Hesitation Blues
Encyclopedia
"Hesitation Blues" is a popular song adapted from a traditional tune. One version was published by Billy Smythe, Scott Middleton, and Art Gillham
. Another was published by W.C. Handy as "Hesitating Blues." Because the tune is a traditional tune many artists have given themselves credit as writer, frequently adapting the lyrics of one of the two published versions. The adaptations of the lyrics vary widely, though typically the refrain is consistent with the original. The song is a jug band standard and is also played as blues
and sometimes as western swing.
. About 1914 they joined a band and went to Los Angeles
. They passed their traveling time making up verses to a traditional tune. When they returned to St. Louis the trio went their separate ways. Art Gillham
remained in St. Louis, Billy Smythe went to Louisville, Smythe's brother-in-law Scott Middleton went to Chicago
. In 1915 Billy Smythe published their musings as "Hesitation Blues" but not crediting Art Gillham.
A dispute over the credits was resolved a few years later when Art Gillham and Billy Smythe began writing other songs as a team with the sheet music stating "by the writers of Hesitation Blues".
One of the first Popular recordings of this song was an instrumental version by the Victor Military Band, with authorship attributed solely to Billy Smythe. It was made on 15 September 1916 at the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden New Jersey factory. This recording stayed in the Victor's Catalog as the A-side of Record Number 18163 until January 1923.; in February 2009, a video presenting the audio of that recording was added to YouTube.
The song was also recorded for Edison Records in 1919 by Al Bernard
and exists as a Blue Amberol cylinder recording and as an Edison Diamond Disc matrix recording. Audio files of this recording are preserved at the Cylinder Digitization and Preservation Project of the University of California Santa Barbara.
Art Gillham
performed the song on radio and on February 25, 1925 recorded it for Columbia Records
as one of the first electrical recordings (Master 140390, released as Columbia 343-D). The recording has 9 verses including:
Going down to the levee
Take a rockin' chair
If the blues doesn't leave,
I'm going to rock away from there.
refrain:
How long do I have to wait
Can I get you now
Or must I hesitate?
Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
I've got a black haired mama
That the rains can't rust.
refrain
The song was republished in 1926 giving credit to the three writers. The 1926 publication was a different arrangement with different lyrics added to the 1915 publication.
The 1964 version by the Holy Modal Rounders
featured the first use of the term "psychedelic
" in popular music in the verse "Got my psycho-delic feet, in my psycho-delic shoes, I believe lordy mama got the psycho-delic blues, tell me how long do I have to wait, or can I get you now, or must I hesitay-ay-ay-ate". The original sleeve notes (as reproduced in the CD notes) state "A Charlie Poole hit. Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers recorded an incredible number of songs that are personal favorites of mine."
's 369th U.S. Infantry "Hell Fighters" Marching Band, Esther Bigeou
, Eartha Kitt
, Lena Horne
, and Louis Armstrong
. W. C. Handy, in his Blues Anthology stated the tune was from an old spiritual.
says "The traditional folk melody of the 'Hesitation Blues' is the leitmotif for this poem." Throughout the poem, Hughes placed musical direction for the poem on the right margin of each page. The direction calls for performance of song several times in the poem sequence. In his biography of Hughes Arnold Rampersad
says the song's chorus, which asks, "How long must I have to wait?" emphasizes Hughes's impatience with the progress of the civil rights movement
.
Artists who have recorded the song include:
Art Gillham
Art Gillham, , was an American songwriter, who was among the first crooners as a pioneer radio artist and a recording artist for Columbia Records....
. Another was published by W.C. Handy as "Hesitating Blues." Because the tune is a traditional tune many artists have given themselves credit as writer, frequently adapting the lyrics of one of the two published versions. The adaptations of the lyrics vary widely, though typically the refrain is consistent with the original. The song is a jug band standard and is also played as blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and sometimes as western swing.
Smythe, Middleton and Gillham Version
The three men were involved in the music publishing business in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. About 1914 they joined a band and went to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. They passed their traveling time making up verses to a traditional tune. When they returned to St. Louis the trio went their separate ways. Art Gillham
Art Gillham
Art Gillham, , was an American songwriter, who was among the first crooners as a pioneer radio artist and a recording artist for Columbia Records....
remained in St. Louis, Billy Smythe went to Louisville, Smythe's brother-in-law Scott Middleton went to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. In 1915 Billy Smythe published their musings as "Hesitation Blues" but not crediting Art Gillham.
