booking

[Joe Pickett]

The song in question is actually Robert Johnson's Terraplane Blues.

Here are the lyrics, taken from "Harry's Blues Lyrics Online."

http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/artistswithsongs/robert_johnson_3.htm#terraplane_blues



                    And I feel so lonesome, you hear me when I moan
                    When I feel so lonesome, you hear me when I moan
                    Who been drivin' my Terraplane1, for you since I been gone.

                    I'd said I flash your lights, mama, you horn won't even blow
                    (spoken: Somebody's been runnin' my batteries down on this machine)
                    I even flash my lights, mama, this horn won't even blow
                    Got a short in this connection, hoo well, babe, it's way down below

                    I'm gion' heist your hood, mama, I'm bound to check your oil
                    I'm goin' heist your hood, mama, mmm, I'm bound to check your oil
                    I got a woman that I'm lovin', way down in Arkansas

                    Now, you know the coils ain't even buzzin', little generator won't get the spark
                    Motor's in a bad condition, you gotta have these batteries charged
                    But I'm cryin', pleease, pleease don't do me wrong.
                    Who been drivin' my Terraplane1 now for, you since I been gone.

                    Mr. highway man, please don't block the road
                    Puh hee hee, please don't block the road
                    'Cause she's reachin' a cold one hundred and I'm booked and I got to go

                    Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
                    Yoo ooo ooo ooo, you hear me weep and moan
                    Who been drivin' my Terraplane1 now for, you since I been gone

                    I'm gon' get down in this connection, keep on tanglin' with your wires
                    I'm gon' get down in this connection, oh well, keep on tanglin' with these wires
                    And when I mash down on your little starter, then your spark plug will give me fire

                    __________
                    Note 1: the Terraplane was a 1930's car model of the Hudson Motor Company, see a picture and read more about it.


Joe





Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on 11/07/2000
10:02:23 AM

Please respond to American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>

Sent by:  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>


To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
cc:
Subject:  Re: booking


At 11:40 AM -0500 11/7/00, GEORGE THOMPSON wrote:
>   I am also put in mind of a stanza from an old
>country blues called "Keys to the Highway".  I've not heard this for
>many years, and my very limited blues CD collection doesn't include
>it, so I can't refesh my memory.  Are there any blues hounds in our
>coven?  I recall the version I knew to have been recorded by Big
>Bill Broonzy, probably in the 1930s or 1940s.  In any event, as I
>recall, the stanza goes:  "I've got the keys to the highway, I'm
>booked up and bound to go, I'm gone to leave here running, cause
>walking is most too slow."  Here there is a connection between being
>booked up and the desire for speed.
>
Eric Clapton has a wonderful cover of this piece, very bluesy and
almost ten minutes long, on the Derek and the Dominos album, but it
doesn't sound like there's any "booking", though.  Best I can make
out the verse it's something like

I got the key [yes, singular] to the highway
Deep down in my soul
Got to leave here running
Walking's just too slow.

larry