Hutto & the Hawks. Howlin' Wolf, BB King a few times, met Son House (played his guitar)+ lots of guys who are still around. I'm 63 now and some of those memories are a bit blurry. Wish I'd seen Hendrix , saw Cream instead though. Blues Forever!

  • Comment removed

  • what was son houses guitar like to play!? buckled neck and high action i guess? :D

  • Wow, that was a long time ago. As I recall the neck was ok and the action wasn't too high. Had that classic National sound. My friend (Shaun Reynolds) did an amazing multi-dimensional drawing for the show poster. If I can find a way to post it I surely will. Thanks for the reply

  • I'm English, never been to the delta - but these photos are amazing. Powerful stuff.

  • Honestly Mr Barras, a lot of the Delta still looks like it does in the pictures. It is utterly amazing. Ome towns are deserted and are left largly in tact. And the country is still the country with shacks and rows of cotton, soybeans, and other crops. It makes you appreciate many things in life by seeing it for yourself

  • I'll have to pay it a visit.

  • ya thts exactly how the carolina country side is....its beautiful

  • goin' down for hoodoo..

  • Didn't Cream cover one of his songs? "I'm So Glad"? I really regret I didn't know the original at the time.

  • yes cream did cover his song..

    somehwere i remember reading that skip didnt like the cover and dismissed it

  • Saw Skip James in DC about '63 at the Folk Life Festival on the mall. Muddy, Mance Lipscomb and a lot of the long gone greats played at it. Not likely we'll see anything like that again.

  • this gives me goosebumps

  • me too! its has just an eerie soulful ring. i really can't stop listening to it though

  • IMO; Cannot fill the shoes of these here original bluesmen of the south... they aint no dang sharecropper land-owner/bossman no-more... "thank God!"

    You juss not gonna git inner turmoil, gut wrenching pain like they did in those days... poverty, beatings, and subjugation the fuel that drove these here bluesmen to write and sing like the did...!!!

    They is a message in these here old blues tunes if'n y'all juss listen... just you LISTEN fer a spell!

  • This is what the blues is. All of the rest, is utter shit.

  • Who Are Going To Fill There Shoes (Buddy Guy)

  • I hope somebody actualy figures out how to create similar blues songs in this day and age because this kelly joe phelps guy isnt cuttin it for me. I hope ppl like Buddy guy and (dont remember his name, stage name is Elmore James Jr or something) Elmore James's son can pick up the slack. maybe it only gets like that when you wait till you're much older to pLay that good. cos right now, at 26, I dont see much hope for the blues. there need be a solemnly real scene and exchange of blues......

  • something that people that love o0ld delta style and such, up until id say about the time of chess records' Leonard Chess's demise, can feed off of. so to speak. jesus christ give me ragged and dirty drifter with stuff like this over anything popular, that is to say easy to find and get involved with in any major cities, i guess, in the south. plus Chicago Il. and Florida.

    I just basically want like hundreds of delta bluesmen running around every town that will listen and take to them [sigh].

  • Broke and Hungry Records: Jimmy Duck Holmes, The Mississippi Marvel, Odell Harris, Pat Thomas, Wesley Jefferson,

    Robert Belfour

  • Comment removed

  • sorry dude, but thats ignorant and kind of retarded.. the blues would have died a long time ago if it never evolved

  • I agree with you 100 per cent dude.God Bless the blues

  • These guys dont just "write and play" the blues its how they talk,its inside.

    "I can sit down and start playin' a guitar by myself sometime, nobody will be around me whatever to hear it. And I can play some certain pieces an' my mind will get to driftin'. Quite natural 'fore I know anything, tears'll be comin down. Thats right! I just get up and quit, and then perhaps start walkin or catch somethin and ride away, to try to satisfy myself." --Courtesy of Skip James.

  • Evolved and come full circle - Listen to Kelly Joe Phelps' Roll Away the Stone and tell me that's not roots blues at its finest - he's white, by the way. The blues transcend race - its about the human condition. Suggesting only depression era blacks are sufficiently authentic is like saying non-Europeans couldn't sing opera or non-cowboys country-western - both patently false. Where it does get cheesy is when people try to sound like someone they're not - like Clapton does at times.

  • actualy, on second thought it would take an uneducated, sad white boy who worked his whole life in labor, whats worse is that guys as far back in the blues as skip james are the originals, charley patton, fred mcdowell, son house, etc. the blues changed a lot into the coming years when the black man was afforded more education and the world in general became smarter. The raspyness of the blues sound changed with electric guitars became more streamlined and had elusive confidence.

