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"Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low"
(Alberta/ Roberta/ Corinne Corrina is a different song)
Old-time; country (AABA form) blues, related to the "Mole in the Ground," "Baby Let me Follow You Down," families of songs
ARTIST: Doc Watson; Southbound, 1966
CATEGORY: Blues and Jazz Songs DATE: First recording Austin Harmon Recorded at Maryville, Tennessee, by Herbert Halpert, April, 1939. AFS 2619 "Honey, Let Your Hair Hang Down."
RECORDING INFO: "Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low"
Bazemore, Raymond. Steamboat Coming, National Geographic Soc. 07787, LP (1976), trk# 15 (Alberta, Let Your Hair Stream Down)
Blues Project, Live At The Café Au Go Go, 1966
Carlton Gaither "Omie Let Your Bangs Hang Down," sung by of Deep Gap, North Carolina, on an album (County 717)
Chad Mitchell Trio, At The Bitter End, 1962 (backed by Jim McGuinn, Bill E. Lee and Fred Hellerman, recording available on imeem)
Dylan, Bob. Bob Dylan, Columbia KCS 8579, LP (1962), trk# B.02
Harmon, Austin Recorded at Maryville, Tennessee, by Herbert Halpert, April, 1939. AFS 2619 Honey (Homey), Let Your Hair Hang Down
Gibson, Bob. Carnegie Concert, Riverside RLP 12-816, LP (1957), trk# a.02 (Alberta)
Gude, David. New Folk, Vanguard VRS 9096, LP (1961), trk# b.08 (Alberta)
Mitchell Trio. Chad Mitchell Trio at the Bitter End, Kapp KL 1281, LP (1962), trk# b.01 (Alberta)
Pringle, Valentine. I Hear America Singing, RCA (Victor) LSP 2689, LP (1963), trk# A.03 (Alberta)
Silverman, Jerry. Folk Blues, Vol. 1, A-V A-V 101, LP (1959ca), trk# A.02
Smith, Winifred. Ethnic Folk Songs from the South, Tennessee Squire Assoc 630D-2211, LP (196?), trk# 4
Watson, Doc. Essential Doc Watson, Vanguard VCD 45/46, CD (1986), trk# 2 [1963ca] (Alberta)
Odetta, Sings Folk Songs (1963, as "Roberta"). In 2001 she recorded it again for Lookin' For A Home , but this time this "Alberta" was conflated with Lead Belly's "Alberta"
Pernell Roberts, Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies, 1963 (with some additional lyrics & music most likely written by Roberts himself: mp3 ,recording available on bonanzaworld.net )
Doc Watson, Southbound, 1966 (Roberts' version, recording available on imeem)
Baby Let Me Follow You Down - Von Schmidt, Eric
Baby Let Me Lay It on You (recordings)- Davis, Gary (Rev.) At - Please Baby
Davis, Reverend Gary. Grossman, Stefan (ed.) / Rev. Gary Davis - Blues Guitar, Oak, Sof (1974), p 65
Taussig, Harry. Fate Is Only Once, Talisman TM-1001, LP (1965), trk# A.01b
Van Ronk, Dave. Just Dave Van Ronk, Mercury SR 60908, LP (196?), trk# B.04
OTHER NAMES: Alberta; Alberta let you hair Hang Low; Omie, Let Your Bangs Hang Down (Mel Bay book); Honey, Let Your Hair Hang Down Honey, Let Your Bangs; Lenora Let Your Hair Hang Down (Paul Clayton); Baby, Let Me Lay It On You.
RELATED TO: "Mole in the Ground;" "Baby Let me Follow You Down;" "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down" (similar lyrics different form-Cliff Carlisle with Bill Carlisle); "Baby, Let Me Lay It On You."
