Message Board Archive: Thread Number 99

One of my favorites of Lemon's slow blues in C, but I just can't make
out (or make sense out of) a couple of words... Here's what I have thus
far:
Change My Luck Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson
Hey, hey, mama
That risin' sun done gone
I say hey, hey, mama
That risin' sun done gone
I just can't see
What in the world is you waitin' on
I got another mama
She ain't long [an'] or tall
I say I got another mama
She ain't long [an'] or tall
But to tell you the truth, man
She is soft as a butterball
She got Elgin movements
>From her head down to her toe
She got Elgin movements
>From her head down to her toe
And she can break in on a dollar
Man, most anywhere she go
She was my best mama
But she wouldn't treat me right
I said she was my best mama
But she wouldn't treat me right
She wouldn't do nothin'
But barrelhouse all night long
I'm gonna get me a mama
I mean with lots of [buck]
I'm gonna get me a mama
I mean with lots of [buck]
I'm gonna be gone mama
So I can change my luck
Spoken: Be gone, mama. Be gone
In the second verse, I can't imagine that Lemon would be so careful
about Boolean conditions as to explicitly specify an inclusive "or"
condition. Is he saying something other than the usual "long or tall"
description? Since the saying is usually "long AND tall", I thought he
was just stumbling over the little change he wanted to make... seems
weird that he stumbles twice in exactly the same way, though.
In the last verse, is he actually saying "buck"? If so, does this have
the same colloquial meaning we would ascribe to it today (money, of
course!)?
Thanks,
Frank