  • Its just that, looking at, for example skip james or muddy waters or john lee hooker or howlin wolf ANY black bluesman gives a different feel, and not to trivialize the topic, but gives an entirely differnet dynamic to the song. compare the original versions of robert johnsons songs then try eric claptons versions, totally different. Its not just the skin color either. its their lives, eric clapton is rich and famous, R.J died broke, with guitar in hand no doubt. it would take a SAD white boy...

  • not to burst anyone's bubble :(

    but I dont think any white man will ever play blues like the black delta bluesmen. the quality that makes them great, aside from alot of praCtice is the fact that they were born black and felt like lesser men. That's where that cry and moan blues comes from. Now Muddy Waters, as he got older was less depressed, Hell, the guy walked around big in Silk suits, drove cadillacs. I mean.. He wasnt more sad than the rest of us, He was confident. but hey shit happens2all

  • robert johnson and john lee hooker.

  • Son House, Skip, Bukka White, Robert Johnson, Lightnin Hopkins, start there

  • im just starting to listen to the blues and Im wondering if anyone has any suggestions? theres so many blues muscians out there its kinda hard to know where to start. i like sklp james though, its all so beautifully hurtful, if that makes any sense.

  • blues is roots, roots is blues

  • Well, this is good to hear. I've been looking awhile now1 Thanks.

  • First response, sounds like Canned Heat

    1968, "On the Road Again". Of course, they were following Skip James 37 years

    later. Fathers and Sons... Great music.

  • Amazing....I've only just learned about Mr James.

    A question: I've searched and cannot find - anyone know the tabs for this?

  • you just can't play the blues with tabs.....all you need is soul......like Muddy said..:.."..you just can't go out there,and play the blues....".....you have to be into the blues.....it comes naturally.....

  • lol, than I'm screwed, cuz I'm only just beginning - but I hear you...

  • ......there is always a beginning.....don't worry.....all you got to do is to love the Blues....

  • Hey I respect you for getting into blues, not many people appreciate the blues nowadays.

  • But even if you feel the blues you cant do nothin if you dont know how to play, but your right you cant learn the blues from tabs only.

  • Playing the blues comes after you learn how to play. It's like learning to play again.

  • imho blues usually don't have tabs, not to difficult to figure out what chords their playin by ear and watchin. the root for this is D, there are usually a few variations 7th 5th sus4 etc. try and figure out the picking, usually based in a blues pentatonic in the root. old blues players are hard to emulate the way they play lead and rhythm at the same time(many other reasons as well). accurate tabs are hard if not impossible to find, get into the root and play whats in your soul

  • c'est magik je suis transportée j'aime cette musique jusqu'a ma mort ! je voudrait tout vivre ...sur ces magnifiques chansons.

  • tell you what, people. two teaspoonfuls of skip james & the rest of them works wonders for my depression. thx bro'...'n peace.

  • Skip James played the saddest, eeriest, and darkest blues that has ever been recorded.

  • It is tough for me to believe that there exists such a thing as clinical depression... I've been depressed for months at a time in the past, but do I think I'm clinically depressed? Hell no, I just had a rough couple of months, we all have 'em.

    I am sure that there are people out there who are clinically depressed, but I think that that diagnosis is often made by mistake. These people don't need a pill, they need a big change in their lives. Just my 2 cents.

  • "It is tough for me to believe that there exists such a thing as clinical depression"/ "I am sure that there are people out there who are clinically depressed". well done!

  • The main point I was trying to get across is that it's hard for me to believe SO many people are clinically depressed. Sure, some are, but the rest just need a change in their life, not some magic pill that will make things alright suddenly. I've known 2 people now that went on these anti-depressant pills and they are more of a mess now than when they first started feeling blue.

    I've also worked at a psych ward at one point, so not EVERYTHING I say is complete bullshit, haha :)

  • i agree with you

  • Dont mean to insult you, but I find that a really idiotic comment. Do you have any idea how many people are depressed because they cant change their problem/environment/life? How many cant even bring themselves out of bed let alone radically change their life? Why do you think people commit suicide? Depressed and suicidal people wish for change constantly and are too depressed to pull it off themselves.

  • Thow those people in a third world company and make them have to work to survive, where they can't afford to lay around and be "depressed" and you'll begin to see a change. His point isn't idiotic, anything that's happening in your own mind you can change, your mind is the only thing in this world you have any sort of control over.

    People disregard the medicine man because they think he's just superstitious nonsense, be even he won't use "magic" to deal with emotional problems.

  • i dont think a lot of depressed people just lay around, if they are that bad, im sure they would die/kill themselves in a 3rd world country

    Dont you see how throwing a depressed person in a third world country is not much of a change to them? they will just be surviving, struggling through life, contemplating suicide. I guess you think if someone is too busy finding food to survive they wont have time to think about how bad it is?

    also, im not sure how many people can control their own mind...

