1929 – Diddie Wa Diddie

I must apologize to my loyal readers for the delay in posting this week. I was once again forced to travel, this time to Youngstown, Ohio. Now if you've never been to Youngstown, you're not missing a lot. It's not a bad place. But on the other hand, it's not a great place either.

If you happen to be from Youngstown, well… that's the breaks.

I was trying to decide what to write about this week, and felt it was a great time to introduce Blind Blake. Now, I'm not really sure what you might think of the Blues, but we love it here at the Huntington home and we have an extensive collection of (public domain) blues songs which we always enjoy listening to. We hope you enjoy Blues as well.

Blind Blake, born "Arthur", was a late 1920's artist who recorded some 80 tracks for Paramount. Not a lot is known about Blake. It's guessed that he was born about 1893, and drank himself to death sometime in the mid 1930's (presumably, 1933). And that's about ALL that's known about Blind Blake.

He had a distinct guitar sound that has been stated is similar in style to a ragtime piano.

Here's the only known photograph of Blake. No others are known to exist.

 

In August of 1929 he recorded Diddie Wa Diddie, and we're going to give you a chance to listen to it. I think it's a great, representative, example of Blakes style, while Mrs. Huntington thinks it's a cute name (she's a sick woman). But anyway, here it is below, and as usual, we're going to give you the lyrics so you can sing along!

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Lyrics

 

There's a great big mystery, and it sure is worrying me

This Diddie Wa Diddie

This Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

The little girl about four feet four, come on papa and give me some more,

of your Diddie Wa Diddie, your Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

I went out and walked around, somebody yelled, said, "Look who's in town"

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

Went to church, put my hand on the seat, lady sat on it said, "Daddy, you sure is sweet"

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

I said, "Sister, I'll soon be gone, just gimme that thing you sitting on"

My Diddie Wa Diddie

My Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

Then I got put out of church, 'cause I talk about Diddie Wa Diddie too much

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

Mister Diddie Wa Diddie

I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means.

That's pretty much what Blind Blake was doing on August 17, 1929. And, oh yes, he recorded that in Richmond, Indiana, which is not Youngstown, so that's probably a good thing. 

Phineous Zivick Huntington

July 18, 2007

 

Blues (2 CD disc set) Charley Patton,Blind Blake,Ma Rainey,Skip James,BB King

BLIND BLAKE - THE BEST OF BLIND BLAKE [YAZOO] - NEW CD

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 1:52 am and is filed under Years 1920 to 1929. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.