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Lyrics by: William Bell/ Booker T. Jones Jr.
Born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl. Hard luck and trouble been my only friend, Born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl. I can't read, I didn’t learn how to write Born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl [Spoken: That ain’t no lie.] You know if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have no kind-a luck Born under a bad sign, I been down since I began to crawl Yeah, I’m a bad luck boy, been havin' bad luck all of my days, yeah. “Born Under a Bad Sign” is the fifth song on Pure Blues: 19 Essential Blues Recordings. It was originally a Stax single, recorded on August 3 rd 1966 in Memphis, Tennessee. Albert King is the vocalist and guitarist on this track. Again, the liner notes do not name the pianist or percussionist. I’m unsure of one word: in the third narrative stanza does King say big “leg” or “legged” woman? Albert King and his musicians create a track, that to my ears, mixes the big-band-blues sound with a light touch of the emerging rock-blues. The big-band sound is produced by the horns and baritone sax while the more rocky sound from the guitar. The riff at the beginning of the song (which continues throughout) and the main chord progression reminds me of Jonny Lang’s earlier records which are of the rock-blues genre. The cd liner notes say the King influenced artists “from Clapton to Cray to Stevie Ray Vaughan” and I’m sure Jonny Lang would fit in there as well (5). Robert Santelli acknowledges that it was King’s multi-genre sound that enticed white listeners and helped keep the Blues alive during 60s (269-70). The arrangement of the lyrics is quite unique. Usually, the narrative stanzas are double the length of the chorus, but in this case they are exactly the same length: two lines. The fact that the chorus infiltrates the storyline so often emphasizes and visually actualizes the subject’s perpetual bad luck. The description of the subject’s life is short and sketchy. He was abandoned at the age of ten, is illiterate, loves wine and women and is sure they’ll be the death of him. Perhaps the story is so sketchy because he wasn’t educated and this is really all he can articulate. The line “…been down since I began to crawl...” suggests that the subject never got the chance to be ‘up’ in the first place. His bad luck has left him, metaphorically, on his knees. Kneeling (even on hands and knees in some traditions) is the position of prayer, but the subject relies on superstition rather than religion to guide his life. The subject attributes his bad luck to being “born under a bad sign”, an unlucky astrological sign. Other than references to Hoodoo or Voodoo, this is the first reference to superstition that I’ve heard in a blues song. I had also never heard of the “big legged woman” reference. After some research, the phrase appeared again in Brownie McGhee’s “Big Legged Woman”: “All my life big legged women's all I crave/ I believe to my soul they gonna carry me to my grave”. McGhee is singing about sexual experiences with a big legged woman whereas Lonnie Johnson’s “Big Leg Woman” is a song about admiring the woman’s physical attributes. In the case of Albert King (also McGhee and Johnson), ‘big legged women’ is synonymous with beautiful women. The big legged woman is going to ‘carry’ him to his grave. This could either suggest that she is the cause of his death or that she cares deeply for him, even after his death. The former is more likely; too much of a good thing is going to be the end of the subjects of King’s and McGhee’s songs. Albert King was the first Blues artist to play the Fillmore West and also one of the first to play with an orchestra (the St. Louis Symphony) (Santelli 270). In addition to his musical accomplishments, his induction into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame (1983) proves that King was born under a very good sign (270). Albert King was a Taurus. Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. Pure Blues: 19 Essential Blues Recordings. Universal Records, 2001.
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