(introductory orchestral music) - [Narrator] This program is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

- Ladies and gentlemen.

Childrens and childs.

Thousand-eyed mosquitoes and bow-legged leopards.

Pull up a seat or either sat on the floor.

I'll tell you a story you've never heard before.

- She's good at taking care of me 'cause I should have been dead 40 years ago, see.

But I was a good marksman.

♪ Kill old gray mule ♪ ♪ Burn down the white man's barn ♪ - Been writing my pieces right out in the cotton field.

- Yeah.

- Plowing.

Cotton field, I hadn't learned no nothing in no town, ain't been to town hardly.

- You know where town was?

- No.

- Sure.

- I worked 12 years, just me and my girls.

Farmed 12 years.

Didn't have no men help at all.

And I mean it.

- Did that band give the team spirit to play and that's singin' gets you pepped away.

(laughing) ♪ Go on, get bad women by me ♪ ♪ But they don't like mine ♪ (harmonica tune) ♪ He's an easy ridin' bugger ♪ ♪ Rarin' to go all the time ♪ (harmonica) - [Alan] These people witnessed the birth of the Blues.

They live them.

This hopping music, laughing at life's ironies and set to a dancing beat.

This amazing mix of Europe and Africa, is America's most distinctive song style.

It's also the product of the folk culture of the Mississippi Delta.

Today, the Blues have gone electric, gone urban and belong to the whole world.

And that's fine, but I'm worried because the folk culture that produced the Blues has almost disappeared.

Now I've spent a lifetime studying ethnic folklore, and in 1931, recorded songs like this one in the Mississippi Delta: ♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Good ol' gal ♪ ♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Good ol' gal ♪ Once, there were scores of such songs.

Now, there are only a few left and only a handful of the older generation remembers them.

The wellspring that's given the world so much is drying up.

Neglected, misunderstood, and unheard.

So today, we give a platform to this vital folk culture and its creators.

We visit picnics and revivals.

We meet the Black pioneers who helped to carve Mississippi out of the wilderness with their work on farm, river, railroad, and levee, creating new a music out of their loneliness and their deprivation.

Music that, once heard, can never be forgotten.

(electric blues guitar riffs) ♪ Oh boy and I'm a long way from home ♪ ♪ Well boy, and I'm a long ways from home ♪ ♪ Oh boy and I'm a long way from home ♪ ♪ Well, it can't do me no good ♪ - [Narrator] This old Blues of the wondering laborer leads us deep into the hills east of the Delta, just as the Southern Appalachians preserved the old English ballad, so the Mississippi Hill country sheltered a fantastic African music that fed the Blues.

(rhythmic electric guitar strumming) This music is from Lexington, Mississippi.

A young Blues man, Lonnie Pitchford is playing his homemade one-stringed electric guitar and his music is amazingly close to the sound this West African produces on his typical one-stringed instrument.

And his instrument looks like the model of a one stringer that Lonnie makes.

(rhythmic strumming) (plucking uhadi) The African musical bow, here played by two Bushman boys, is the oldest of these one-stringers.

Black Mississippians call this instrument the diddly bow, and they make it by nailing a broom wire on the side of the house.

- You wrap it around.

Okay, nail this in.

Tight.

When you tune it, you pull this down... like so.

I don't know if you can hear it too plain, but this is actually tuning it.

(plucking bow sound) Those are actually the songs I would play when I was a kid.

(tin guitar strumming with diddly bow) ♪ Go on, we gon' be gone ♪ ♪ With the sun in our back ♪ ♪ Go on, go on ♪ ♪ Lord oh please go on and save us ♪ ♪ With the sun in my face there ♪ ♪ Yes, yes ♪ (guitar playing) ♪ Hey young baby ♪ ♪ Don't you see ♪ ♪ She's not the thing ♪ ♪ You told me, I must ask ♪ - I don't like to play this but once in a while, you know.

Sometimes I get the blues.

♪ Well ♪ ♪ When my time ain't gone ♪ ♪ Running round ♪ ♪ I'm about to tell you somewhat ♪ ♪ Bring them down, let's go ♪ Now, well, when I first start, I started to make them this way.

All right, I'll show ya.

Well, I touch my tongue with my fingers like this.

Now that's wet.

Then I took my knife, I swung it out like this, swung it out.

Then I lick, got my finger like this.

Then I took the knife and I swung this out.

Then I swung that out.

Alright, got up here.

Got up here.

Got your tongue like this.

