[because I am a loose associator –which can get annoying– I’ll leave out the 18 intermediary steps that reminded me of this; but I was thinking about different styles in poetry, (Son House lyrics and so on), and I was reminded of this fine, but little-known, work by the poet/belle-lettrist Langston Hughes.]

personally I like this a lot more than most of Hughes’ famous anthologized stuff –but most people don’t know this one, so I leave it here for your enjoyment…

“Situation”

When I rolled three sevens
In a row,
I was scared to walk out
With the dough.

–Langston Hughes

Jesus. If ever a song were designed to turn your hair white… (though various works of Robert Johnson take second, and third-thru-fifth place, respectively…)

I don’t even think the “black-edged letter” part of the opening theme is the blackest part of it. It’s those later verses that always bore a hole through my heart…

“You know it’s so hard to love someone that don’t love you…”
And that “pillow” finale. Good heavens.

FWIW, I really like the Jack White version, and I think the Stripes captured a certain caustic something that is important to the song, and to the blues as a genre, that is often missed through academic respectfulness. (Listen to Cassandra Wilson’s overly respectful, and therefore thoroughly lame, version, by contrast. Though I do love Cassandra at her best!)

As much as I love blues and jazz as abstract art forms, I still understand this much: never listen to them in a place that doesn’t serve whisky or bourbon. Concert halls are *definitely* out! If you can’t get a drink, it ain’t the thing itself!

btw, are you familiar with blues student Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart? His “Veterans Day Poppy” at the end of the masterful “Trout Mask Replica” probably makes the top 20 for hair-whitening blues…

“I try,
but I can’t buy
your Veterans Day Poppy.
It don’t
make me high,
it can only make me cry….” etc etc

Anyway, thanks again!