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The song was adapted by Eric Von Schmidt, a blues-guitarist and singer-songwriter of the folk revival in the late 1950s. Von Schmidt was a well-known face in the east coast folk scene and was reasonably well-known across the United States. His chronicles of the Cambridge Folk era, also called "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down," describes the evolution of the song. Eric had first heard a song by Blind Boy Fuller called "Baby, Let Me Lay It On You." Eric von Schmidt credits Reverend Gary Davis for writing "three quarters" of this song.
The first known recording, titled "Mama, Let Me Lay It On You," was made by Walter Coleman in 1936; however, Tony Russell claims that Memphis Minnie recorded and released a duet version (with her husband Joe McCoy) as early as 1930. The title was changed to "Baby, Let Me follow You Down" around 1959, and became a feature in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village in the early 1960s. The song was sung by local heroes such as Dave Van Ronk. The song was later picked up by the young, up and coming folk singer Bob Dylan, who made the song famous on his Columbia Records debut.
Another famous recording of the song was performed by The Animals in 1964, who changed the title to "Baby Let Me Take You Home".
An alternative history of the song is given on Arnold Ryens' site "The Originals"[3]. He claims that the earliest version was by the "State Street Boys" (featuring Big Bill Broonzy). It was issued in 1935 under the title "Don't You Tear My Clothes" (with Lyrics credited to Sam Hopkins). Washboard Sam apparently recorded it under the same title in 1936.
Can I do it For You: Memphis Minnie's song "Can I Do It for You" (1930) was the first recording of a melody that was later titled "Mama Let Me Lay It On You" by both Walter Coleman and Blind Boy Fuller (1936), then "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" by Professor Longhair (1957), and "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" by white folksinger Eric Von Schmidt in the early 60s, who taught it to Bob Dylan, who put it on his first album and later performed it in England with the Band in 1966. The song "Chevrolet" sung by Lonnie Young on an Alan Lomax field recording in the 1950s, and later covered by Jim Kweskin's Jug Band and Taj Mahal, was the same melody.
Can I Do It for You- Memphis Minnie 1930
Related to teh folksong "Paper of Pins"
KJ: I'll buy your wood and coal, buy your wood and coal
Buy your wood and coal, if I can do something to you
Hear me saying, I want to do something to you
MM: I don't want no wood and coal, I don't want no wood and coal
I don't want nothing in the world you got and you can't do nothing for me
Hear me saying, you can't do nothing for me
SOURCES: Folk Index; Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof (1959), 3, p26; Memphis Minnie called it "Can I Do It For You." Journal of American folklore - Page 440; by American Folklore Society, JSTOR (Organization), Project Muse - Folklore - 1945 Honey, Let Your Hair Hang Down (R). LC. Austin Harmon, Maryville. Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 576, "Alberta, Let Yo' Hair Hang Low" (1 text, 1 tune); MWheeler, pp. 85-87, "Alberta, Let Yo' Hair Hang Low" (1 text, 1 tune); Silber-FSWB, p. 74, ""Alberta (1 text)
NOTES: There's no clear source for "Alberta Let Your Hair Hang Down." On the the Roger Guinn web-site it states: "This is a song sung by the stevedores who worked on the Ohio River. There were two types of river songs. The first was the fast 'Jump Down Turn Around' type. The other kind was slow and bluesey. That could be because when it came time to load and unload these boats, it was a pretty busy session. There was lots of time in between to sing songs like this one." The information is not documented. Other sites state the song is a roustabout song from the 1800s, also undocumented.
John Mason Brewer's 1968 book "American Negro Folklore" gives an early version:
O honey,let your hair hang down, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,
O honey, let your hair hang down,
O honey, let your hair hang down.
"Alberta" is often confused with the songs from the "Corrina" family. That is a different group of songs that can be traced back to the well-known recording of "Corrine, Corrina" by Bo Chatman and Charlie McCoy for Brunswick (December 1928). Many recordings of Corrina use the name "Alberta" instead. Even Bo Chatman recorded two versions of Corrina titled "Sweet Alberta" and "Alberta." Clapton included teh song on his "Unplugged" CD as "Aberta" and Bob Dylan recorded "Alberta" for Self Portrait (1970).