  • You're missing my point. Most people in the so-called "Third World" aren't just surviving or barely feeding themselves, they just don't have access to luxuries.

    People certainly become depressed in the third world but don't have the luxury of time to dwell on it. Furthermore, often people in the third world live far more natural lives than we in the concrete cities so depression rarely takes on the virulent form we witness here and is seen as a passing reality of life.

  • While I agree that certain socio-economic factors and environments might bring on or exacerbate depression in people that might not otherwise suffer from it; I simply point out that I think genuinely depressed people are clearly suffering from something physiological in conjunction with a set of life problems. In my opinion taking anything away from them, luxury or necessity, would only do harm.

  • Clincal depression, gimme a break! These people were wonderin' if they'd eat today, or be alive tomorrow. Everyone was depressed, it was hard times. My parents grew up in the depression and had potato sack dresses and bathed in washtubs. Only people who are spoiled and have too much time on their hands sit around and whine about being clinically depressed...LOLOLOL!

  • +1 to this.

    Folks didn't know if they'd have enough to feed their families, but they got along alright. Folks didn't get depressed, they got inventive and tenacious! Kerosenes cheap, lets use that for gas! Came up with new recipes for stuff which went bad or you could find growin' on the corner.

    There's a certain living-from-the-land appeal around this era.

  • toddallenhooper: Clinical depression is a genuine mental illness that claims thousands of lives through suicide. People probably had more instance of it back then, no doubt exacerbated by vitamin deficiencies. Go talk to a mental health professional before shooting your mouth off about matters of which you clearly have no understanding.

  • Damn right, people back then were depressed and worried about real issues that mattered in life like surviving from one day to the next. When people have hardly enough money to put food on the table or have had members of their family suffering from the same sort of situation then tell me about depression otherwise these whiners can shut up about it.

  • This is an incredibly stupid argument.

    Real depression has nothing to do with having a rough life. There are physically documented differences in how the brain responds for people who are severely depressed. The brain literally has to work much harder to create feelings of reward or pleasure.

    If anyone wants to know what clinical depression feels like just load up on cocaine every day for a year or so and then see how you feel when you suddenly quit.

  • in keeping with this argument on ablues video.. check out cocaine blues by rev gary davis

  • I don't think 'depression' is synonymous with the blues or even hard times. You can have a lot of sorrow, pain, worry and frustration welled up inside you without being depressed. I don't think everybody was depressed back then like you said, but I think life was taken more seriously than it is now. People back then didn't have things to distract them from their problems like we do today with t.v., internet, pro sports, etc. so life problems were what you talked (or sang) about.

  • Actually scientific studies show that social isolation is a much more important trigger of depression than financial hardship is. Probably back then people had to work together more to survive than they do now so clinical depression wasn't as common even if people were struggling just to survive.

  • @alwaysdestroy84

    Wherever it came from, it touches something deep in the human soul; something real & true than transcends superficial human experience. If it didn't reach inside us w/ such resonance, the Blues would have been forgotten, instead of being listened to, widely performed, and regarded to this day. I've been listening to the Blues for three decades, and it still gives me chills.

    (Also endless, arguments over what "the Blues" are, lol...)

  • @alwaysdestroy84 thats a good point. Man I love the sound of the blues!

  • This sound comes from the roughest and hardest times life can ever give you..thats why nobody sounds like these blues legends..because they dont truely know what it means to live the blues.

  • When i first heard Skip James it hit me like a gunshot. Absolutely some of the greatest music I've ever heard. The power of these songs is almost supernatural.

  • I'd be fascinated to know what the incidence for clinical depression was in those times for poor black people. I mean, did they have time? Would anybody have even noticed??? lol.

  • Geez, didn't mean to hurt your feelings... Sorry that I clearly know nothing about anything....

  • does anyone else get depressed to see that this only has about 14000 views? should be much more

  • thanks for sharing this incredible piece of history

  • i like the way his voice sounded right b4 his death.

  • A MASTERPIECE !!!!

  • work worn songs from the soul. cry or sing you gotta do it just the same.

    buzz

  • Pre-war blues doesn't get much better than this. You'd think the earth itself was going to collapse listening to songs like this. Such power and urgency.

  • Awesome..

  • I mean that its quite adventurous for its time. Very contemporary.

  • What can anyone say: beautiful, exotic, brilliant, mystical, so moving, tragic, plaintive, death-imbued, blues imbued, gut wrenching, compelling, genius. I wish a poet would put into words and images the impact this wondrous song by Skip James makes. I cannot.

    Itzik Basman

  • Just helps prove that Skip James was one of the bluesiest dudes ever.Check out"Crow Jane" and tell me if that aint the blues in living flesh.

  • it's amazing  !!!

  • 1931! fuck me. ahead of its time or what

  • No ...of its time

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