Hellhound on My Trail
| Hellhound on My Trail | |
|---|---|
| Robert Johnson | |
| publication | 1937 |
| length | 2 min 36 sec |
| Genre (s) | Blues , Delta Blues |
| Author (s) | Robert Johnson |
| Award (s) | 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress (2003), Blues Hall of Fame (1983) |
Hellhound on My Trail (also Hell Hound On My Trail ) is a blues song that was written and sung by Robert Johnson . It was recorded on June 20, 1937 in the Brunswick Records office building in Dallas, Texas and released as a 78 rpm single on Vocalion 03623 and ARC 7-09-56. As with many of his songs, two versions have been recorded, but take 1 has not yet been found. On the B-side is “From Four Until Late”.
According to the blues historian Samuel Charters, the first and last stanzas are "the best you can find in blues lyrics". The idea of “hellhounds” that sinners will bring was common in the southern United States at the time, and so this idea may have influenced Johnson's text. Musically it is a 12-bar blues, but the lyrics make the song extraordinary.
- I got to keep moving, I got to keep moving
- Blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail
- Mmm, blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail
- And the day keeps on remindin 'me, there's a hellhound on my trail
- Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail
Awards
The song was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame of the Blues Foundation in 1983 and in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame it is one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". As part of Robert Johnson's oeuvre, the song entered the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in the United States in 2003 .
Cover versions
Alexis Korner , Big Joe Williams , Cassandra Wilson , Fleetwood Mac , James Cotton , Peter Green & Nigel Watson Splinter Group, Roger Hubbard, Rory Block , Paul Geremia, David Rea, John Nicholas & Friends, Roy Rogers , Guido Toffoletti, The Mountain Goats , Eric Clapton , Alvin Youngblood Hart
Individual evidence
- ↑ On King of the Delta Blues Singers, Columbia CL 1654, 1961 the spelling was changed to Hellhound on My Trail. Archive link ( Memento of the original from August 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Complete Recordings - booklet, page 54
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20041021094142/http://www.uni-giessen.de/~g51092/Johnson-Dateien/anhang_1.html
- ^ Charters, Samuel (1973). Robert Johnson. New York: Oak Publications. Pages 15-17 ISBN 0-8256-0059-6 .
- ↑ Perhaps Hellhound on My Trail of JT Smith ' The Howling Wof blues influences; In The Howling Wolf Blues No. 3 (Vocalion) states: I take time when I'm out prowling, and wipe out my track with my trail [...] Get home and get blue and start howling, and the hellhound get on my trail. Quoted from: Barry Lee Pearson, Bill McCulloch: Robert Johnson: Lost and Found . 2008, p. 83.
- ↑ The Complete Recordings - booklet on page 43
- ↑ Cover - Info: Hellhound on my Trail
- ↑ Second Hand Songs Hellhound on My Trail