So there were other "Corrinas", for example Blind Boy Fuller's "Corrine What Makes You Treat Me So" (1937) or Walter Davis' "Corrine" (1939) and there were other "Albertas". Lead Belly's "Alberta" (1935) is a completely different song, his adaption of "Corrina" is called "Roberta" (1935; and Eric Clapton renamed her "Alberta" when he borrowed this song for his Unplugged concert). Jazz Gillum recorded an "Alberta Blues" in 1938, but that is basically a variant of "Big Road Blues."
"Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down," a blues song recorded by Cliff and Bill Carlisle in 1939 for Decca has the same basic hook but is a different form. Other songs titled "Omie, Let Your Bangs Hang Down" are versions of "Alberta Let Your Hair Hang Low." See the link below:
http://books.google.com/books?id=q3Q6dVoYl5AC&pg=PT48&dq=Omie,+Let+Your+Bangs+
Hang+Down&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=
&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html
John Wright's "Verdie Let Your Bangs hang down" from his book on Ralph Stanley (note this is a different version based I assume on Cliff Carlisle's "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down")
"The business of these musicians' going and taking 'what they thought they might require,' like Kipling's Homer, reminds me of one more story. Ray Cline--to give you the background--owned the rights to several rather well-known songs he never wrote; the rights had been given or sold to him and hence he was listed, in album credits, as the author. He was also notorious for claiming authorship, on his own album credits, of fiddle tunes that were clearly traditional (I don't know if this quite came down to claiming 'Turkey in the Straw' but it was close to that). Finally, he would often make up new songs using standard traditional material, but changing the name of the female character in the song to that of his wife, Verda. So 'Black-Eyed Susie' became 'Blue-Eyed Verdie' and so forth.
Following this paradigm, I myself took an old song (from a source I knew would be unfamiliar to Cline or Stanley) called 'Omie Let Your Bangs Hang Down' and remade it into 'Verdie Let Your Bangs Hang Down.' I sang it to Cline as we were sitting at a picnic table, tailgating, so to speak, at the time I first visited Ralph Stanley's southwest Virginia festival. I didn't realize it, but a fan who was there recorded the whole thing on her boom box and gave it to Cline. He decided he liked the song, and eventually asked me to sing it for his next record album, which I did, meanwhile insouciantly signing a form contract with the record producer stating, among other things, that 'Verdie Let Your Bangs Hang Down' was my 'sole, exclusive, and original work.' A while after Cline's album appeared I found another album, this one by an old-time musician whom I knew Cline and Stanley were familiar with. On it was a song called 'Sally Let Your Hair Hang Down.' As anyone who's ever heard any sort of story has long since guessed, when I put the album on I found that this was 'Verdie Let Your Bangs Hang Down,' note for note and practically word for word.
And he just looked at me with an absolute poker face and said, 'Yeah, that'll happen sometimes.'
MORE NOTES: (Some of this is taken then edited from Roots of Bob Dylan article) This "Alberta" is no 12-bar AAB Blues (Corrina) or similar to "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down," it has a different structure (AABA):
Alberta let your hair hang low
Alberta let your hair hang low
I'll give you more gold than your apron can hold
If you'd only let your hair hang low
Another song of this family including one verse with related lyrics is "I Wish I Was A Mole in The Ground", recorded in 1928 by Bascom Lamar Lunsford (collected in 1902):
I wish I was a mole in the ground
Yes I wish I was a mole in the ground
If I's a mole in the ground I'd root that mountain down
And I wish I was a mole in the ground
Tempy let your hair roll down
Oh Tempy let your hair roll down
Let your hair roll down and your bangs curl round
Oh Tempy let your hair roll down
"Baby Let Me Follow You Down" - recorded by Dylan for his first LP - belongs to the same family but utilizes yet another set of melodies . As is known this song can be traced back (via Eric von Schmidt and Geno Foreman; Dave van Ronk and The Reverend Gary Davis may have been involved, too) to Blind Boy Fullers "Mama Let Me Lay It On You" (first recorded 29.4.1936). This was an adaption of Walter Coleman, "Mama Let Me Lay It On You" (recorded 8.2.1936) and that song in turn was an adaption of "Can I Do It For You?" (1930) by Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy:
Wanna do somethin' to you.