(drum and fife music) - All through the Northeast Mississippi Hill country, the fife and drum bands call the folks to summer picnics.

Looking like the spirit of '76, Afro-American style.

This picnic music is a happy relic of the old time South hidden away in the Mississippi Hills.

It's like a reservoir of hot rhythms for the later blues.

And it's a joyous group thing, while the blues tends to be solo and melancholy.

It was the song of the individual farmer caught between poverty and prejudice.

And you hear the first notes of the blues in the work songs he sang.

♪ Ain't it easy ♪ ♪ All the day ♪ ♪ Early in the morning ♪ ♪ Coming back home ♪ ♪ Ain't gonna call me ♪ ♪ I'll be gone ♪ ♪ Down in the bottom ♪ ♪ Of the water, I ♪ ♪ Ache for you, baby ♪ ♪ I'll be satisfied ♪ ♪ Whoa baby ♪ ♪ Whoa baby ♪ ♪ Early in the mornin' ♪ - [Lomax] Generations of steel-muscled, black ax men hacked away at the endless forests of the Delta, bringing daylight into the river bottoms and opening up the richest land in the world for cultivation.

Land suitable for vast cotton plantations, where agriculture became a big impersonal business that grew richer and richer at the expense of hard black labor.

- Well, here we come.

Way back yonder while you wait for your clothes.

Way back yonder.

- [Lomax] They didn't pay you any money at all?

- They pay you 50 cent a day, or 40 cent a day.

35, I picked cotton, 35 cent a hundred.

Pick cotton, chop cotton from sun to sun, 2 bits and 40 cent.

My dad lend us nineteen hundred and he lent us top cotton on a Saturday evening, start at one o'clock and chop til sundown for 20 cent.

That's it.

- [Lomax] As one old time Blues man told me, it take a man that have the blues to sing the blues.

♪ Will you please tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me baby ♪ ♪ Where you be last night ♪ ♪ Yeah, will you please tell me, tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Where you be last night ♪ ♪ Hey!

♪ ♪ Ho ho ♪ - [Lomax] At the bottom of the system, the debt-laden black farmer somehow recall the wailing complaints of his ancestors under West African Kings and in his free-rhythmed ornamented field hollers, the blues melodies began to grow.

♪ Yeah, mama told me, mama told me, mama told me ♪ ♪ Way back before I was born ♪ ♪ There gonna be a far shot coming, coming, coming ♪ ♪ Oh gon' be a rolling stone ♪ ♪ Hyah!

♪ ♪ Oh, hyah!

♪ - Learned to write my pieces right out in the cotton field.

- Yeah.

- Plowing.

Cotton field.

I ain't learned nothing in no town, ain't been to town hardly.

- You know where town was?

- No.

- Sure.

- I learned all my blues in the country.

Right here.

Right in the cotton.

- All right, in the field.

- Field, we're picking the cotton and plowing, picking peas, all that kind of mess.

That's where learned all that mess at.

That's the reason you can't go learn no other pieces.

- [Alan Lomax] Have you been a farmer all your life?

- All my life.

Been farming out here all my days.

Ain't never done nothing but farm.

- Being plow mule in daytime, picking guitar at night.

- That's right.

That's all I do, nothing but a farmer.

- Yeah.

- Daddy and things was a farmer It's all I know.

Raise chickens and a few hogs, something to eat round here.

Farm right down the field, that's all they ever know.

That's all they ever know.

(blues guitar and harmonica) ♪ Oh hard times we're living ♪ ♪ Wherever I go ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, hard times baby gal ♪ ♪ Driving through the door ♪ ♪ Hard times baby girl, driving through the door ♪ ♪ Door to door, drivin' door ♪ ♪ Hard times drivin' through the door ♪ ♪ I ain't wondering how you are baby long ♪ ♪ Blow yonder down ♪ ♪ Stay right here baby girl til you drag ♪ ♪ Stay right here, ol' baby girl, til you drag me down ♪ ♪ Drag me down, til you drag me ♪ ♪ Stay right here til you drag ♪ ♪ Lord, hard times are here already ♪ ♪ Wherever I go ♪ ♪ Hard time, baby girl, drive in the door ♪ ♪ Hard times, baby girl, drive in the door ♪ ♪ Hard times drive in the door ♪ ♪ Hard times, baby girl, drive through the door ♪ - [Lomax] And so, the Blues were born.

Field hollers floating over solid syncopated dance rhythms.

