Memphis Minnie - Sylvester And His Mule Blues descargar videos gratis

From the Memphis Minnie: Let's Go To Town ( The Blues Collection, 1996)...BLU NC 076

Recorded January 10, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois; Memphis Minnie, vocal and guitar; poss. Jimmie Gordon, piano

This Depression-era song tells the story of how a poor Mississippi farmer Sylvester Harris called the White House in 1934 to save his mortgaged farm. President Roosevelt himself picked up the phone and helped him. The news went nation-wide and Memphis Minnie made a song out of it the following year. According to The New York Age Sylvester Harris' telephone call to the White House took place on February 19, 1934.

Columbus, Miss. --- Sylvester Harris, who operates one of the most successful small farms in this section, made a personal appear [sic] to President Roosevelt by telephone last week, and his plea saved his property from being sold in a foreclosure action. After several unsuccessful attempts to contact the President at the White House, the colored farmer finally got Mr. Roosevelt on the phone and said: "I'm Sylvester Harris, down in Mississippi. A man is getting ready to take my land and I want to know what to do. The papers say to call you, and here I am." The President is reported as having replied, "Sylvester, I'll investigate and you'll hear from me." This telephone conversation occured on February 19. Since then George Hamilton, local representative of the New Orleans Federal Land Bank, received a telegram from Washington requesting investigation of the mortgage on Harris' farm, and an adjustment was worked out through extension. ~ New York Age, March 10, 1934 (source: "Roosevelt's Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR" by Guido Van Rijn)

LYRICS:

Sylvester went out in his lot, he looked at his mule,

And he decided, he'd send the president some news.

Sylvester walked out across his field, begin to pray and moan,

He cried, "Oh, Lord, believe I'm gonna lose my home."

spoken: Play it, Jimmie!

He thought about the president, he got on the wire,

"If I lose my home, I believe I'll die."

He called the president, on the telephone,

"I wanna talk to you, I'm 'bout to lose my home."

First time he called, they get him somebody else,

"I don't wanna talk to that man, I want to speak to Mr. President Roosevelt."

He said, "Now Sylvester, you can rest in ease,

Catch that big, black jackass, and go on by your field,"

He said, "Sylvester you can rest in ease,

You can catch that jackass, go and raise all your cotton and seeds."

Photo: Sylvester Harris standing beside his mule in front of his farm house near Columbus, Mississippi, LOC