Roots of Bob Dylan: "Corrina, Corrina"

Bob Dylan recorded his version of the popular standard "Corrine, Corrina" (lyrics from BobDylan.com) with a band (including Bruce Langhorne, Dick Wellstood et al.) on October 26th 1962. One take was released on Freewheelin', another one as a single b-side with "Mixed-Up Confusion". Two solo performances have survived: one studio outtake recorded 24.4.1962 and one live version from Gerde's Folk City 16.4.1962. A demo for Whitmark (November 1962) is not in general circulation.

Though there were "Corrinas" already in 19th century music the original inspiration for the 20th century song family may have been a popular song published in 1918, "Has Anybody Seen My Corinne" by Roger Graham and pianist and songwriter Lukie Johnson. Vernon Dalhart's recording (Edison, 1918) is available from the Cylinder Preservation And Digitization Project, an instrumental version by Wilbur Sweatman’s Jazz Orchestra (1919) can be found on redhotjazz.com.

My girl ran away last night,
I did my best to treat her right,
For no reason I can see
I was crazy 'bout her 'fore she was wild about me.

I'm so worried 'bout to cry
To think she left and never said good-bye
Heartbroken and alone
I want my baby to come home.

Has anybody seen my Corrine?
Oh, she's a dream
She is my baby doll
Just like a banfire
She set my heart on fire

I regret the day,
The day that I was born,
[?] my lovin' Corrina has gone
She has done me wrong

[...]

If anybody has seen my Corrine?
No matter where Corrina may be,
Tell my Corrina to come right back to me,
I want some lovin' sweetie dear.

This song must have been quite popular at that time. In 1919 songwriters Edward B. Ellison and H.H. Sangston produced a follow-up with the title "Lovin' Corrine Is Comin' Home" (sheet music) to tell the world that the girl in fact did return:

[refrain:]
So I'm writing to my Billy boy
That his lovin' Corrine is comin' home.
I'm writing a letter that will make him feel better
And I'm tellin' him that never more will I roam
That my heart is not on my sleeve no more.
But is kept inside with a lock on my door
Oh, about him I'm silly as I'm writing my Billy
That his lovin' Corrine is comin' home

Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Corinna Blues" (1926) refers only in one verse - that looks as if it was inspired by "Has Anybody Seen My Corinne" - to that particular girl:

If you see Corrina, tell her to hurry home.
I ain't had no true love, since Corrina been gone.
I ain't had no true love, since Corrina been gone.
I ain't had no true love, since Corrina's been gone.

In 1927 Frankie “Half Pint” Jaxon recorded a hilarious parody called "Corrine" (revived in 1929 as "Corrine Blues" and in 1939 as "Callin' Corrine", these two versions are available on redhotjazz.com), but that was another completely different work although it might allude to the song by Graham & Johnson.

The very first recording of the "Corrina" known today was "Corrine, Corrina" by Chatman [sic!] & McCoy in New Orleans in November or December 1928 (Brunswick 7080, Supertone S2212, Vocalion 02701).

Corrina, Corrina, where you been so long?
Corrina, Corrina, where you been so long?
I ain't had no lovin', since you've been gone

Corrina, Corrina, where'd you stay last night?
Corrina, Corrina, where'd you stay last night?
Come in this mornin', sun was shinin' bright.

I met Corrina, way across the sea.
I met Corrina, way across the sea.
She wouldn't write no letter, she didn't care for me.

Corrina, Corrina, what you gonna do?
Corrina, Corrina, what you gonna do?
Just a little bit of lovin', let your heart be true.

I love Corrina, tell the world I do.
I love Corrina, tell the world I do.
Just a little bit of lovin', let your heart be true.

Corrina, Corrina, you're a pal of mine.
Corrina, Corrina, you're a pal of mine.
Now she left me walkin', she'll roll in them dimes.

Corrina, Corrina,what's the matter now?
Corrina, Corrina, what's the matter now?
You wouldn't write me no letter, you didn't love me nohow.

Goodbye Corrina, it's fare you well.
Goodbye Corrina, it's fare you well.
When I's gettin back here, can't anyone tell.

On December 17th the same outfit - now calling themselves the Jackson Blue Boys - recorded the song for another label and changed the girl's name to "Sweet Alberta"(Columbia 14397-D), using for the most part the same lyrics but this time including Jefferson's "tell her to hurry home" line.