Songs that voiced unspoken anger, the powerful bitter poetry of a hard-pressed people.

- I started the field when I was eight years old.

I used to cry to go to make a day.

And my mother, she didn't want me to go.

So this old white man, not staying too far from us, all of them must be in the field but me.

And he asked for what I was crying for.

I told him I was crying because I wanted to go make a day like the rest of them.

They started me off at a dollar a day.

I was getting just what they was getting.

From then on, I come all the way through.

I cleaned up new ground.

I cut down trees.

I cut wood.

I can cultivate.

I can plow.

I can even sweep.

And then I can plant.

I done did all that, all the way through in my life and days.

I worked twelve years, just me and my girls.

Farm, twelve years.

Didn't have no men help at all.

And I mean it.

(birds calling in distance) (blues acoustic guitar music) ♪ I run down ♪ ♪ To that river ♪ - [Lomax] Many men often left home and farm looking for better jobs along the river.

And these rootless men became the creators and consumers of the Blues.

♪ Oh yes, darling baby ♪ ♪ That's what I'll tell my boy ♪ ♪ You know I'm gon' leave here ♪ - [Lomax] Life on the big white riverboats was hard but it also meant freedom and money to spend and wild, good times for the roustabout.

♪ Come here dog and let's get your bone ♪ ♪ Tell me what shoulder that you want it on ♪ ♪ Everybody- ♪ - [Lomax] These old-time roustabouts had such fond memories of river life that they fixed up a rig to show us how the work was done and the songs were sung.

♪ Hear me gal ♪ ♪ What you been waiting on ♪ ♪ I've been waitin' for my home too long ♪ - One mean one man to take it, he had it on one end and I had it on the other.

Going down the gangplank, going over, over the water.

And we get on and we stagger like that, you know, like we gon' fall with it and just, just keep on rocking.

I worked on the Tennessee Belle, took care of that.

When she used to get low and under, she would make that blow.

And that levee there would be lined with women meeting us.

- [Alan Lomax] What would the blow be?

- Woo.

Woo.

Woo.

Woo.

- You know what she be saying would happen then?

- Yeah?

- What would happen then?

- You would see women coming from everywhere.

- What do they come after for, what do they come for?

- Meeting the men!

- Meeting payday.

- Payday.

- Payday.

Women be there to take their mans.

A whole month, they put them out there 'cause that man off the boat must come, he'll only be there for two or three days then they're going to take him home.

When he, when that boat blows, they put him out.

And he would have to stay gone til the, til the, til the boat goes back out.

- He's a playboy.

- Playboy.

♪ And I went to ♪ ♪ To her house ♪ ♪ And I sat down ♪ ♪ On her steps ♪ ♪ Lord, come right in pretty boy ♪ ♪ My old good man Greg, now left ♪ ♪ Good man Greg died ♪ ♪ Good man Jesse ♪ ♪ Good man Jesse ♪ ♪ Good man Jesse ♪ ♪ Good man Jesse ♪ ♪ Good man Jess now left ♪ ♪ Good man Jess ♪ - [Alan Lomax] Did you guys on the boat know about those men?

- No.

- No didn't nobody.

- No, they didn't tell nobody.

I caught one at my house one time.

- What happened?

- Huh?

I left them right there.

(laughing) Him and her.

I just got my clothes and left them there.

(guitar and harmonica blues music) ♪ Well if I ♪ ♪ Can't come in ♪ ♪ Let me sit down ♪ ♪ 'fore your door ♪ ♪ Lord I'll at least know you're good baby girl ♪ ♪ Your good man never knows ♪ ♪ Good man never ♪ ♪ Good man never ♪ ♪ Good man never ♪ ♪ Good man never ♪ ♪ Good man never ♪ - [Lomax] In the competition for women and a place to stay, the Blues man with his music had a decisive advantage.

As one of them told me, I got a home everywhere I go.

- If I see a woman I wanted, and she just happened to have a good carin' home.

I pick that guitar hard.

I play guitar hard and sing hard.

And I've had women come and kiss me now, that didn't ask me could they kiss me, kiss me right then.

Just grab me and kiss me.

(acoustic blues guitar music) ♪ I said tell me now, sweet mama ♪ ♪ Girl, how you want your rollin' done ♪ ♪ Tell me sweet mama ♪ ♪ Girl, how you want your rollin' done ♪ ♪ She said slow and easy-like, Mama ♪ ♪ Old time rollin' done ♪ ♪ Roll my belly Mama ♪ ♪ Roll me like you roll my dough ♪ ♪ Want you to roll my belly ♪ ♪ Girl, like you roll my dough ♪ (Sonny Boy Nelson laughing) ♪ I want you to roll me sweet mama ♪ ♪ Til I tell you I don't want no more ♪ - [Lomax] And so, the blues man appealed for feminine sympathy and a place to hang his hat.

The favorite subject of the Blues, however, was the troubled relationship between men and women in a disturbed society.

And years before the rest of the world, the people of the Delta tasted the bittersweet of modern alienation.

So that the blues of those days ring true for all of us now.

♪ I told you you could go ♪ ♪ Oh, don't come back this time no more ♪ ♪ Want to make your last time ♪ ♪ Singin' in the bed with me ♪ ♪ Said I told you to your face ♪ ♪ I had another good girl to take me in your place ♪ ♪ Babe it's your last time ♪ ♪ Singin' in the bed with me ♪ ♪ Oh you shake it you can break it ♪ ♪ Hang it on the wall ♪ ♪ Throw it out the wondering on round ♪ ♪ And drive it just before it falls ♪ ♪ Shake it, you can break it ♪ ♪ Hang it up on the line ♪ ♪ I don't want your love 'cause it sure ain't none of mine ♪ ♪ I told you in the spring ♪ ♪ When the birds all begin to sing ♪ ♪ Woman it's your last time ♪ ♪ Singin' in the bed with me ♪ ♪ Well you kicked all my cure ♪ ♪ Off the bed on the floor ♪ ♪ You better be glad to that foot ♪ ♪ You ain't going to get to kick it no more ♪ ♪ Now you wear your mini skirts ♪ ♪ Way above your knees ♪ ♪ Now you can shake your jelly with whoever man you please ♪ ♪ I told you ♪ ♪ You could go ♪ ♪ And don't come back this time no more ♪ ♪ Woman it's your last time ♪ ♪ Singin' ♪ ♪ I mean twistin' ♪ ♪ Doin' that monkey dog ♪ ♪ And that slop ♪ ♪ In the bed with me ♪ ♪ Oh no baby ♪ - I suppose the Blues is about a woman.

If you have the blues about a woman or your wife, anybody and they misuse you, you can always make up a song to sing.

Instead of telling her in words, you can sing that song.

So, when you be singing that song, you gon' have your mind direct on how she done treated you.

- Mm hmm.

(blues acoustic guitar) ♪ I went down ♪ ♪ To that river ♪ ♪ Oh thought I'd jump in and drown ♪ ♪ I thought about the woman I was lovin' ♪ ♪ As I turned around ♪ ♪ I went down ♪ ♪ To that depot ♪ ♪ Asked the man how long the train been gone ♪ ♪ He says it's been gone long enough ♪ ♪ For your woman to be at home ♪ - [Lomax] The railroad was another escape route away from the plantation system.

It also brought jobs with a new sense of competence and higher pay and a new flowering of rhythmic work songs.

- All right.

(nails dinging) - It's a good job.

- [Alan Lomax] Uh huh.

- I mean, you can raise a family with the job.

- [Alan Lomax] Mm hmm.

- It pays pretty good.

Nowadays, I started out here when I did the raider thing back and then you didn't make too much money but it was enough you know, to have a job, you can support your family off of.

- Mm hmm.

- And nowadays it's almost the same thing.

I mean, you a little more money, but the cost of living at this time and age, it all applies it all.

So we just, we just about doing about as well as we did in '45.

- It was good enough for me to put five kids through high school and college too.

Of course it was tough, but I made it.

- Mm hmm, right.

I, I had 17 of them.

- Talk about singing on the railroad is just like a band on a football field.

When it, did that band give the team spirit to play and that singin' gets you pepped away.

(laughing) ♪ All right now ♪ ♪ Up and ready ♪ ♪ Are you ready ♪ ♪ My body's tired ♪ ♪ I'm ready ♪ ♪ Where the dollar lie ♪ ♪ Up and ready ♪ ♪ Where the dollar lie ♪ ♪ Up and ready ♪ ♪ All the time ♪ ♪ Up and ready ♪ ♪ Where the dollar lie ♪ - A lot of men have got hurt handling steel.

Steel is very dangerous.

It's heavy and if you don't, if they hadn't devised some method of handling that steel with a big bunch of men, well they'd always be putting out money on hospital bills and injuries, you see, and they had to have some system to protect that, you know, prevent it from happening all the time.

