When old Hannah [2] go to beamin'
When old Hannah go to beamin'
When old Hannah go to beamin'
Lord God Amighty [3]
When old Hannah go to beamin'
When old Hannah go to beamin'
When old Hannah go to beamin'
In them long hot summer days
Make you want to see your mama
Make you want to see your mama
Make you want to see your mama
Lord God Amighty
Make you want to see your mama
Make you want to see your mama
Make you want to see your mama
In them long hot summer days
Everybody gets worried
Everybody gets worried
Everybody gets worried
Lord God Amighty
Everybody gets worried
Everybody gets worried
Everybody gets worried
In them long hot summer days
When old Rattler [4] go howlin'
When old Rattler go howlin'
When old Rattler go howlin'
Lord God Amighty
When old Rattler go howlin'
When old Rattler go howlin'
When old Rattler go howlin'
In them long hot summer days
When the bosses go to squabblin'
When the bosses go to squabblin'
When the bosses go to squabblin'
Lord God Amighty
When the bosses go to squabblin'
When the bosses go to squabblin'
When the bosses go to squabblin'
In them long hot summer days
Make you want to walk the water
Make you want to walk the water
Make you want to walk the water
Lord God Amighty
Make you want to walk to water
Make you want to walk to water
Make you want to walk to water
In them long hot summer days
Long Hot Summer Days
Anonymous
[1] Flatweeding is the Texas convict term for any kind of work done with a hoe — building roads, busting clods after a tractor has gone through and turned up dry ground, turning turf, cleaning ditches, chopping cotton.
[1] Il termine «flatweeding» (lett.:diserbo meccanico superficiale o sarchiatura - ndr), usato dai detenuti del Texas, indica qualsiasi tipo di lavoro svolto con una zappa: costruire strade, rompere le zolle dopo che un trattore ha solcato il terreno asciutto, rivoltare il tappeto erboso, pulire i fossati, raccogliere il cotone.
[2] Old Hannah - Among some African-Americans, the term Hannah means “the sun.” This sense is memorialized in the lyrics of “Go Down Old Hannah ” *a work song from the 1930s. One writer said of this haunting melody: “About 3 o’clock on a long summer day, the sun forgets to move and stops, so then the men sing this song.”
A WAY WITH WORDS
https://waywordradio.org/hannah-sun/.
* Si rimanda a proposito alla pagina di CCG dedicata a
"Go Down Old Hannah"
[3] Amighty sta per Almighty (Onnipotente)
[4] Rattler: name for the archetypal tracking hound; it is traditional still to name one hound on each prison Rattler
[1] Il termine «flatweeding» (lett.:diserbo meccanico superficiale o sarchiatura - ndr), usato dai detenuti del Texas, indica qualsiasi tipo di lavoro svolto con una zappa: costruire strade, rompere le zolle dopo che un trattore ha solcato il terreno asciutto, rivoltare il tappeto erboso, pulire i fossati, raccogliere il cotone.
[2] Old Hannah - Among some African-Americans, the term Hannah means “the sun.” This sense is memorialized in the lyrics of “Go Down Old Hannah ” *a work song from the 1930s. One writer said of this haunting melody: “About 3 o’clock on a long summer day, the sun forgets to move and stops, so then the men sing this song.”
A WAY WITH WORDS
https://waywordradio.org/hannah-sun/.
* Si rimanda a proposito alla pagina di CCG dedicata a
"Go Down Old Hannah"
[3] Amighty sta per Almighty (Onnipotente)
[4] Rattler: name for the archetypal tracking hound; it is traditional still to name one hound on each prison Rattler
Contributed by Pluck - 2026/5/22 - 18:28
Language: English
Long Hot Summer Days - Clyde Hill & other unidentified inmates - 1939
Testo della worksong Long Hot Summer Days nella versione di Clyde Hill, accompagnato da altri detenuti non identificati, registrata da John A. e Ruby T. Lomax alla Clemens State Farm di Brazoria, Brazoria County, Texas, United States il 16 Aprile 1939.
"Long Hot Summer Days" is another work song of the fields into whose cadences the prisoners have distilled the slow pain of their long, hot summer days of forced labor.
They say that in the penitentiary in the early days, when these songs were composed, "You worked from can to can't-from when you can see in the morning until you can't see at night."