Tell me, Alberta, tell her to hurry home.
If you see Alberta, tell her to hurry home.
Haven't been no lovin' since she been gone.

And in December 1930 they recycled the same melody for a song called "The Northern Starvers Are Returning Home" (Okeh 8853) so all important record labels had a chance to get a slice of the cake and the musicians managed to get paid three times for one song.

Bo Chatmon played the fiddle. As Bo Carter he was very busy as a recording artist - specialized in "dirty" songs like "Banana In My Fruit Basket" - until 1940. Charlie McCoy - the brother of Joe McCoy, who was married to and recorded with Memphis Minnie - was an excellent guitar player and mandolinist who took part in many recording sessions. In the 30s he and his brother Joe were members of the Harlem Hamfats, a very popular and influential proto-Rhythm & Blues group with horns. The guitar player on this sessions most likely was Walter Vinson who from 1930 on recorded with the Mississippi Sheiks All three were part of a circle of very versatile Mississippi string band musicians . They used to perform everything from current popular songs to Blues both for black and white audiences. From the late 20s to the early 40s they were among the most often recorded African American artists.

"Corinna" is often called a "Folk-Song" or a "traditional". But the history of this song most likely only began with its first recording and I know of no evidence that it existed before that date. It's for example not mentioned in Dorothy Scarbourough's On The Trail Of The Negro Folk Songs (1925). "Stylistic lineages in this song tend to be fairly transparent, suggesting that transmission occurred not orally, but through the recorded medium" (Harvey, p. 21). Bo Chatmon was an excellent songwriter well-versed in Blues, string-band music and popular song traditions. By all available evidence he was the creator of "Corrine, Corrina".

Maybe he was inspired to write this song by the original "Has Anybody Seen My Corinne". This kind of adaptions of popular songs were not that uncommon. The foremost example is of course the Mississippi Sheiks' "Sittin' On Top Of The World". That song's lyrics were built around a line borrowed from the 1926 hit "I'm Sitting On Top Of The World". Their "Lazy Lazy River" (1931) was surely inspired by - though of course very different from - Hoagy Carmichael's "Lazy River" (first recorded in November 1930).

But it's of course also possible that Bo Chatmon simply took that "Corrina"-verse from Blind Lemon Jefferson's song, rewrote it and built a new Blues with a different melody around that topic. The rest of the lyrics look like a pastiche of popular songs and Blues from the 10s and 20s. Songs like "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Nobody's Blues But Mine", "What's The Matter Now" - all recorded for example by Bessie Smith in 1925 and 1926, or "Oh What A Pal Was Mary" - a 1919 Pop hit - may have been the source of some ideas and floating lines.

Among the earliest and most important covers was one by Tampa Red & Georgia Tom recorded in December 1929 ("Corrine, Corrina", Vocalion 1450). This one must have been very successful as they followed it up four month later in April 1930 with "Corinne Corrina No 2" (Vocalion 1496) including a set of new verses. From then on this song became very popular and crossed all race and genre barriers. McKinley Morganfield recalled it as one of the most popular numbers at local dances in Mississippi (Wald, p. 58) and David Edwards in the early 40s performed it at country dances for his white customers (Edwards, p. 117):

"I played all different kinds of music. We'd all play anything to make that nickel - I'd holler my ass off about that nickel! Sometimes white folks would hire me from off the streets to play at country dances. They liked 'St. Louis Blues', 'Bring it On Down', 'Corinna'. They'd dance all over the floor to 'Corinna', them white folks".

There have been a great number of of covers and adaptions, according to one list I saw there were at least 30 until 1945. The Mississippi Sheiks (Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon) renamed her "Alberta" in 1930. Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell adapted "Corrina" in 1934 as "Hold Them Puppies" and wrote some new lyrics. Lead Belly called her "Roberta" (1935) and Big Joe Turner recorded two fine versions of "Corrine, Corrina" in 1941 and in 1956.

Country music artists like the Carter Family (for radio, available on On Border Radio Vol. 2), Milton Browne (1934), Cliff Bruner (1937) and Bob Wills (1940) have recorded it too as have Jazz bands like those of Red Nichols’ Five Pennies (1930, available from YouTube and redhotjazz.com), Cab Calloway (1931), Wingy Manone & His Orchestra (1939, available from redhotjazz.com) or Cajun singers like Leo Sileau (1935) and Lawrence Walker (1940). In 1961 even Ray "Tell Laura I Love Her" Peterson had a hit with that song .