And at it's best we have accidents with it.

When you come to work on Monday morning at seven o'clock and get out there on a job working, the singing come according to what job you're doing.

Now you take the line and track.

That singing was just a rhythm that the labor used and keeping in time and getting a track aligned like the boss man wanted.

But now, singing wasn't no joy in it whatsoever.

I mean, that was just a part of the way we, we men set up the work to get the job done.

♪ Well the old lady says you're coming to die ♪ ♪ Put her hand on her hip and walked on her thigh ♪ ♪ Good lord have mercy ♪ ♪ Good lord have mercy ♪ ♪ Good lord have mercy ♪ ♪ All right quarterback ♪ ♪ All right all right ♪ ♪ Just a little bit ♪ ♪ Just a hair ♪ ♪ Just a little bit ♪ ♪ Right there ♪ ♪ Just a little bit ♪ ♪ Just a hair ♪ ♪ Just a little bit ♪ ♪ Right there ♪ ♪ All righty ♪ ♪ That's a rabbit ♪ ♪ That's a bear ♪ ♪ Just a little bit ♪ ♪ Right there ♪ - Give it to him in the center.

- Okay.

♪ What did the hen duck say to the drake ♪ ♪ No more crawfish in this lake ♪ ♪ Just dive ♪ ♪ Other side ♪ ♪ Dive ♪ ♪ Other side ♪ ♪ Dive ♪ ♪ Other side ♪ ♪ Dive ♪ ♪ Dive ♪ ♪ Dive ♪ - All right, did we get it?

Move ahead a little bit.

- Move ahead there, one-eye.

Come, on there.

Call the lord, Joey.

♪ All right all right ♪ ♪ Jack the rabbit ♪ ♪ Jack the bear ♪ ♪ Just a little bit ♪ ♪ Just a hair ♪ ♪ Just- ♪ - All right, we gotta move.

Clear the track, train coming.

- I hear you, man.

Draw the line, draw a cry, we'll wait for them all year.

(acoustic blues guitar) ♪ I'm going down ♪ ♪ To that railroad ♪ ♪ Lay my head on a railroad track ♪ ♪ I'm going to think about the woman I'm loving ♪ ♪ Man I'm going to get smashed and die ♪ ♪ You go down in the quarter ♪ ♪ Until my body- ♪ - [Lomax] This is the blues that grew up in the shadow of the levee on which we are riding.

This earth work, thrown up against the Mississippi floods higher and longer than the great wall of China, was piled up by generations of black muleskinners who added a new chapter to the book of the blues.

In the days when the levee camps outdid the wild West in careless violence, the men yonder walked the levee, living the blues.

Walter Brown, Joe Savage, William S. Hart, Bill Gordon.

They're meeting us at this old river tow boat to swap the songs that, African style, they used to encourage their mule teams.

♪ Oh my whipped mule crippled ♪ ♪ And my lean mule plowing ♪ ♪ Lord I want me somebody ♪ ♪ I can't shake a line ♪ - [Alan Lomax] How many people would be singing at one time?

Would everybody- - Oh everybody and anybody.

You couldn't, couldn't, couldn't hear your ear.

And some of them could sing so good til the mules would go to hollerin'.

They just holler.

Just holler, ah.

Ah, ah.

Like it was 12 o'clock or something.

(laughing) - I get out and get on and got my team.

Then get way back on them the line, you know.

Two great big ol' mules.

Face stripes all on them.

The head up in there like that.

And with them harness on him, it weighed in tons, it was hanging all down the side of him.

Just taking the time walking.

Just walking along.

♪ I'm going to be late in the morning ♪ ♪ I'm gon' be late all day ♪ ♪ I'm gon' be late all day ♪ ♪ I'm gon' be late all day ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ I'm gon' be late all day ♪ ♪ With ol' Freddy May ♪ Them beasts, them gon' be steppin'.

(laughs) Just step with me.

They're pulling me up the levee.

They're pulling me up the levee.

I'm just runnin' back on the line.

♪ Oh everybody ♪ - [LOmax] The work season was short.

The dirt had to move.

Mules died by the hundreds.

And as one levee engineer remarked, you could smell those tent cities a mile away.

And there was a buzzard on every fence post.

- You know, people that's been here a few years...

I guess that's why I God didn't kill them all.

He left somebody here to tell the story.

- It'd be so cold out there.

They wouldn't let you, let you go to the fire.

You'd have to let your line slip through your hands.

