Lingua   

Tom Moore’s Farm

Sam Lightnin' Hopkins
Lingua: Inglese


Sam Lightnin' Hopkins

Lista delle versioni e commenti


Ti può interessare anche...

It’s a Sin to Be Rich, It’s a Low-Down Shame to Be Poor
(Sam Lightnin' Hopkins)
I Asked the Bossman
(Sam Lightnin' Hopkins)
War News Blues
(Sam Lightnin' Hopkins)


[anni 30]
Scritta da due mezzadri (sharecroppers) neri in Texas, Yank Thornton e Mance Lipscomb (1895-1976), il secondo un chitarrista blues che ebbe qualche notorietà quando, ormai vecchio, venne riscoperto da Robert "Mack" McCormick (1930-2015), importante etnomusicologo bianco.
Il brano venne poi ripreso negli anni 40 da un altro bluesman riscoperto da McCormick, e ben più celebre di Mance Lipscomb, quel Samuel John Hopkins che è passato alla storia come Lightnin’ Hopkins.
Testo trovato in parte su “Strange Fruit: An Experience”, una ricerca di Héctor Martínez su musica nera e segregazionismo, e in parte in un articolo di tal Jeff Titon intitolato “Downhome Blues Lyrics Since The Second World War: A Selection” pubblicato nel 1976 sul vol. 2, num. 1 della rivista “Alcheringa: Ethnopoetics, A First Magazine of the World's Tribal Poetries”

Mack McCormick registrò entrambe le versioni nella stessa raccolta, intitolata A Treasury Of Field Recordings - Volume 2, pubblicata nel 1960.



La versione di Mance Lipscomb fu attribuita ad anonimo, mentre Lightnin’ Hopkins aveva preferito fino a quel momento cambiare il nome del protagonista da Tom a Tim. Infatti Tom Moore era un potente rancher e latifondista texano di Millican, lungo il Brazos River, alle cui dipendenze lavoravano decine di famiglie di neri. Sia Lipscomb che Hopkins, che si conoscevano ed erano amici, avevano avuto a che fare con l'iracondo e brutale Tom Moore e il primo, scontratosi con uno dei suoi scagnozzi, aveva dovuto fare fagotto per alcuni anni per evitare di essere ucciso.



“This is a true song of protest, but it is important to appreciate exactly what it is protesting. It is not protesting the evils of sharecropping system on any broad economic level. It is not protesting Tom Moore's wealth gained from the sweat of others. It is simply a brutally truthful characterisation of one particular hardened opportunist who has taken advantage and mistreated his laborers. It is a protest against “them bad farms" where a farmer can get started with only a borrowed five or ten dollar bill, the ease of which duped him into working against an ever increasing debt, his life circumscribed by fear of the big boss, and the bells which call him from the field to meals and then call him back to the field where the landlord stands with “spurs in his horse's flank" and the "whip in his hand”. […] In view of the complexity of relationships briefly hinted at, Tom Moore's Farm must be seen as the Singers intend it. It comes from people born and raised in the rural South, people who remained there accepting to some degree the conditions imposed and the attitudes required. It comes from people who expect to be treated unjustly, with cruelty and contempt, asking in turn protection and survival. Tom Moore is castigated not because he is cruel and unjust, but because he is too cruel and too unjust, more so than the status quo permits. His actions have been extreme, else he would not have achieved this kind of recognition from the people of the tenant farm culture.” (Mack McCormick nelle note alla raccolta “A Treasury Of Field Recordings” citata)

Il tema della canzone descrive perfettamente quanto il bieco Tom Moore fosse davvero troppo cattivo: il bracciante riceve un telegramma che annuncia la morte della moglie e il padrone, invece di dargli il permesso per il funerale, gli ordina di continuare ad arare il campo e che, se vuole seppellire la moglie, lo faccia all'ora di cena, perchè la giornata di lavoro non va perduta...



Con una cattiveria del genere uno potrebbe sperare che il ranch di Tom Moore sia andato distrutto da un meteorite, e invece no: è ancora oggi, ormai da quattro generazioni, una tenuta fiorentissima – il Moore Ranch On The Brazos - ed è una location frequentatissima dai ricchi cowboy bianchi per le loro pacchiane feste di matrimonio. Nella gallery con decine di foto compare un solo negro, e in secondo piano...

Quello che segue è il testo della versione di Lightnin’ Hopkins. Per il momento non sono riuscito ancora a trovare quello di Mance Lipscomb.
Yeah, you know it ain't but the one thing
You know this Black man done was wrong
Yeah, you know it ain't but the one thing
You know this Black man done was wrong
Yes, you know I moved my wife and family
Down on Mister Tom Moore's farm

Yeah, you know Mister Tom Moore's a man
He don't never stand and grin
He just said "Keep out of the graveyard I'll
Save you from the pen" you know
Soon in the morning
He'll give you scrambled eggs
Yes, but he's liable to call you so soon
You'll catch a mule by his hind legs

Yes, you know I got a telegram this mornin'
Said my wife was dead.
I show it to Mister Moore
He said, "Go ahead, Lightnin'
You got to plow a ridge."
That white man said, "It's rainin'
An I'm way behin'
I might let you bury that woman, Sam
One of these ol dinner times."

I told him, "No, Mr. Moore!
Somebody's got to go!"
He said, "If you aint able to plow, Sam,
Step down an grab you a hoe."

inviata da Bernart Bartleby - 6/6/2017 - 18:41


I'm looking for the lyrics to Lightnin' Hopkins' version of Tom Moore's Farm on Vol. 2 of A Treasury of Field Recordings. I'd welcome a download of the song, but a transcript of the lyrics would do, as well.

Jay Brakefield - 21/4/2021 - 21:53



Lingua: Inglese

La versione di Mance Lipscomb
TOM MOORE'S FARM

Ain't but the one thing, see what I done wrong
Ain't but the one thing, see what I done wrong
Moved my my family down on Tom Moore's farm

Go to work in the morning, don't stop till one o'clock
Go to work in the morning, don't stop till one o'clock
Hold back on the time Mister Tom, you can't hold back dark

Tom Moore'll tell you, got a smile or grin
Tom Moore'll tell you, got a smile or grin
Get away from the cemetery boy, keep you from the pen

Want some money, man for Christmas eve
Want some money boys, man for Christmas eve
Ask Tom or Harry, ___ some Mister Steve

Soon in the morning, baby now so soon
Soon in the morning, baby now so soon
Dog me that Mister Tom, let someone have my room

Soon in the morning then you, get your ham and egg
Soon in the morning you will, get your ham and egg
Grin that big bill you better, check that mule's head

Done the time come you gon', get your bread and beans
Done the time come you gon', serve your gravy and beans
Ring that bell you better, check that boiling tin

Tom Moore got way, most in a man I like
Tom Moore got way, most in a man I like
Your woman quit you, have her brought right back

inviata da Pluck - 31/1/2024 - 19:00




Pagina principale CCG

Segnalate eventuali errori nei testi o nei commenti a antiwarsongs@gmail.com




hosted by inventati.org