He ran so fast down in Texas he left his shadow behind

September 29, 2017 5:43 AM

For the music lovers and the racing fans, here is a fine, superfine performance from Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon with a song about a horse.
posted by valetta (6 comments total)

Back when my siblings and I were young children, my father decided he would learn how to play the acoustic guitar so he could accompany himself and sing songs to us at bedtime. He was a success at this, as he was at just about everything to which he applied his mind and energies. The songs he sang were, for the most part, old cowboy songs from his Depression- and War-era childhood knocking around rural Texas with his schoolteacher parents. But being in Cambridge, MA academia plenty of recently-popular folk songs made it in there as well. One favorite was a completely different rendition about the same horse popularized (I think) by Peter Paul & Mary , although it sounded a lot different in dad's low baritone range.
posted by slkinsey at 7:16 AM on September 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

That's why 'Stewball' sounded so familiar! That's a Joan Baez song (at least where I heard it).
posted by Bee'sWing at 7:49 AM on September 29, 2017

Apparently Stewball has many versions, though oddly this one did not make it on to that page.
posted by tavella at 8:27 AM on September 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Though it did make it onto the Mudcat breakdown.
posted by tavella at 8:31 AM on September 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Peter, Paul, and Mary version (mentioned by slkinsey, also the one I remember best) has slightly different lyrics than the others. I just took their 1963 album In The Wind off the shelf to see that it says their Stewball was written by Paul, Mary, the trio's musical director Milt Okun, and Elena Mazzetti (about whom there seems to be almost nothing online).

Stewball was the third single from the record; the first two (both Top 10 hits) were songs by Bob Dylan, Blowing in the Wind and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. Dylan also wrote a long prose poem as the album's liner notes.

This guy points out that John Lennon used the same tune for Happy Xmas (War is Over) in 1971.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:34 PM on September 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Memphis Slim is great. Also recommend Empty Room Blues:

I found a note on the floor
Almost set me off in a trance
She said it's nothing that you've done
I'm just leaving you in advance

posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:22 AM on September 30, 2017