- [Lomax] I don't understand.

Tell me how that was exactly?

- Like, your wheel would be going along, you've got two mules to it.

And the mules would be going along and you'd walk along and get up to the fire.

- [Alan Lomax] What was the fire doing there?

- The fire, they had a fire built for you to warm going by.

You couldn't stop at it.

Your wheel couldn't stop, but you can let the mules keep it going and let the line slide through your hands until you get to the end and then you got to catch him.

You could never just sit, stop at the fire and warm.

- [Lomax] What would they do to you?

- They'd cut your head.

Beat it with a pistol, a stick or something.

- They'd ride right in the middle of the pit.

- Yeah.

- And old man Brown used to take his hat off his head.

He wore a big white stiff one, real big.

And he'd throw it up and he shoot six holes in it.

Before it, before it hit, hit the ground.

Then he'd tell somebody, now hand me my hat.

And they would hand it to him and he said, "Now, listen, I'm going to whip you if you stand, and I'm gonna shoot you-- I'm gonna kill you if you, if you run.

I want y'all to do so and so and so.

I want you to get me some today.

I got to finish this thing to the station by station time.

Yes.

And is there any question?

When he asked you that he'd have his hand on that pistol.

- Kill a nigger?

Hire another one.

Kill a mule, buy another one.

- What's his name?

- Plenty more, you'd had to wait until it get light enough to go to work.

- That's right.

- You'd be standin' there in the dark.

And when it get light enough, then you go to work.

Then you work in the evening until it get that way.

- Til it get too dark to see.

- You couldn't see how to come in.

- You, you wasn't locked up.

But other than that, it was just like the penitentiary.

They paid you what they wanted.

They give you what they wanted to, wanted you to, to have.

If you didn't do it, somebody's gon' beat you up.

- [Alan Lomax] Now, why did you men go into those places?

That's what we don't understand.

- Well now.

- We didn't know no better.

- You couldn't do no better.

You couldn't do no better.

You was, you was trying to leave their farm for 50 and 75 cents a day and go someplace where you could earn a little bit more money.

But when you get in those places, well then you will earn that money but you didn't, didn't get paid for it.

- Yeah, you'd get out there and they would, they say they gon' give you $15 a week.

That's two and a half a day.

And payday, he may pay y'all and then he may not pay y'all.

He's working out there sometimes two and three months.

And just give you a drag, like 10 or $15, something to gal around in the camp with.

♪ I'm trying to get a payday boy ♪ ♪ Instead they give a drag ♪ - Saddest day.

♪ Was no different in that whoa money ♪ ♪ That the two men had ♪ (blues guitar music) ♪ Kill that old gray mule ♪ ♪ Burn down that white man's barn ♪ ♪ Kill that old gray mule ♪ ♪ Burn down that white man's barn ♪ ♪ I didn't mean no trouble ♪ ♪ I didn't mean no harm ♪ ♪ No ♪ ♪ I want you to love or leave me girl ♪ ♪ Anything you want to do ♪ - [Lomax] Some of the men from the levee have, like many itinerant Delta workers, served time in jail and in the state pen at Parchman.

They brought us out into the Mississippi River bottoms to show us what it was like in the state penitentiary, in the bad old days when they were driven all day in the fields, under the gun.

And it was only their bluesy songs and the strength of working and singing together that kept their hearts alive under the Mississippi sun.

♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Burn it all down ♪ ♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Burn it all down ♪ ♪ I've been calling you for 12 long years ♪ ♪ You won't answer, wonder do you hear ♪ ♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Burn it all down ♪ ♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Burn it all down ♪ ♪ Go head and marry don't you wait on me ♪ ♪ Long haul over and I can't go green ♪ ♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Burn on down ♪ ♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Burn it all down ♪ ♪ You're strong, your fingers ♪ ♪ They're gonna strangle me ♪ ♪ Ran guy brought you when I was free ♪ ♪ Burn Rosie ♪ ♪ Burn it all down ♪ ♪ Work Rosie ♪ ♪ Good ol gal ♪ ♪ They say Rosie with a ♪ ♪ A big lead rose ♪ ♪ Got me wearin' ♪ ♪ These five year overalls ♪ ♪ Oh work hard oh lordy ♪ ♪ Oh work hard ♪ ♪ Got me wearing ♪ ♪ Stripy overalls ♪ ♪ Some kind of booshay ♪ ♪ They gon' break my neck ♪ ♪ Get your foot out with my woman ♪ ♪ I'll kill you dead ♪ ♪ Kill you dead ♪ ♪ Kill you dead ♪ - Now there were seven of us that broke jail together.

We broke this kind of jail and they caught me, they caught me five and a half years later.

Then them, they- - Anyway, you was there 12 years.

- [Lomax] Did they whip you in Parchman when you were there?

Did they still use, did they still whip the prisoners when you were there?

- They whipped us, it was big wide strops, they whipped us with big wide strops.

- [Lomax] What was the, how often, how many blows did they give?

- How many blows did they give?

Just as many as you can stand.

They whip you just- I got two whippings while I was there.

They didn't whip no clothes.

They whip, they got your naked butt.

They had two men to hold you.

- Oh?

- Men at the, men at the knees.

- Two on your legs and two on your arms.

- [Lomax] Did they ever injure anybody that way?

- Who?

- Oh yes.

- Kill 'em.

- They kill 'em like that.

They kill 'em like that.

- They'd kill 'em like that.

♪ Got me through the fever ♪ ♪ I can't see a thing ♪ ♪ They got me queued on forgery ♪ ♪ And I can't even write my name ♪ ♪ Bad luck ♪ ♪ Bad luck is killin' me ♪ ♪ Well I just can't stand ♪ ♪ No more ♪ ♪ The bloody greed ♪ ♪ And I look like hell boy ♪ ♪ I wanna tell you something ♪ ♪ They got me queued for taxes ♪ ♪ And I don't have another dime ♪ ♪ They got me queued for children ♪ ♪ It ain't not one of them mine ♪ ♪ Bad luck ♪ ♪ Bad luck is killin' me ♪ ♪ Well I just can't stand ♪ ♪ No more of this bloody greed ♪ ♪ I'm gone ♪ ♪ Oh baby, so long ♪ - [Lomax] In the society of the blues, it was the church, the only permitted community institution that offered solace to the wounded individual.

And might bring the poor boy a long ways from home back into the human community, through the ritual of conversion.

♪ I don't know where it was done ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Where ♪ - And do you not know tonight one thing I like about God, He's so just tonight.

- [Congregation] Yes.

- God is a just God.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- God is so just tonight.

Kennedy's got to stand before God.

- [Congregation] Yes.

- I said, Rockefeller's got to stand before God.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- And that day your money can't buy you nothing.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- No matter how much money you got, that can't buy with God.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- And look what God said, God said, "You're just a steward" and He lended it to you for a few days.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- And that's not fair.

I remember one Friday morning.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- Out there on Calvary.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- It's them that they have the SON on the corn.

- [Congregation] Yeah.

- And planned that the SUN peeped up and looked at the SON - [Congregation] Yeah!

- And said that the SUN told the SON, two suns can't shine together.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

(crowd and preacher chatter) - And that reminds me that the reason that the sun it reminded me that the sun don't blind His eyes, because He is the sun's Creator tonight.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Look at my God, brother, look at my people, God, tonight.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- That step out that morning and spoke a bloomin' universe into existence.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- God didn't need no hammer, no nail.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Lord didn't need no pliers or no screwdriver.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

Lord didn't need no seasoning mix and no pot no fire in nature.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Oh my God said, let there be light!

Oh when God comes back He's gonna throw away the straw pit, He gon' take away the leaves of compassion.

He gon' take away, I said myself He's on the way back.

There ain't gon' be nothin' left in the nature, but the prize of indignation.

Ain't nothing gon' be left in the matter, but the sharp stick of His mighty wrath.

Oh Lord have mercy.

Let me call the tambourine.

I said, Lord I'll stagger up the way.

I said, He'll stir you up.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- I said, stir you up one day.

He can stir you up.

I said, can He stir you up.

Ah yeah!

If you know it, say yeah.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Yeah!

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Yeah!

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Oh yeah!

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- If I were you, I'd come tonight.

I said I'd try tonight.

How many of you are trying tonight?

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Are you trying?

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Yeah!

Yeah, all right!

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- Are you all right tonight?

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- I said, are you all right tonight?

Oh we are all right yeah!

(woman screaming) Are you all right, all right?

(crowd cheering) Come on.

Come on.

Yeah, come on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know what I'm sayin'.

Yeah.

If you care about him, if you care about him.

Yeah go and love him.

Yeah.

