Key To the Highway - Big Bill Broonzy

Key To the Highway - Big Bill Broonzy

2:35

single, 1941

Attributed to Charlie Segar and Big Bill Broonzy

The authorship of this song is disputed, but Broonzy's arrangement has become standard.  It's a languid eight-bar blues about an itinerant bluesman who leaves his lover to get on the road.  Now, here is the problem, and it's reminiscent of my issue with "Last Night" by Little Walter.  Spotify has two versions of this song by Big Bill.  One is 3:03, has a lot of vinyl crackle, and features a deeper vocal, washboard and harmonica.  This seems like it might be the 1941 session.  The other one, the shorter version that I'm featuring on this post, is accompanied mostly by guitar, the singer draws out the "yeeesss" at the start of several lines, and has different lyrics.  Is this song even Broonzy?  It sounds too clean to be from 1941. If it is him, it's got to be a later recording.  Am I listening to a lie??  Oh well, I prefer it.

Just Rocking - Big Bill Broonzy

Just Rocking - Big Bill Broonzy

2:40

single, 1949

Written by Big Bill Broonzy

This is a fine example of postwar bawdy blues, in which "rocking" is a clear euphemism for, well, let's let Big Bill tell it with his genial good humor: "Me and my baby, we knows what's it all about / We start in in the hall / We don't wait until we get in the house / We love to rock at night / And we feel the same way every day."  Accompanied by a bopping saxophone, piano, and drums, the song chugs along, perhaps restrained compared to similarly-themed rockabilly of a decade later, but the spirit is the same—grinning, rhythmic, and built to make you move.

Just a Dream - Big Bill Broonzy

Just a Dream - Big Bill Broonzy

2:48

single, 1939

Written by Big Bill Broonzy

A laid-back blues, with plenty of boogie-woogie piano.  Broonzy recounts a dream in which he has a date with an angel, and another in which he has a big family, but then he wakes up to find them gone.  Then, he has another dream: "Dreamed I was in the White House, sittin' in the President's chair / I dreamed he's shaking my hand, and he said, 'Bill, I'm so glad you're here'."  Of course, this fantasy dissolves when he awakes as well.  It could have happened, had he lived to see Obama in that chair!