Negro Prison Songs /"Early in the mornin' & Prettiest Train"

..worksongs recorded in 1947 in Parchman, Miss..

Category:

Music

Tags:

• work-song
• negro

[kstarBAM]

Where do you get all this?! my God I'm amazed by these prison songs! I can't even put into words how crazy good they are. I mean I'm 16 nd this music.. it's dyin out, I show my friends this nd they look at me like an alien, but I can't help it. this is beautiful. That break in his voice, mm mm mmm. sooo good.

This music will be with me so much as I can help it.

[monQsurlaKomod]

hello..

i've already told it: i found an old wax record on a market and made a cd from it..

simple!!!

most seek for new stuff...i think there's more to find in unknown oldies..

[Oshasat]

I've posted the lyrics from the CD's liner notes. But you'll have to read them from the bottom up! I should have posted these backwards.

According to the notes, the reference to "peckerwood" in the 4th and last verse, is a pun, signifying both woodpecker and poor white. This in particular makes "Early in the Mornin'" a biting example of social commentary and is a wonderful example of how traditional southern blues uses "code" to satirize or critique (or both) the working & living conditions.

[monQsurlaKomod]

thank you so much for the time you take to write the lyrics....MERCI

[3vegemite]

You can really hear the pain and grief in their voices man. It's really catching music. Full of real emotions. That really music. Not the shit that they come up with all the time on the radio, like all these newcomer teenage girls and boys.

[ConspiracyClown]

What they went through their whole lives was inhumane... it's ridiculous how long it took western society to see them as equals!

Did you know up till last century they were classd under plants and animlasl (not as human homo-sapiens)

In my opinion, modern western music branched off from these negro-spirituals.

Blues-Rock-R&N-Jazz-Rap

[vanilla45]

makes me wanna cry....

[wtfhellas]

@monQsurlaKomod you have a piece of human suffering and history, it must be amazing to have such a piece.

[Oshasat]

Compared to the CD, there is added echo -- probably intentional. It sounds more 'alive' than the cleaner, leaner, drier CD version. I'm sure echo was added to almost everything in the 40s. 

[matty1988TJC]

@kstarBAM I think Its cool you were, and are I guess, so young and listen to this stuff. I hope you still are today. This stuff is awesome.

[senationalliv]

Omg this is beautiful

[MortenBoHansen]

man, i must have heard this 15 times in a row! There's so much soul in this!!!

[cdietz24]

hey, thanks for the reply and Moby info

[Oshasat]

@cdietz24 - A great idea. This is (of course) what Moby did on his CD "Play" (the song "Porcelain" and others use samples from Alan Lomax's recordings). It's a great idea and there's no shame in using these recordings in modern music again and again. In fact, this is what maintains Moby's reputation for retaining a dollop of "soul" while making 'electonic' dance music.

[Oshasat]

@FutureRae - I posted them awhile ago. Check back at the older comments and you'll see them. Since they're posted backwards (sorry, I didn't think ahead on how YouTube allows comments to be posted), you're better off opening your word processor, and copying and pasting them into it in the right order.