Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

jon asked in Entertainment & MusicMusicBlues · 1 decade ago

Who recorded an electric version of Backwater Blues circa 1968?

This is a long shot. As a teenager in the late 1960s I taped some songs from John Peel radio 1 shows, but made few notes of the titles/artists. I still have the tapes but they are not really playable, so I have embarked on a nostalgic trip to try and acquire cd or mp3 versions of the songs that I remember. I have had some success but Backwater Blues still eludes me, although I found the title through Googling the lyrics. The version I have is a lengthy electric one with quite decent guitar riffs, not the Bessie Smith original, but still with a female singer. I thought maybe Chicken Shack, but I cannot find any evidence they recorded this song. Jo Ann Kelly was another candidate, but I am not sure that she performed with electric guitarists at the time. I have looked through the John Peel Sessions lists, but there are no recordings of Backwater Blues from any likely candidates and no indication that Chicken Shack ever played live for John Peel.

Basically, I have hit a brick wall. Does anyone know of or remember any versions of this song?

In case you are wondering, the lyrics go:-

When it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night

When it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night

There was trouble takin' place in the lowland at night

I woke up this mornin', couldn't even get out of my door

I woke up this mornin', couldn't even get out of my door

Enough trouble to make a poor woman wonder where she's gonna go

They rowed a little boat just about five miles across the farm

Said they rowed a little boat just about five miles across the farm

I packed up all of my clothes, throwed them in, and they rowed me along

Well it thundered and lightnin'd, and the winds began to blow

Said it thundered and lightnin'd, and the winds began to blow

There was thousands of people

They had no place to go

I went out and I stood on a high old lonesome hill

I went out and I stood on a high old lonesome hill

I looked down on the house where I used to live

Back Water Blues that calls me to pack my things and go

Back Water Blues that calls me to pack my things and go

Cause my house fell down, and I can't live there no more

Ooh, I can't live there no more

Ooh, I can't live there no more

There ain't no place for a poor old woman to go

1 Answer

Relevance
Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.