Bob Dylan may have known any of these versions and he surely knew the one printed by Alan Lomax in Folk Songs Of North America (1960) but his adaption was a rather drastic rewrite retaining very little of the original song. "He abandons the happy-go-lucky jugband feel of many interpretations" (Trager, p. 115, line borrowed by Trager from Matthew Zuckerman) and turns it into a slow, mournful Blues. Only very few original lines remain, instead he uses a variant of a verse from Robert Johnson's "Stones In My Passway":

I have a bird to whistle, and I have a bird to sing
Have a bird to whistle, and I have a bird to sing
I got a woman that I'm lovin', boy, but she don't mean a thing

The early live version from April 62 includes some more lines borrowed from Robert Johnson, like the "hellhound" and the "38 Special". In some way he tried to turn it into a "real" Blues á la Johnson and make it different from the Pop-music versions (see Harvey, p. 22). But on the other hand he worked exactly like a Blues writer by taking one element of a song and creating a new one around it. In fact his "Corrina" is so different from the precursors that he could have copyrighted it for himself as it is more or less a new song and not a rearranged "traditional" (besides the fact that this song never was a "traditional"). Interestingly his version became something like another link in the chain: Taj Mahal based his "Corrina" (on Natch'l Blues, 1968, a live performance 2008) on Bob Dylan's variant: he built it around the Robert Johnson - lines and completely abandoned the context of the original "Corrinas".

Sources & Credits:

Many thanks to Stew with whom I discussed this song some time ago & who has supported me with some of the information and links used here.

• "Corrine, Corrine" by Chatman & McCoy is available at: publicdomain4u.com and the Internet Archive
• There were also other songs using the name "Corrina" that are not related to the original, for example Blind Boy Fuller's "Corrine What Makes You Treat Me So" (1937) or Walter Davis' "Corrine" (1939).
• A transcription of Dylan's "Corrina, Corrina" by Eyolf Ostrem is available at dylanchords.info
• Todd Harvey, The Formative Dylan. Transmission And Stylistic Influences, 1961 - 1963, Lanham, Maryland & London 2001, p. 20-22.
• Christopher Waterman, Race Music: Bo Chatmon, "Corrine, Corrina," And The Excluded Middle, in: Ronald Radano & Philip V. Bohlman (ed.), Music And The Racial Imagination, Chicago & London 2000, p. 167 -20 (most extensive discussion of the song's history available at the moment)
• David Honeyboy Edwards, The World Don't Owe Me Nothing. The Life And Times Of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards, Chicago 1997.
• Elijah Wald, Escaping The Delta. Robert Johnson And The Invention Of The Blues, New York 2004.
• Oliver Trager, Keys To The Rain. The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, New York 2004
• Clinton Heylin, Dylan. Behind Closed Doors. The Recording Sessions [1960 - 1994], London 1996
• Olof Björner, Still On The Road: 1962,
• Robert M.W.Dixon/John Godrich/Howard Rye, Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. Fourth Edition, Oxford 1997
• Robert MacLeod, Yazoo 21 - 83, Edinbugh 1992, p. 324 (lyrics of "Corrine, Corrina")
• The "Corinne, Corrina" Website (includes a extensive list of recordings)
• The Traditional Ballad Index: Corrina,
• Cowboy Angel Sings: Corrina,
• James Prescott, Folk Song Index
• Jane Keefer, Folk Music - An Index To Recorded Sources
• Wikipedia (includes now the precursors by Graham/Johnson and Blind Lemon)
• Alan Fraser, Searching For A Gem: 1962 (everything about the single Mixed-Up Confusion/Corrina, Corrina)

This is a slightly revised version of a text first posted in July 2007 on morerootsofbob.com .

Bob Dylan, "Alberta (Let Your Hair Hang Low)"

Bob Dylan recorded "Alberta" for Self Portrait (1970) in two pleasant versions. I always liked this song but story behind it is somehow more interesting than Dylan's recording itself.

