Rollin' and Tumblin'

"Rollin' and Tumblin'"
Written by	Traditional
Published	1929
Language	English
Form	Blues
Original artist	Hambone Willie Newbern[1]
Recorded by	Robert Johnson, 1936 Sonny Boy Williamson I, 1938 Muddy Waters, 1950 Elmore James, 1960 Cream, 1966 Canned Heat, 1967 Bonnie Raitt, 1972 Johnny Winter, 1968 Eric Clapton, 1992 Jeff Beck, 2001 Bob Dylan, 2006 Jenni Muldaur, 2007 Cyndi Lauper, 2010 R.L. Burnside, various years
Performed by	Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton

"Rollin' and Tumblin'" is a blues song that has been recorded hundreds of times by various artists.^[2] Considered as a traditional, it has been recorded with different lyrics and titles. Authorship is most often attributed to Hambone Willie Newbern or McKinley Morganfield (aka Muddy Waters).

History

Blues recordings

The song may bear relation to "Minglewood Blues", recorded January 30, 1928 by Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers.^[1] Parts of the tune and harmonica accompaniment are similar to "Rollin' and Tumblin'". The earliest recorded version is "Roll and Tumble Blues" by Hambone Willie Newbern (Okeh 8679), recorded March 14, 1929.^[1] Other bluesmen recorded their own versions—such as "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day" by Robert Johnson in 1936,^[3] "Brownsville Blues" and "The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair" by Sleepy John Estes, "Goin' Back to Memphis" by Sunnyland Slim, and "Rollin' Blues" by John Lee Hooker. The best known version became Muddy Waters' "Rolling and Tumbling," with Ernest "Big" Crawford on bass, for the Chess brothers' Aristocrat label in 1950. Leonard Chess insisted that Waters record the song less than a month after Waters had recorded a version for the rival Parkway label, featuring his band mates Little Walter and Baby Face Leroy Foster.^[4] The Parkway label credits the Baby Face Leroy Trio, with vocals by Leroy, and Muddy Waters as the songwriter. Elmore James recorded the song as "Rollin' and Tumblin'" in 1960, with himself credited as author. In 1961, Howlin' Wolf recorded "Down in the Bottom," which employed a new set of lyrics and was credited to Willie Dixon.

Rock recordings

Since the 1960s the song has been played and recorded by hundreds of blues-rock bands, including Cream on their 1966 debut, Fresh Cream, Johnny Winter on his 1968 album The Progressive Blues Experiment, Canned Heat on their 1967 eponymous debut, Blues Creation on their debut album (1969), Eric Clapton for his 1992 Unplugged album and 2004's Me and Mr. Johnson, by Jeff Beck in 2000 on You Had It Coming, Gov't Mule on Life Before Insanity, and recently by Bob Dylan for his 2006 album Modern Times. Dylan claims authorship of the song on most versions of his record. While musically the arrangement is very similar to the Muddy Waters version, Dylan's introduces all new verses, though retaining the two opening lines. A version of the song can be seen on Dr. Feelgood's "Going Back Home" show from 1975 which was released on DVD back in 2005 and The Grateful Dead covered the song live in concert many times under many different names, including "Minglewood Blues," "The New Minglewood Blues," "The All-New Minglewood Blues," and "The New New Minglewood Blues."

The Yardbirds recorded the song for their 1967 album Little Games with different lyrics under the name "Drinking Muddy Water," probably a reference to Muddy Waters. The album credits Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page and Keith Relf as the songwriters. The same year, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band recorded "Sure 'Nuff n' Yes I Do" as the opening song on their debut album, Safe As Milk, which also uses the tune with different lyrics. "Sure 'Nuff" was credited to Captain Beefheart with lyrics by Herb Bermann.

Delta bluesman Johnny Shines recorded a version called "Red Sun" (1975), with the traditional music but different, prison-themed lyrics.

The Derek Trucks Band has recently included a version of "Meet Me at the Bottom" in their sets.

Mississippi Hill Country Bluesman R. L. Burnside also recorded several versions of what he entitled "Rollin' Tumblin'".

Description

The song features a simple, percussion-driven beat, usually with a distinctive slide guitar accompaniment punctuated by harmonica and vocals. The lyrics consist of verses (but no chorus) that have varied over time from artist to artist. The first line is typically "I rolled and I tumbled, I cried the whole night long." The first line of each verse is repeated once, and then followed by a conclusion—the usual three-line structure for a 12-bar blues lyric.

The chordal structure, however, departs significantly from that of twelve-bar blues. The defining feature of the song is that each verse begins on the IV chord, which after two measures resolves to the I chord (e.g., in the key of C this would be the F chord to the C chord). Often the IV chord moves to IV♭7 on the second measure or the last two beats of the second measure.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Titon, Jeff Todd. Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis. University of Illinois Press, 1978, p. 124
2. ^ Allmusic as of March 2008
3. ^ Wald, Elijah (2006). Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. 
4. ^ Gordon, Robert G. (2002). Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. , p.100

References

• Gordon, Robert G. (2002). Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-32849-9. 
• Rypens, Arnold (2000). The Originals. Vox. ISBN 90-76695-02-4. 
• Wald, Elijah (2006). Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-052423-5. 

External links

• "Minglewood Blues" — an MP3 file of the 1928 version by Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers.