Parchman Farm (song)

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Mississippi State Penitentiary, colloquially Parchman Farm (historic photograph)

Parchman Farm is a blues title by the US singer and pianist Mose Allison , which can be found for the first time on his album Local Color (published 1957). Musically and lyrically, the song is a variant of Bukka White's Parchman Farm Blues .

Song by Bukka White

Bukka White's blues were recorded in Chicago in 1940 and released on Okeh Records . The title refers to the Mississippi State Penitentiary , built in 1904 , the oldest and largest penitentiary in the US state of Mississippi , which is located in Parchman in Sunflower County , was operated as a profit-making plantation and, due to its harsh prison conditions, especially with regard to the labor performance of the inmates, was notorious. White was imprisoned there after a shooting from 1937 to 1940. After his release, he, who had already had initial success as a blues singer, was able to record other titles, including the Parchman Farm Blues . In it, he denounces the poor prison and working conditions in this prison: "If you are supposed to be okay, stay away from the old Parchman Farm." Together with the Midnight Special published in 1905, the song shaped the image of the southern prison.

Song by Moses Allison

Mose Allison's variant of the title by White was released on his 1957 album Local Color . There he emphasized that he was innocent in prison. Unlike White, he describes the conditions of forced labor in the cotton harvest more precisely. A few years later he wrote a new text full of sardonic ridicule; this New Parchman was first released in 1964 on the album The Word from Mose Allison .

Cover versions

Allison's version of Parchman Farm has been covered by the following artists (year of release, album ):

As Parchment Farm (probably just misspelled) the song was recorded by Blue Cheer (1968, Vincebus Eruptum ) and On Trial (2003, Head ). There is also a version of Dead Moon from 1988, which also goes back to Allison.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gary W. Burnett The Gospel According to the Blues Cascade Books 2014. See also Stephen A. King I'm Feeling the Blues Right Now: Blues Tourism in the Mississippi Delta University Press of Mississippi 2011, p. 126, after which White von was relieved of the hardest work.
  2. cit. n. Stefan Grossman Country Blues Songbook
  3. ^ William Banks Taylor Down on Parchman Farm: The Great Prison in the Mississippi Delta 1999, Ohio State University Press, p. 113
  4. ^ William Banks Taylor Down on Parchman Farm: The Great Prison in the Mississippi Delta 1999, Ohio State University Press, p. 114
  5. Steve Cheseborough Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues University Press of Mississippi 2001, p. 111
  6. SecondHandSongs: "Parchment Farm" - Versions