Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks – 40 Days

I’ve never posted a song on Ronnie Hawkins, and it was about time. I always loved his aggression on stage. I see these old clips of him, and he is everywhere. 

He was born in Huntsville, Arkansas, and became an important in the U.S. and Canadian music scenes. The guy could appear unhinged live, and I love that fact. From the film clips I’ve seen, he was all over the place. In the clip at the bottom, you will see a young blonde-headed Levon Helm on drums. 

In 1958, Hawkins toured Canada with The Hawks and decided to settle there, where he found a huge music scene. He became a Canadian citizen and remained in the country for much of his career. His decision to stay in Canada played a huge part in its rock and roll development.

Chuck Berry wrote 30 Days or Thirty Days (To Come Back Home) in 1955. Ronnie rewrote it as 40 days. Ernest Tubb, Cliff Richard, and The Tractors have covered it. It did really well in Canada, peaking at #4 and #45 on the Billboard 100 in 1959. 

A young Robbie Robertson, then a member of the Suedes, opened for Hawkins and the Hawks at the Dixie Arena in Toronto. He was impressed by Hawkins’ dynamic performance, and Robertson was eager to contribute material when he overheard Hawkins expressing a need for new songs for an upcoming recording session. He stayed up all night to write Someone Like You and Hey Boba Lu, both of which Hawkins recorded for his album Mr. Dynamo. He would join the Hawks in 1961. 

Ronnie is best known for the latter Hawks. In 1961, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and a 24-year-old kid named Garth Hudson would be the Hawks…and eventually break away from Hawkins and form The Band. 

40 Days

I’m gonna give you 40 daysTo get back homeI done called up a gypsy woman on the telephoneI’m gonna send out a world-wide who-do-thatAnd do the very thing that I should, yeahI’m gonna sentence you to be back home in 40 days

Whew! 40 days! (40 days)Whew! 40 days! (40 days)I’m gonna sentence you to be back home in 40 days(40 days)

I’m gonna send out a world-wide who-do-thatAnd do everything that I should, yeahI’m gonna sentence you to be back home in 40 days (40 days)

I heard ’em talkin’ to the judge in privateEarly this mornin’I heard they took it to the SherriffOffice to signed a warnin’

They’re gonna go and call a charge against youThat’d be the very thing that I’ll send youI’m gonna sentence you to be back in 40 days

Whew! 40 days! (40 days)Whew! 40 days! (40 days)I’m gonna sentence you to be back home in 40 days (40 days)

I’m gonna send out a world-wide who-do-thatAnd do everything that I shouldI’m gonna sentence you to be back home in 40 days (40 days)

Whoa, 40 days (40 days)Whew! 40 days(40 days)I’m gonna sentence you to be back home in 40 days(40 days)

I’m gonna go and call a charge against youThat’ll be the very thing that I send youI’m gonna sentence you to be back home in 40 days(40 days)

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

43 thoughts on “Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks – 40 Days”

  2. It really is a great twist on an already great song. Ronnie sure was important to Rock and Roll in Canada and helped, hired or influenced dozens of artists. Never got to hear him play but I did get to see him up close at a bar in owned in my hometown. So that was very cool.

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    1. He really was at that. Glad you got to at least see him. No telling how many shows that man played in his life.

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  3. I shared a beer with him in London, in 80/81. He’d just opened his new bar “Hawks” upstairs from “Johnny Finebones” his restaurant in the downtown area of London. My friend and I went in for a beer, and he came through. He stopped at every table to chat, and bought you a beer. Told tales to everyone there. He was a fixture, too bad the place bombed out pretty fast.

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    1. Oh that is cool that you got to meet him up that close…it’s a drag though that the place didn’t last. He seemed like a guy that would be full of stories.

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  5. He lived relatively near me when I was a kid. I was too young to understand his contribution to music, but everyone knew his name- he seemed a regular on Canadian TV (might have had his own show for a year or two…Randy, ideas?) and played small arenas and things in the area routinely. Hosted John & Yoko for awhile too!

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    1. That is really cool…being that young and him being a cult figure for the most part to some…I can see why you wouldn’t know much. I didn’t know about the TV show though…that is cool. Yea John’s people….didn’t pay the phone bill right away from what I remember.

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  6. the Hawk had a tv show here on the CBC for a while called I think Country Hawk?…I know he won a Juno Award (I guess our version of a Grammy) and was made an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada….along with Jessie Winchester he was an American that stayed and had a huge part of our music history….and of course Bob Seger covered Mary Lou.

    something else not many know, the Hawk did that moon walk way before Michael Jackson was born.

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    1. Cool about the TV show…Dave said he thought he remembered it. The guy was a music and story telling machine. I saw the moonwalk you are talking about…he sure did!

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  7. I like cornball especially when you know what’s behind it. Ronnie and the Hawks were hardcore bar guy so it’s funny seeing them play in front of a bunch of teenage girls in a studio. Levon banging on the skins. No one had more run than Hawkins.

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  9. “Forty Days” was quite a fun performance to watch. While I certainly had heard of the Hawks as the predecessor to the Band, I think that was the first time I actually listened to one of their songs. I don’t recall having heard “Thirty Days” by Chuck Berry. It sounds like “Maybellene” – same beginning, same groove and pretty similar melody! 🙂

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  11. Straight Chuck Berry ‘borrow’ of 30 days- the Hawk just tacked on another 10. But WTH the song rocks out.

    PS; Don’t that Dick Clark hombre look an ornery critter in his buckskin jacket and laid back stetson!?

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    1. Yea… Ronnie brings it back to the rolling medicine show days…
      Dick Clark…my goodness. I can’t help but like him…I think he was a vampire though…the guy never aged.

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  12. Look out, they’re coming to tear it up. That video captured a moment in musical history. And Dick Clark! He looked youthful in his later years, but holy smoke, he is young.

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    1. I told obbverse it’s like he brings back the old medicine show days in the south…
      I’m convinced Clark was a vampire…the guy never aged.

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  14. Great write-up on a cool old song, Max. Ronnie sure looks different than he did on The Last Waltz. This is the first time seeing him young. He’s got that frantic energy that drives young women wild. No wonder Robbie, Levon, Richard, Rick, and “a 24-year-old kid named Garth Hudson” would be drawn to that energy. And the rest is history!

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    1. Me as well…that is why I wanted to do something by him during his prime. He kinda reminds me of John Mayall in the way… he trained a lot of musicians…of course Mayall had more famous results besides Hawkins and The Band.

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