I have one thing in common (as many of us do these days) with Memphis Minnie, Kansas Joe, and other authentic blues players, and that is being authentically unemployed. So yesterday morning at 5 a.m., right before going to sleep, I watched a documentary on the History Channel about the history of the MS River. They were mentioning the great floods along the river in 1927 and the levees breaking and I wondered if this inspired the writing of this song. Shernuff, it did. I knew this as soon as I saw that Kansas Joe recorded this in 1929, and it is likely that the song was written in 1927 by Memphis Minnie, same year as the flooding. So to put all of the speculation on the song's origin to rest once and for all: mrjumbo.com/contents/delta99/3delta/1friars/levee.html
If there are any more posts as to the meaning/origin of this song, I kill ya. If anyone disagrees with me about this, I kill ya. And most of all, if you don't remember the psycho recruit in Bill Murray's "Stripes", I kill ya.
I have one thing in common (as many of us do these days) with Memphis Minnie, Kansas Joe, and other authentic blues players, and that is being authentically unemployed. So yesterday morning at 5 a.m., right before going to sleep, I watched a documentary on the History Channel about the history of the MS River. They were mentioning the great floods along the river in 1927 and the levees breaking and I wondered if this inspired the writing of this song. Shernuff, it did. I knew this as soon as I saw that Kansas Joe recorded this in 1929, and it is likely that the song was written in 1927 by Memphis Minnie, same year as the flooding. So to put all of the speculation on the song's origin to rest once and for all: mrjumbo.com/contents/delta99/3delta/1friars/levee.html
If there are any more posts as to the meaning/origin of this song, I kill ya. If anyone disagrees with me about this, I kill ya. And most of all, if you don't remember the psycho recruit in Bill Murray's "Stripes", I kill ya.