A dispute over the credits was resolved a few years later when Art Gillham and Billy Smythe began writing other songs as a team with the sheet music stating "by the writers of Hesitation Blues".
One of the first Popular recordings of this song was an instrumental version by the Victor Military Band, with authorship attributed solely to Billy Smythe. It was made on 15 September 1916 at the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden New Jersey factory. This recording stayed in the Victor's Catalog as the A-side of Record Number 18163 until January 1923.; in February 2009, a video presenting the audio of that recording was added to YouTube.
The song was also recorded for Edison Records in 1919 by Al Bernard
Al Bernard
Alfred A. Bernard was an American vaudeville singer, known as "The Boy From Dixie", who was most popular during the 1910s through early 1930s.-Life:...
and exists as a Blue Amberol cylinder recording and as an Edison Diamond Disc matrix recording. Audio files of this recording are preserved at the Cylinder Digitization and Preservation Project of the University of California Santa Barbara.
Art Gillham
Art Gillham
Art Gillham, , was an American songwriter, who was among the first crooners as a pioneer radio artist and a recording artist for Columbia Records....
performed the song on radio and on February 25, 1925 recorded it for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
as one of the first electrical recordings (Master 140390, released as Columbia 343-D). The recording has 9 verses including:
Going down to the levee
Take a rockin' chair
If the blues doesn't leave,
I'm going to rock away from there.
refrain:
How long do I have to wait
Can I get you now
Or must I hesitate?
Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
I've got a black haired mama
That the rains can't rust.
refrain
The song was republished in 1926 giving credit to the three writers. The 1926 publication was a different arrangement with different lyrics added to the 1915 publication.
The 1964 version by the Holy Modal Rounders
Holy Modal Rounders
The Holy Modal Rounders were an American folk music duo from the Lower East Side of New York City which started in the early 1960s, consisting of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber. Their unique blend of folk music revival and psychedelia gave them a cult-like following from the late 1960s into the 1970s...
featured the first use of the term "psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
" in popular music in the verse "Got my psycho-delic feet, in my psycho-delic shoes, I believe lordy mama got the psycho-delic blues, tell me how long do I have to wait, or can I get you now, or must I hesitay-ay-ay-ate". The original sleeve notes (as reproduced in the CD notes) state "A Charlie Poole hit. Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers recorded an incredible number of songs that are personal favorites of mine."
Handy Version
The same traditional tune was also arranged by W.C. Handy and published in 1915 as "Hesitating Blues". Handy's version shares the melody, but the lyrics are different. His chorus is a variation on the "how long" lyrics in the Smythe, Middleton and Gilham version. The verse, however, is substantially different, telling a story of separated lovers unable to reach each other by phone. There are many recorded versions of the Handy song, including ones by Prince's Band, James Reese EuropeJames Reese Europe
James Reese Europe was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was the leading figure on the African American music scene of New York City in the 1910s.-Biography:...
's 369th U.S. Infantry "Hell Fighters" Marching Band, Esther Bigeou
Esther Bigeou
Esther Bigeou was an American vaudeville and blues singer. Billed as "The Girl with the Million Dollar Smile", she was one of the classic female blues singers popular in the 1920s....
, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
, Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, and Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
. W. C. Handy, in his Blues Anthology stated the tune was from an old spiritual.
Use by Langston Hughes in the poem Ask Your Mama
At the beginning of his poem sequence Ask Your Mama, Langston HughesLangston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
says "The traditional folk melody of the 'Hesitation Blues' is the leitmotif for this poem." Throughout the poem, Hughes placed musical direction for the poem on the right margin of each page. The direction calls for performance of song several times in the poem sequence. In his biography of Hughes Arnold Rampersad
Arnold Rampersad
Arnold Rampersad is a biographer and literary critic. The first volume of his Life Of Langston Hughes was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He was born in Trinidad and Tobago....
says the song's chorus, which asks, "How long must I have to wait?" emphasizes Hughes's impatience with the progress of the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
.
Artists
Artists who have recorded the song include:
- Louis ArmstrongLouis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
(W.C.Handy version) - Asylum Street SpankersAsylum Street SpankersThe Asylum Street Spankers, formed in Austin, Texas in 1994, was a band whose music was rooted in early 20th century American musical forms. In fall 2006, the band's anti-war satire video "Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV", directed by Morgan Higby Night garnered 1,054,743 views on YouTube within...
