Brain Cloudy Blues - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

Brain Cloudy Blues - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

2:44

single, 1947

Written by Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan

This song is a mix of honky-tonk and swing, with hints of bluesy guitar licks in the solo.  I thought it would be about being clouded by alcohol, but it's lyrically more of a typical blues song.  "My brain is cloudy, my soul is upside-down / When I get that lowdown feeling, I know the blues must be someplace around."  The narrator asks his love to treat him right.  Wills makes brief, humorous, reactive comments between the lines, which are sung by Duncan.  Bob Dylan cribbed a line or two of his "Quit Your Low Down Ways" from this song, including the drawn out way Duncan sings "You're gonna need, you're gonna neee-eee-heed my help some day."  Dylan also may have gotten "Don't the sun look lonesome goin' down" form "It Takes a Lot To Laugh" from this song's "Don't that sun look good goin' down." (Wills interjects dryly, "It's electric lights you're lookin' at.")  

Corrine, Corrina - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

Corrine, Corrina - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

3:25

single, 1940

Written by Charlie McCoy and Bo Chatman, 1928

I thought this song was traditional, but I guess it's credited to the people who first recorded it.  Everybody and their brother has done this song, even Cab Calloway!  I've heard a couple, but am really only familiar with Bob's version.  Anyhoo, this is a great example of jaunty Western swing.  It's a honky-tonk blend of steel guitar twang, piano, and big-band shuffle styles.  The vocal is heavy on aw-shucks personality ("I love Corrina / You know darn well I do"), peppered with cowboy interjections.