This choral work song style has been recently noted, so far as I am aware, only in Texas; but it was evidently a common type of song in the days of slavery. (Alan Lomax - 1942)
La traccia audio della durata di 1:29 è la #15 dell'album compilation:
Field Recordings Vol. 6: Texas (1933-1958) ℗ 1997 Document Records DOCD 5580 - Released on: 2005-09-13
Field Recordings Vol. 6: Texas (1933-1958) ℗ 1997 Document Records DOCD 5580 - Released on: 2005-09-13
"Long Hot Summer Days" is another work song of the fields into whose cadences the prisoners have distilled the slow pain of their long, hot summer days of forced labor.
They say that in the penitentiary in the early days, when these songs were composed, "You worked from can to can't-from when you can see in the morning until you can't see at night."
This choral work song style has been recently noted, so far as I am aware, only in Texas; but it was evidently a common type of song in the days of slavery. (Alan Lomax - 1942)
Captain, I due to be In Seminole, Oklahoma,
Captain, I due to be in Seminole. Oklahoma,
Oh, in them long hot summer days.
Captain, I'm gonna walk and talk with Alberta,
Captain, I'm gonna walk and talk with Alberta,
Oh, in them long hot summer days.
Black gal, if I never more see you,
Well, black gal, I say if I never more see you,
Oh, in them long hot summer days.
Black gal, I'm on my way back to Arizona,
Black gal, I'm on my way back to Arizona,
Oh , in them long hot summer days.
Captain, I due to be in Seminole. Oklahoma,
Oh, in them long hot summer days.
Captain, I'm gonna walk and talk with Alberta,
Captain, I'm gonna walk and talk with Alberta,
Oh, in them long hot summer days.
Black gal, if I never more see you,
Well, black gal, I say if I never more see you,
Oh, in them long hot summer days.
Black gal, I'm on my way back to Arizona,
Black gal, I'm on my way back to Arizona,
Oh , in them long hot summer days.
Fonte della nota introduttiva e del testo :
AFS L 3 : Afro-American Spirituals,Work Songs,and Ballads
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS + MUSIC DIVISION
ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN FOLK SONG 13A. 2.
https://it.scribd.com/doc/290693453/Afro-American-Spirituals-Work-songs-and-Ballads
L'album e la serie di registrazioni sul campo "AFS L 3: Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, and Ballads" sono stati pubblicati originariamente su disco in vinile (78 giri) nel 1942 dalla Music Division della Library of Congress.
L'opera è stata poi ripubblicata nel formato LP 33 giri (sotto il codice AFS L3) a partire dal 1956 e successivamente ristampata in CD nel 1998 dalla Rounder Records. Le registrazioni originali sono state effettuate da John A. Lomax negli anni '30
AFS L 3 : Afro-American Spirituals,Work Songs,and Ballads
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS + MUSIC DIVISION
ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN FOLK SONG 13A. 2.
https://it.scribd.com/doc/290693453/Afro-American-Spirituals-Work-songs-and-Ballads
L'album e la serie di registrazioni sul campo "AFS L 3: Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, and Ballads" sono stati pubblicati originariamente su disco in vinile (78 giri) nel 1942 dalla Music Division della Library of Congress.
L'opera è stata poi ripubblicata nel formato LP 33 giri (sotto il codice AFS L3) a partire dal 1956 e successivamente ristampata in CD nel 1998 dalla Rounder Records. Le registrazioni originali sono state effettuate da John A. Lomax negli anni '30
Contributed by Pluck - 2026/5/24 - 19:17
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"Long Hot Summer Days" - Joseph "Chinaman" Johnson and group, flatweeding [1] Ellis Unit, March 22, 1966 (59-A)
The subject matter of this song needs no explanation for anyone who has ever experienced the Texas Gulf country in the bottomlands below Houston in the summertime, the months when heat blasts down from above, rises up from the ground, and seems to ripple horizontally across the fields all at once, the long summer when almost no rain falls but the air stays so humid that nothing dries except when hung in direct sunlight. The sun rises hot and red and goes down hot and red, and tempers and temperatures rise at about the same pace.
FOLKSTREAMS
Wake Up Dead Man Audio Recording
Recorded and edited by Bruce Jackson
A production of the Center for Studies in American Culture, State University of New York at Buffalo.
Library of Congress #74-750921.