- Al BernardAl BernardAlfred A. Bernard was an American vaudeville singer, known as "The Boy From Dixie", who was most popular during the 1910s through early 1930s.-Life:...
- Barney BigardBarney BigardAlbany Leon Bigard, aka Barney Bigard, was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, though primarily known for the clarinet....
- Milton BrownMilton BrownMilton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, "Father of Western Swing"...
- Sam CollinsSam Collins (musician)Sam Collins who was sometimes known as Crying Sam Collins and also, according to one authoritative website, as Jim Foster, Jelly Roll Hunter, Big Boy Woods, Bunny Carter, and Salty Dog Sam, was an early American blues singer and guitarist.-Biography:He was born in Louisiana, United States, and...
- Reverend Gary DavisReverend Gary DavisReverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis, was an American blues and gospel singer and guitarist, who was also proficient on the banjo and harmonica...
- Duke EllingtonDuke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
- The FlatlandersThe FlatlandersThe Flatlanders are a country band with considerable country rock influence from Lubbock, Texas founded by singers/songwriters/guitarists Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock....
- Jerry GarciaJerry GarciaJerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
and David GrismanDavid GrismanDavid Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey... - Art GillhamArt GillhamArt Gillham, , was an American songwriter, who was among the first crooners as a pioneer radio artist and a recording artist for Columbia Records....
(The Whispering Pianist) - W.C. Handy
- Earl HinesEarl HinesEarl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...
- Holy Modal RoundersHoly Modal RoundersThe Holy Modal Rounders were an American folk music duo from the Lower East Side of New York City which started in the early 1960s, consisting of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber. Their unique blend of folk music revival and psychedelia gave them a cult-like following from the late 1960s into the 1970s...
- Hot TunaHot TunaHot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
- James P. JohnsonJames P. JohnsonJames P. Johnson was an American pianist and composer...
- Janis JoplinJanis JoplinJanis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
- KaleidoscopeKaleidoscope (US band)Kaleidoscope was an American psychedelic folk and ethnic band who recorded 4 albums and several singles for Epic Records between 1966 and 1970.-Formation:...
- Lead Belly
- Wingy ManoneWingy ManoneWingy Manone was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, singer, and bandleader. His major recordings included "Tar Paper Stomp", "Nickel in the Slot", "Downright Disgusted Blues", "There'll Come a Time ", and "Tailgate Ramble".- Biography :Manone was born Joseph Matthews Mannone in New Orleans,...
- Sara MartinSara MartinSara Martin was an American blues singer, in her time one of the most popular of the classic blues singers. She was billed as "The Famous Moanin' Mama" and "The Colored Sophie Tucker"...
- Ralph McTellRalph McTellRalph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....
- Willie NelsonWillie NelsonWillie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
with Asleep at the WheelAsleep at the WheelAsleep at the Wheel is a American country music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, but based in Austin, Texas. Altogether, they have won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception. In their career, they have released more than twenty studio albums, and have charted more than twenty... - Nitty Gritty Dirt BandNitty Gritty Dirt BandThe Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California in 1966. The group's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded...
- Old Crow Medicine ShowOld Crow Medicine ShowOld Crow Medicine Show is an old-time string band based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their music has been called bluegrass, Americana, and alt-country, in addition to old-time. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs...
- Charlie PooleCharlie PooleCharlie Poole was an American old time banjo player and country musician and the leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, an American old-time string band that recorded many popular songs between 1925 to 1930.-Biography:...
(If the river was Whiskey) - The RadiatorsThe Radiators (US)The Radiators, also known as The New Orleans Radiators, are a rock band from New Orleans, Louisiana, who have combined the traditional musical styles of their native city with more mainstream rock and R&B influences to form a bouncy, funky variety of swamp-rock they call fish-head music...
- Patrick SkyPatrick SkyPatrick Sky is a musician, singer and songwriter of Irish and Native American ancestry...
- Steely DanSteely DanSteely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
with Marian McPartlandMarian McPartlandMargaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:... - Taj MahalTaj Mahal (musician)Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
- Eva Taylor
- Dave Van RonkDave Van RonkDave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
- Doc and Merle WatsonDoc WatsonArthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...
- Clarence Williams