Charley Patton’s “High Sheriff Blues,” recorded for Paramount Records in 1934, is about Charley Patton’s incarceration in the old Belzoni* Jail, in Belzoni, Mississippi , circa 1934.
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Charley Patton had been a witness to a murder and was held in the old Belzoni jail as a material witness.
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The lyrics about how “Mr. Will” put Charley Patton “in a cellar, just as dark as it could be…” and how “Mr. Purvis told Mr. Will to, let poor Charley down” doesn’t suggest Patton had any feelings of good will toward “Mr. Will.” “Mr. Purvis,” on the other hand, comes across as Charley Patton’s protector or benefactor.

Mississippi Blues

Beau De Glen "Mance" Lipscomb ( 1895 – 1976)  was an American blues singer, guitarist and songster.
Years active : 1960–1976

On Jimmy Reed's recording of the song, Luther Dixon (a staff writer at Vee-Jay Records) and Al Smith (Reed's manager) are creditied as its composers. But according to Lipscomb's autobiography (titled "I Say for me a Parable"), it was written by agricultural laborers as a way of venting their frustrations over mistreatment. If I remember correctly, the book doesn't mention Dixon and Smith or Jimmy Reed's version. Lipscomb's story about the origin of the song may be correct, with Reed's version possibly having been an adaptation of the original.

Regarding the lyric "He's standing on the turnrow with a pistol in his hand," Lipscomb said that Texas field workers were watched over by bosses who were armed just as was done on the prison farms. Their employment situation was more like prison than a job

Social (racial) protest in the blues

My English translation of Fabrizio De Andre's "Fiume Sand Creeek". De Andre had mistakenly given Col. Covington a promotion to general, so I corrected that...otherwise I tried to remain as close to the original as possible.

40 years ago Victor Tsoy composed a song abnormal for his country. Soviet Union felt cold war, the World youth festivals left in 1960s, no people-to-people diplomacy was practiced. And then the young rocker speaks as a minister: "I declare nuclear-free zone". Next spring Perestroyka began; and only several years after, the nuclear disarmament was declared by Gorbachov, new Soviet leader. Now with NATO nuclear weapons set near our towns, may this song initiate the new disarmament !.."

This is rather a rewriting of Daniele Goldoni’s song in (hopefully) decent English, than a “translation” or a “version”. Curiously enough, the partisan girl’s name, Stella, is identical with Sandro Pertini’s birthplace (Stella, a small town in Savona hinterland). [RV]