Monday, September 12, 2005

The Promise True And Grand

Booker T. Washington White was given the nom du disque "Bukka" by a recording technician who couldn't make out the Mississippian's accent. It sticks in my craw that the name has stuck to this day in spite of White's disapproval of it.
  • Booker White - The Promise True And Grand
The second voice on this 1930 recording is credited to a "Miss Minnie"; White claimed it was Memphis Minnie, although the singer here seems to have a stronger vibrato. For all that he was one of the greatest creative geniuses in American music, White was known to string a line. Ask Dick Waterman about that sometime.

Buy some Booker.

posted by Rob Hutten at 2:14 PM  

2 Comments:

mrbgoode@lycos.com said...

I support your endorsement of using White's right name -- for people to always spell it Booker, and for each person to pronounce it however one would say that spelling with their normal accent.

I love this song so much I play it sometimes 5 times in a row before letting the CD go to the next song. My friend Errol calls that a "sweet repeater." I also want to play it on guitar and sing it, but I can't find a song tab anywhere. Tell me if you know of one, or of just a lyric transcription. Meanwhile I will continue my project of figuring out and writing down the lyrics, then later interpreting a chord arrangement. Could take a while, so I'd appreciate any assistance.
I suspect this song is more original than traditional, but tell me too if there is a traditional version, which might use a different title, since I haven't yet found one using White's title.

1:40 PM  
Rob Hutten said...

I don't know of any tab or transcription of this song - I'll take a stab at it sometime, and get back to you.

-Rob

2:16 PM  

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