Harmonica Buzz: Buzz Songs

DeFord's Train

(Harmonica Buzz)

2005-09-27

The cover of Long Way to Memphis is an interpretation of the song DeFord's Train ... which started out as a song idea for Phil Wiggins of the blues duo Cephas and Wiggins. I had seen Phil play at the 1999 National Folk Festival in East Lansing. There he mentioned DeFord Bailey when he was asked to perform his own harmonica train and the more I got into the making of this album the more it became about DeFord Bailey.

Bailey was a black harmonica player, born in 1899, who was one the first people to play the Grand Ole Opry ... which is something you wouldn't really associate with the Opry. He played the Grand Ole Opry from 1925-1941 and to me DeFord Bailey is really one of the great, if little known, stories in American history and music.

The song pretty much started out as a standard blues shout, but later Phil loaned me his copy DeFord Bailey : A Black Star in Early Country Music written by David C. Morton w/ Charles Wolfe. With that I started to rewrite the lyrics and use more of Bailey's spirit and imagery in the song.

I had also been thinking about an introduction Mark Stuart gave a song of his called Lorraine in the fall of 1999. In his song he personifies The Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. What was powerful about the introduction Stuart gave to his song Lorraine was that you think about these events in history and know that theses places where the events occurred exist, but you don't really think of them on a daily basis. His introduction conveyed passing the building as part of daily life and, though not everyone physically passes that building in daily life, we do pass it.

So in rewriting the lyrics and thinking about Stuart's introduction, I personified the Lorraine Motel as "the sweet girl called Lorraine" in the bridge of the song:

..... Stopped in the tracks for that sweet girl called Lorraine
..... "Please take it back." said that sweet girl called Lorraine
..... "I can't do that, but you can climb aboard my train ..."
..... "At some point." "At some point."
..... "At some point." "At some point."

After this "conversation" between Bailey and the Lorraine, the cover was then designed to ask:

A: Who is DeFord Bailey?
B: What is the Lorraine Motel?

Both are part of American history and their stories need to be told. The cover acknowledges their place in history and the impact they can have today as the thoughts of other buildings cross our minds. The perfect, fake blue sky wishes the event that occurred at the Lorraine did not, the photo of the site acknowledges that it did and the name on the sign is one of a man who carried himself through his times with such dignity ... and that is the hope.

Peace and Harps,
Buzz

DeFord's Train (JT Sunden) ASCAP
(Key of E) A Blues Harp into vocal mic

I hear it off in the distance
Plain words, simple truth
I hear it off in the distance
Plain words, simple truth
Well DeFord's Train is coming
And it's calling me home

Well can you hear it?
Can you hear it?
Can you hear it?
Can you hear it?
DeFord's Train is coming
And it's calling me home
Can't you hear that whistle blowing?
DeFord Bailey is calling me home

Don't have to get upstairs in your thinking
Plain words, simple truth
Don't have to get upstairs in your thinking
Plain words, simple truth
DeFord's Train is coming
And it's calling me home

Stop in the tracks for that sweet girl called Lorraine
"Please take it back." said that sweet girl called Lorraine
"I can't do that, but you can climb aboard my train."

At some point,
At some point
At some point
At some point
DeFord's Train is coming
and it's calling me home
Can't you hear that whistle blowing?
DeFord Bailey is calling me home

Don't have to get upstairs in your thinking
Plain words, simple truth
Don't have to get upstairs in your thinking
Just let it roll on down that track
DeFord's Train is coming
And it's calling me home

At some point
At some point
At some point
At some point
At some point
At some point
At some point
At some point
Deford's Train is coming
and it's calling me home

Can't you hear that whistle blowing?
DeFord Bailey's calling me home

Can't you hear that whistle blowing?
DeFord Bailey's calling me home