(congregation singing) ♪ If the Spirit they pray ♪ ♪ You are, bring it on Lord ♪ ♪ Do what the Spirit say do ♪ ♪ You gotta do what the Spirit say do ♪ ♪ If the Sprit say do ♪ ♪ You gotta do it lord ♪ ♪ Do what the Spirit say do ♪ ♪ If the Spirit come on ♪ ♪ You gotta honor love ♪ ♪ Do what the Spirit say do ♪ ♪ You gotta do what the Spirit say do ♪ ♪ If the Spirit say do ♪ ♪ You gotta do it Lord ♪ ♪ Do what the Spirit say do ♪ - If Saudi, if Hopeland, if Morning, if Sayan were good enough for my Grandmamma, I don't care what school I finish.

I'm going to do the same thing.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

Right.

- Amen.

Amen, if it were good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- We've come a long way.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- It brought 'em a long way.

- [Congregation] Yeah!

- [Lomax] Many black sermons are poems of epic beauty and their makers are magnificent orators in an African vein.

In the secular world, one finds other masters of language and wit, among the blues man and among the modern street poets, the bards of bar rooms and cafes who make and recite long fanciful poems called toasts in the places where the people gather for their good times.

(rock 'n roll music) - December the 7th, 1941.

- Yeah.

- That's when the Second World War had just begun.

- Yeah.

- The time of Mussolini was over now at this point and trying to get the European countries under Hitler's law.

- Oh no.

- Well, if you have a little patience, I'm gon' to tell it to you.

- Yeah?

- The first thing they done, they got rid of the Jews.

- No.

- But Great Britain got trouble in mind.

- Mm.

- She rushed her poor boys to the firin' line.

- No.

- Now the German bum was in Paris late one night.

- Mm.

- They had to look to American for to get supplies.

They load up the vessel and started to crow about the news about the bag that the vessel would load.

- Shoots.

- Nothing wrong about the sea there.

- No?

- He said, I just can't see why Adolf Hitler tryin' to rule the sea.

He sent him a message right straight from the phone said look here Hitler leave my vessel alone, don't rely the time.

But ol' told Joe, we're back in the States.

Him and Mousilini, they could not communicate.

Oh Japan, with the ocean divide, she wouldn't fight on either side.

She was a nation, not a good novel.

You know what she did, turned it around and bombed Pearl Harbor.

I don't know, but I was told, that's the way Pearl Harbor base got stole.

- Mm mm.

- Now, where we come in at?

Negro soldiers standing at attention they were the poor boy, never to mention.

- Yeah?

- But I'm going to tell you about a colored man, December the 7th in '41, That's when he yanks started buyin' the man to go on.

He stepped on deck and he got dead aim.

And brought a Japanese bomber down in flames.

- Yeah!

- Some got wounded, some got killed, but not Jimmy, no.

God's Holy Bible got to fufill.

I found out later though, just ration on rubber, so his guys leave.

I didn't get my black head in the Philippines.

(laughing) - What you say you can do?

- Oh, I was in the Philippines.

(woman laughing) - Well, back in the jungle at ward D. The bad lions stepped on the signified monkey feet.

- Oh, right.

- That monkey said, "Look lion, can't you see?

Why you stand yourself on my goddarn feet?"

So the lion, the lion said, "I ain't heard a goddarn word you said."

- Yeah.

- But you say two more, I'll be steppin' on your goddarn head.

Well everyday, before the sun go down, the lion would kick his butt all through the jungle town.

- [Crowd] Yeah!

- But the debonair monkey got wise and thought, use a little his whip.

He said, "I'm gon' put a stop to that old rock kickin' stuff."

So the lion jumped up in a bad rage, like a young gangster, full of gage.

He led with a roar, his tail shot back like a 44.

(crowd laughing) He went out through the jungle, knockin' down trees.

Kickin' so red 'til he fell down to the knees.

So he ran up on the elephant, talking to the swab.

Said, "all right you big bad joke, gon' be yours or mine."

So the elephant looked out at the lion with the corner of his eye, and said, "Go ahead on, you little funny bunny martin, go and pick on somebody your own size."

So the lion jumped up, made of fancy pants, the elephant sized up and kicked him dead in the grass.

It messed up his neck, messed up his face, broke all four legs, snapped his you-know-what out of place.

He picked him up and slammed him through the trees.

Nothin' but that stuff, it's funny, you can see.

So he drove his butt back to the jungle, more dead than alive, that he run up to that monkey with some more than signified jive.

(crowd laughing) - Get on down with it, get on down!

- I try!

(drum and fife music) - [Narrator] This program was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.