"Alberta" is often confused with the songs from the "Corrina"-family. That is a different group of songs that can be traced back to the well-known recording of "Corrine, Corrina" by Bo Chatman (i.e. Bo Carter ) and Charlie McCoy for Brunswick (December 1928). The general problem with "Corrina" and "Alberta" is that there are different songs using the same girls' names - capitalizing on the original song's popularity - and related songs using different girls' names.

So there were other "Corrinas", for example Blind Boy Fuller's "Corrine What Makes You Treat Me So" (1937) or Walter Davis' "Corrine" (1939) and there were other "Albertas". Lead Belly's "Alberta" (1935) is a completely different song, his adaption of "Corrina" is called "Roberta" (1935; and Eric Clapton renamed her "Alberta" when he borrowed this song for his Unplugged concert). Jazz Gillum recorded an "Alberta Blues" in 1938, but that is basically a variant of "Big Road Blues".

This "Alberta" is no 12-bar AAB Blues, it has a different structure (AABA):

Alberta let your hair hang low
Alberta let your hair hang low
I'll give you more gold than your apron can hold
If you'd only let your hair hang low
[...]

Another song of this family with a very different melody but including one verse with related lyrics is "I Wish I Was A Mole in The Ground", recorded in 1928 by Bascom Lamar Lunsford:

I wish I was a mole in the ground
Yes I wish I was a mole in the ground
If I's a mole in the ground I'd root that mountain down
And I wish I was a mole in the ground

[...]

Oh Capie let your hair roll down
Capie let your hair roll down
Let your hair roll down and your bangs curl round
Oh Capie let your hair roll down
[quoted from: Folktunes.org]

"Baby Let Me Follow You Down" - recorded by Dylan for his first LP - belongs to the same family but utilizes yet another set of melodies . As is known this song can be traced back (via Eric von Schmidt and Geno Foreman; Dave van Ronk and The Reverend Gary Davis may have been involved, too) to Blind Boy Fullers "Mama Let Me Lay It On You" (first recorded 29.4.1936). This was an adaption of Walter Coleman, "Mama Let Me Lay It On You" (recorded 8.2.1936) and that song in turn was an adaption of "Can I Do It For You?" (1930) by Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy:

Wanna do somethin' to you.
Wanna do somethin' to you.
Do anything in this world I can,
I wanna do somethin' to you, hear me sayin',
I wanna do somethin' for you.

No, you can't do nothin' to me.
No, you can't do nothin' to me.
I don't care what in the world you do,
You can't do nothin' for me, hear me sayin',
You can't do nothin' for me.
[...]

I can't say at the moment if "Can I Do It For You?" had also been derived from an earlier song. But it produced other offsprings besides "Mama Let Me lay It On You", for example "Don't You Tear My Clothes" (State Street Boys, 1935; Washboard Sam, 1936; Harlem Hamfats, 1937 etc) and "Let Your Linen Hang Low" , recorded in 1937 by the Harlam Hamfats with Rosetta Howard and Joe McCoy on vocals. The lyrics of latter look like a cross between "Alberta" and "Can I Do It For You?":

Let your linen hang low
Let your linen hang low
I'd do anything in the world I know
If you let your linen hang low [...]

These songs all share not only the AABA-structure of the lyrics but also the basic motif: "I'll do anything for you, if you do something or let me do something".

The very first trace of "Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low" is a song collected at an unknown date by Mary Wheeler in Western Kentucky at the Ohio River and published in 1944 in her book Steamboatin' Days, Folk Songs Of The River Packet Era (p. 86/87).

Alberta, let yo' hair hang low,
Alberta, let yo' hair hand low,
I'll give you mo' gold than yo' apron will hold,
‘Ef you'll jes let yo' hair hang low.

Alberta, what's on yo' mind,
Alberta, what's on yo' mind,
You keep me worried, you keep me bothered, all the time.
Alberta, what's on yo' mind?

Alberta, don't you treat me unkind,
Alberta, don't you treat me unkind,
'Cause I'm worried, 'cause I'm bothered, all the time.
Alberta, don't you treat me unkind.

