Statesboro Blues

Gregg Allman gave his brother Duane the Taj Mahal album as well as a bottle of medicine for his cold. The next time Gregg saw him, Duane had emptied the bottle, washed the label off, and was using it to play slide guitar.

Duane Allman started playing Statesboro Blues after hearing the version by Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal made a "wonderful modernized version" on his eponymous 1968 debut album.

Statesboro Blues

There are really two “Statesboro Blues” (blueses): first by Blind Willie McTell, second by Allman Brothers Band.

Blind Willie McTell

Blind Willie McTell originally conceived and recorded his song in the 1920s in the prewar solo style. The title refers to the town of Statesboro, Georgia. Because of the song, rumor had it that McTell was born in Statesboro; he was, in fact, born in Thomson, Georgia, though in an interview he called Statesboro "my real home."

In Statesboro you can go see the building where Willie McTell wrote this song. It's the Hattie Holloway cabin located behind the Statesboro Inn.

Blind Willie McTell's Cabin

McTell made the first recording of the song on Victor, on October 17, 1928. The eight sides he recorded for Victor, including "Statesboro Blues," were described as "superb examples of storytelling in music, coupled with dazzling guitar work."

McTell learned how to play the guitar during his teens. He soon became a street performer around several Georgia cities. Although he never produced a major hit record, McTell's recording career was prolific, recording for different labels under different names all throughout the 1920s and 30s, often with other people. In 1940, he was recorded by John Lomax for the Library of Congress's folk song archive.

Statesboro Blues - cover

Despite his mainly failed releases, McTell was one of the few archaic blues musicians that would live to actively play and record during the 1940s and 50s (although, McTell never lived to be "rediscovered" during the imminent American folk music revival, where many other bluesman would be rediscovered and given a chance to record).

"Statesboro Blues," was frequently covered by The Allman Brothers Band and is considered one of their earliest signature songs. Version created by the original lineup of the Allman Brothers Band is from fragments of the McTell lyric, a sizzling shuffle groove and Duane Allman’s definitive and compelling signature slide theme.

Allman Brothers Band

The most familiar version of the song is recorded at the Fillmore East in March 1971 and first released on the 1971 album At Fillmore East. This version is famous also for Duane Allman's slide guitar playing, which, as Rolling Stone would write years later, featured "the moaning and squealing opening licks [that] have given fans chills at live shows."

Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore Concert

At the end of Duane Allman's guitar solo, he hit an off-key note that his brother Gregg called the "note from hell." Apparently Duane finished his solo and made a big mistake. Greg said that they wanted to edit out the note but at that time, were unable to do so. The song (aside from that note) was just so damn good they used it on the album. And as for that Note From Hell. They left it in.

Duane Allman

The lyrics, a first-person narrative, appear to relate the story of a man pleading with a woman to let him in her house; the speaker calls himself "Papa McTell" in the first stanza ("Have you got the nerve to drive Papa McTell from your door?"). Throughout the song, the woman, addressed as "mama," is alternately pleaded with (to go with the speaker "up the country") and threatened ("When I leave this time, pretty mama, I'm going away to stay"). Throughout the non-linear narrative, the "Statesboro blues" are invoked—an unexplained condition from which the speaker and his entire family seem to be suffering ("I woke up this morning / Had them Statesboro blues / I looked over in the corner: grandma and grandpa had 'em too"). Later versions, such as the one played by The Allman Brothers Band, have shorter, simplified lyrics.

Blind Willie McTell

As with many blues lyrics, it can be difficult to establish rules for the narrative order of the stanzas. In the case of "Statesboro Blues," Richard Blaustein attempted a structural analysis of McTell's song in an approach influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss; it is unclear whether his results are applicable to other blues songs also.

McTell borrowed part of the lyrics from a 1923 Sippie Wallace recording of "Up the Country Blues," which was later popularized by Canned Heat as "Goin' up the Country."

The Allmans played a concert in Statesoro at the Georgia Southern Gym on January 7, 1971. According to the ABB official website, the "Statesboro Blues" opener lasted for 40 minutes!!

After Allman's death in a motorcycle accident later that year, the performance was included on the 1972 album Duane Allman: An Anthology. In 2008, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Allman Brothers Band's version of "Statesboro Blues" as #9 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.

Gregg Allman

Statesboro Blues - Blind Willie McTell – Lyrics

Wake up mama, turn your lamp down low
Wake up mama, turn your lamp down low
Have you got the nerve to drive papa McTell from your door

My mother died and left me reckless, my daddy died and left me wild, wild, wild
Mother died and left me reckless, daddy died and left me wild, wild, wild
No, I'm not good lookin', I'm some sweet woman's angel child

You're a mighty mean woman, to do me this a-way
You're a mighty mean woman, to do me this a-way
Going to leave this town, pretty mama, going away to stay

I once loved a woman, better than I ever seen
I once loved a woman, better than I ever seen
Treat me like I was a king and she was a doggone queen

Sister, tell your Brother, Brother tell your Auntie, Auntie, tell your Uncle,
Uncle tell my Cousin, Cousin tell my friend
Goin' up the country, Mama, don't you want to go?
May take me a fair brown, may take me one or two more

Big Eighty left Savannah, Lord, and did not stop
You ought to saw that colored fireman when he got that boiler hot
Reach over in the corner, hand me my travelin' shoes
You know by that, I got them Statesboro blues

Sister got 'em, daddy got 'em
Brother got 'em, mama got 'em
Woke up this morning, we had them Statesboro blues
I looked over in the corner,
Grandpa and grandma had 'em too.

Blind Willie McTell

Statesboro Blues - Allman Brothers Band – Lyrics

Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low
Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low
You got no nerve baby to turn Uncle John from your door

I woke up this morning, I had them Statesboro Blues
I woke up this morning, had them Statesboro Blues
Well, I looked over the corner and Grandpa seemed to have them too

Well, my momma died and left me
My poppa died and left me
I ain't good looking baby
I'm somewhat sweet and kind

I'm goin' to the country, baby do you wanna go?
If you can't make it baby
Your sister Lucille said she wanna go
And I sure will take her

I love that woman, better than any woman I've ever seen
Well, I love that woman, better than any woman I've ever seen
Well, now, she treat me like a king, yeah, yeah, yeah
And she look like a dog gone queen

Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low
Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low
You got no nerve baby, to turn Uncle John from your door

Duane Allman