Lord, Send Me An Angel - Blind Willie McTell

Lord, Send Me An Angel - Blind Willie McTell

2:55

single, 1933

Written by Blind Willie McTell

I really don't think there's anyone quite like Blind Willie McTell; there's no overstating his songwriting and influence.  In addition to being a great 12-string player with a unique voice, he wrote songs that mixed the profane, the lecherous, and the surreal in a brew sampled often in the later works of Bob Dylan.  This song begins with the narrator asking God for an angel; the best God can send him is a "teasin' brown."  Some verses boasting of his attractiveness to women follow, and then, in a whiplash-causing change of topic, some advice about not eating black hens' eggs, and: "My baby studyin' evil, and I'm studyin' evil too / I'm gonna hang round here to see what my babe gon' do."  He has three women after him!  "One is Atlanta yellow, another one Macon brown / But the Statesboro darkskin will turn your damper down."  So... now you're forewarned.

Dying Crapshooter's Blues - Blind Willie McTell

Dying Crapshooter's Blues - Blind Willie McTell

3:11

single, 1940

Written by Blind Willie McTell

McTell recorded this song three times, but this is the original version, as evidenced by the spoken-word introduction, in which he says it's a song "I made myself, originally this is from Atlanta."  Interestingly, he wrote it around 1927 and it was recorded in that era by several different women blues singers, but he didn't commit it to wax until 1940.  Over a sparse twelve-string, McTell lays out the hallucinatory dying wish of the funeral of a gambler who used "crooked cards and dice," shot by the police; the reason is not given.  The dying man demands, among other things, police in his funeral march, the high sheriff at the head playing blackjack. "One foot up, a toenail dragging / Throw my buddy Jesse in the hoodoo wagon."  A marked card on his hearse, the judge putting dice in his shoes.  "I want nine men going to the graveyard / But only eight mens comin' back."  It's an eerie, surreal vision, the revenge poetry of the damned, and it's easy to see how this ironic black humor inspired Dylan's later, similarly hallucinatory jeremiads.

You Was Born To Die - Blind Willie McTell

You Was Born To Die - Blind Willie McTell

single, 1933

2:51

Written by Blind Willie McTell

First off, anyone who is anyone knows, ain't no one plays the blues like Blind Willie McTell.  I've been a fan for decades, but he recorded a lot, and I'm not intimately familiar with it all.  From the title, I assumed this was an example of his Christian material — you know, the curse of the tree of forbidden knowledge, dust thou art, all that — but this isn't the case.  Instead, it's an example of the well-worn blues "woman done me wrong, she better watch out" trope.  The narrator is unhappy with a woman who "Stays out in the street / And acts like a bad-foot clown."  (Note to self: add "bad-foot clown" to insult repertoire.)  Over masterful twelve-string work, McTell let's us know she's been doing him wrong!  "I'm home at morning / Face full of frown / I know about that, baby / You′ve been running around."  Face full of frown!  McTell was a master wordsmith.