She heard it from Gabriel Hester, a former "rouster":

A few minutes later, the old man obligingly got out his 'box,' and as he touched the guitar strings with gifted, untrained fingers, he sang the lovely melody of 'Alberta, Let Yo' Hair Hang Low'

Otherwise she gives no further information. Of course some phrases are known from other songs but as far as I know the melody hasn't been found anywhere else. It's not unresonable to assume that the singer had written it himself and simply had borrowed some floating lines learned from records or performances. This "Alberta" is clearly a unique creation and Mr. Hester should receive credit as the writer.

The song was reprinted in 1955 in Benjamin A. Botkin's A Treasury of Mississippi River Folklore. Bob Gibson recorded it in 1957 for his LP Carnegie Concert (now available on the compilation Joy Joy! The Young And Wonderful Bob Gibson (1996)). He used the melody published by Ms. Wheeler and in his introductory remark he explicitly refers to her book. This version was also printed in Jerry Silverman's important and influential Folk Blues songbook (1958) and in Sing Out! Vol. 8 No. 3 (1959). The melody is very different from the one later used by Dylan.

• An mp3 of Roger McGuinn singing “Alberta” using Gibson’s melody is available on his Folk Den site.
• A score of the melody is available from the Digital Tradition Database

In the following years the song became something of a Folk Revival standard and it was recorded by other artists, for example:

• Chad Mitchell Trio, At The Bitter End, 1962 (backed by Jim McGuinn, Bill E. Lee and Fred Hellerman)
• Burl Ives, The Versatile, 1962 (as "Lenora, Let Your Hair Hang Low, here credited to Paul Clayton)
• Odetta, Sings Folk Songs (1963, as "Roberta"). In 2001 she recorded it again for Lookin' For A Home , but this time this "Alberta" was conflated with Lead Belly's "Alberta"
• Pernell Roberts, Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies, 1963 (with some additional lyrics & music most likely written by Roberts himself: mp3 ,recording available on bonanzaworld.net )
• Blues Project, Live At The Café Au Go Go, 1966
• Doc Watson, Southbound, 1966 (Roberts' version)
  

Bob Dylan may have known any of this versions but his source and inspiration when recording it for Self Portrait most likely was Sing Out!. A lot of songs recorded in 1969/70 can be found in the pages of this magazine and later reprints. It’s in fact possible to create a concordance between Self Portrait and Sing Out!. These collections obviously helped him to find something to record during these series of sessions either by inspiring him to return to older songs he already knew or by offering songs he didn't know or had already forgotten. As with other songs for this album - for example "Belle Isle" - he created a new melody, maybe because he didn't like the original tune or because he couldn't read musical notation. His version sounds somehow closer to his own "Corinna" and to "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" than to Bob Gibson's "Alberta", but I wouldn’t say it’s “dull” (Gray, p. 3).

Literature:

Many thanks to Stew with whom I discussed these songs at that time & who has supported me with some of the information and links used here.

• Transcription of "Alberta" by Eyolf Ostrem at dylanchords.info
• Mary Wheeler, Steamboatin' Days. Folk Songs Of The River Packet Era, Baton Rouge 1944
• Todd Harvey, The Formative Dylan. Transmission And Stylistic Influences, 1961 - 1963, Lanham, Maryland & London 2001, p. 20-22 (about "Baby Let Me Follow You Down")
• Robert M.W.Dixon/John Godrich/Howard Rye, Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. Fourth Edition, Oxford 1997
• Robert MacLeod, Document Blues 1, Edinburgh 1994, p. 528f (lyrics of "Can I Do It For You Part 1”)
• The Traditional Ballad Index: Alberta, Corrina, I Wish I Was A Mole in The Ground, Keys Of Canterbury
• Recording of "I Wish I Was A Mole in The Ground" c/o Juneberry78s.com but also available at the Internet Archive
• Cowboy Angel Sings: Corrina, Alberta
• James Prescott, Folk Song Index
• Jane Keefer, Folk Music - An Index To Recorded Sources
• Christer Svensson, Stealin', Stealin, Pretty Mama Don't You Tell On Me', Endless Road fanzine No. 4 , 1983 (he was to my knowledge the first one who noticed the role of Sing Out as an important source for Self Portrait)
• BobDylanRoots.com: Eric Von Schmidt (about "Baby Let Me Follow You Down")
• Michael Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, London & New York 2006
• For "Corrina" see this post: Roots of Bob Dylan: "Corrina, Corrina" .
  

This is a slightly revised version of a text posted in July 2007 on morerrotsofbob.com.