Wanna do somethin' to you.
Do anything in this world I can,
I wanna do somethin' to you, hear me sayin',
I wanna do somethin' for you.
No, you can't do nothin' to me.
No, you can't do nothin' to me.
I don't care what in the world you do,
You can't do nothin' for me, hear me sayin',
You can't do nothin' for me.
I can't say at the moment if "Can I Do It For You?" had also been derived from an earlier song. But it produced other offsprings besides "Mama Let Me lay It On You", for example "Don't You Tear My Clothes" (State Street Boys, 1935; Washboard Sam, 1936; Harlem Hamfats, 1937 etc) and "Let Your Linen Hang Low" , recorded in 1937 by the Harlam Hamfats with Rosetta Howard and Joe McCoy on vocals. The lyrics of latter look like a cross between "Alberta" and "Can I Do It For You?":
Let your linen hang low
Let your linen hang low
I'd do anything in the world I know
If you let your linen hang low
These songs all share not only the AABA-structure of the lyrics but also the basic motif: "I'll do anything for you, if you do something or let me do something".
"Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low" was collected by Mary Wheeler in Western Kentucky and published in 1944 in her book Steamboatin' Days, Folk Songs Of The River Packet Era. There is no earlier evidence of this "Alberta" available and it is simply not known how old it is and how it is related to songs like "Let Your Linen Hang Low" or "I Wish I Was A Mole in The Ground". Maybe it's an older variant or maybe Mrs. Wheeler's informant had simply put it together himself from records or performances he had heard.
Alberta, let yo' hair hang low,
Alberta, let yo' hair hand low,
I'll give you mo' gold than yo' apron will hold,
‘Ef you'll jes let yo' hair hang low.
Alberta, what's on yo' mind,
Alberta, what's on yo' mind,
You keep me worried, you keep me bothered, all the time.
Alberta, what's on yo' mind?
Alberta, don't you treat me unkind,
Alberta, don't you treat me unkind,
'Cause I'm worried, 'cause I'm bothered, all the time.
Alberta, don't you treat me unkind.
The song was reprinted in 1955 in Benjamin A. Botkin's A Treasury of Mississippi River Folklore. Bob Gibson recorded it in 1957 for his LP Carnegie Concert (now available on the compilation Joy Joy! The Young And Wonderful Bob Gibson (1996)). I haven’t been able to check if he used the tune published by Ms. Wheeler or if he made up a new one but in his introductory remark he explicitly refers to her book. This version was also printed in Jerry Silverman's important and influential Folk Blues songbook (1958) and in Sing Out! Vol. 8 No. 3 (1959). The melody is very different from the one later used by Dylan.
Here are the lyrics to “Alberta:”
ALBERTA (Let Your Hair Hang Low) (as sung by Doc Watson)
(Key of G)
G Bm F D G
Alberta let your hair hang low
G D G
I saw her first on an april morn'
G Bm C D
As she walked through the mist in a field of hay
G C G
Her hair lit the world with its golden glow
G Bm F D G
And the smile on her face burned my heart away
G Bm F D G
Alberta let your hair hang low
G F D
Alberta let your hair hang low
C Bm D G-Em
I'll give you more gold than your apron can hold
G Bm F D G
if you'll only let your hair hang low
I thought my golden time would last
But the field of hay was soon cut down
In a short few weeks it all was past
And my golden girl just a painful song
Alberta what's on your mind
Alberta what's on your mind
My heart is so sad 'cause you treat me so bad
Alberta what's on your mind
Alberta let your hair hang low
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