T for Texas
T for Tennessee
T for Tennessee
T for Thelma
That gal that made a wreck out of me
Jimmie Rodgers was the first country star and is called the Father of Country Music. He is also called The Singing Brakeman and The Blue Yodeler. He was massively popular and others got their start imitating him like Roy Rodgers and Gene Autry. Rodgers had a deep love for Texas and all it represented. He drew inspiration from his travels and experiences across the country.
I never heard Rodgers version until the internet. I had read where a young George Harrison mention that he was a big influence on him. I do know this song well by Lynyrd Skynyrd who Ronnie Van Zant was influenced by him. They took this 1928 song and turned it on its ear.
Rodgers recorded this at what used to be Trinity Baptist Church in New Jersey. The record company Victor (later RCA Victor) was launched in Camden, New Jersey in 1901 and, in 1918, purchased Trinity Baptist Church, at 114 N. Fifth St., in order to have a space large enough to record a symphony orchestra, with good acoustics. Many artists recorded there including Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and the Carter Family. At the time of his death in 1933, his sales represented 10% of the total for the label. Even during the Depression his records sold well.
The song was released on February 3, 1928. Why the yodels? Rodgers said he saw a troupe of Swiss yodelers doing a demonstration at a church. They were touring America, and he just happened to catch it, liked it, and incorporated it into his songs. Altogether he wrote 13 Blue Yodels.
It’s been covered in every decade since. According to secondhandsongs.com it’s had 71 versions. Jimmie Rodgers died at 35 from a pulmonary embolism that was a direct result of tuberculosis he was diagnosed in 1924. He passed on May 26, 1933.
Journalist John Lilly wrote about the original song in 1992: It generated an excitement and record-buying frenzy that no one could have predicted. … The lyrics made an obvious connection to the southern states, talked about hard times with women and work, and had a macho, slightly dangerous undertone. Not only were these to be recurring themes in subsequent Jimmie Rodgers songs, (he re-worked these ideas for a total of 13 ‘Blue Yodels’ but they continue as themes in country songwriting to this day.”
Blue Yodel No 1 (T For Texas)
T for Texas
T for Tennessee
T for Tennessee
T for Thelma
That gal that made a wreck out of me
If you don’t want me mama
You sure don’t have to stall
You sure don’t have to stall
‘Cause I can get more women
Than a passenger train can haul
I’m gonna buy me a pistol
Just as long as I’m tall
Just as long as I’m tall
I’m gonna shoot poor Thelma
Just to see her jump and fall
I’m goin’ where the water
Drinks like cherry wine
Drinks like cherry wine
‘Cause this Georgia water
Tastes like turpentine
I’m gonna buy me a shotgun
With a great long shiny barrel
With a great long shiny barrel
I’m gonna shoot that rounder
That stole away my gal
‘Druther drink muddy water
Sleep in a holler log
Sleep in a holler log
Than to be in Atlanta
Treated like a dirty dog
…
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That’s going way back Max! I’ve never seen that LS treatment of the song, on its ear indeed! I think you have a typo Max The ‘Swinging’Brakeman
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Thank you! I dont’ know where that W came from lol.
They did a good job on the song…I’m glad Van Zant would mention who it was also.
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Yes I agree it’s great when they announce the writer of the song
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In the 1500s, shepherds begin using these distinctive calls to round up cattle and communicate with others across the Alps. Up in the mountains it is not so easy to talk to each other, so the Alpine shepherds would yodel to each other, as a way to call across from one mountain to another. Certain sounds and notes actually meant words, so in a way, yodeling began as a kind of melodic language of the mountains.
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Sorry Jim! I didn’t see this when you posted. That is interesting… it worked for Rodgers for sure.
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You mentioned that you never heard the Rogers recording, so I popped it in for you.
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Love the yodeling!
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What a voice the guy had.
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I’d heard his name but had no idea who he was. So all 13 ‘Blue Yodels’ were different songs, but featured his yodelling?
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Yes…the number system messed me up as well. I always knew the LS version of it. He was THE MAN of country music…Gene Autry started off by doing knockoffs of Jimmie Rodgers songs….kind of like K-Tel later on I guess…but people loved it.
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Had only heard the chorus on that song before and didn’t listen to the rest. Love Rodgers version and I think Skynyrd ramped it up with honor. Rodgers was a smart guy to add in the yodels. They convey so much feeling especially when it comes to heartache.
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Like Randy said…I’m glad Van Zant usuallly announced the writer. Rodgers voice was fantastic…and yes I never thought about it but the yodels do add that.
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I had no idea until now but in the mid ’50s I recall an older brother mastering this Jimmie Rodgers’ yodelling. We must have had an old 78 record or something…
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I missed this one Max. Jimmie still sounds pretty good. First time I heard this was by Tompall Glasser on the Outlaws album with Waylon, Willie and Jessie. Obviously they were all big Rogers fans.
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Tompall Glasser…I haven’t heard that name in a while…I just checked it out…very cool version CB.
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It’s still playing around in my head.
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One of the strange stories of record company history is when Warner Reprise convinced the Everly Brothers to record a country rock album called Roots. Weird because the Everly Brothers were always country rock, no matter what you called the music. That album is real good, and has my favorite version of this song.
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