This is my 100th post, the actual transition from a 2-digit to 3-digit size collection of my musings onto the Inter-Tubes and towards a 4-digit size collection that will complete this part of my manifest destiny.
In a previous post (February 23, 2014), Albert King’s Searching For A Woman (1961) was traced to Carl Perkins’ Matchbox (1956) to Leadbelly’s Packin’ Trunk (1935) to Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Match Box Blues (1927).
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Another famous blues song, That’s All Right (sometimes known as “That’s Alright, Mama” or “That’s All Right, Mama”) can also be traced back from its best known version to earlier versions of that song.
In 1954, Elvis Presley recorded Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right.”
Elvis Presley – That’s All Right (1954)
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup – That’s All Right (1946).
Elvis in That’s All Right sings Crudup’s lyric nearly exactly. From 0.10 – 0.30:
Well that’s all right, mama, that’s all right for you, that’s all right mama, just any way you do that’s all right, that’s all right, that’s all right now mama any way you do…”
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup – That’s All Right Mama (1946.) From 0.16 – 0.37:
“Well now that’s all right mama, that’s all right for you, that’s all right now mama any way you do but that’s all right, that’s all right, that’s all right now mama any way you do..”
Big Bill Broonzy – It’s A Lowdown Dirty Shame (1942). Big Bill Broonzy sings of his love for a no-good married woman. From 1.30 – 1.53:
“My baby, baby that’s alright with you, ooh baby that’s alright with you, baby that’s alright baby I mean that what you do…”
Blind Lemon Jefferson – That Black Snake Moan (1926). From 1.33 – 1.55:
“Mama, that’s all right, mama that’s all right for you, Mama, that’s all right, mama that’s all right for you, Say baby that’s all right, most any old way you do…”
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A variant of the phrase, “that’s all right, mama, that’s all right for you, that’s all right mama, any way you do,” can be traced to Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Was sole authorship of the lyric “that’s all right, mama, that’s all right for you, that’s all right mama, any way you do,” important?
Is the determination of authorship of the lyric important now?
Is this lyric, or a particular version/variant of it, under copyright or in the public domain?
Can anyone use a particular portion/variant of it if the original is in the public domain?
Would use of the short, “that’s all right, mama,” be permissible under any circumstances?
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Blind Lemon Jefferson might be the Big Bang of Blues.
Carl Perkins’ Matchbox (1956) can be traced to Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Match Box Blues (1927).
Elvis Presley’s That’s All Right (1954) can be traced to Blind Lemon Jefferson – That Black Snake Moan (1926).
There are other songs that can be traced to Blind Lemon Jefferson who in turn learned many songs from his contemporaries and those who came before him. Authorship, sole authorship and copyright were not relevant to many practitioners of many styles of music.
Thank for the journey, it’s good to acknowledge the origins of the lyric writers but kinda fun to see how songs evolve through the years. Those who were the first to record stuff way back when are often credited with original authorship, but there had to have been some lyrical borrowing going on before the invention of recorded music. Just last night a friend was trying to figure out how old “house of the rising sun” was. He asked me when I though Eric Burden wrote it, was it the early sixties he said? ya maybe the early 1660’s. And only if he reincarnated 🙂