Hesitation Blues

On March 4, 2010, in It's all about music..., by Wilfried F. Voss

Well, this yet another adventure tour through the fairyland of musical history. For many, many years I do have a CD containing the greatest hits of Ralph McTell, and, besides his most famous song, Streets of London, there was one song that caught my attention, and that song was Hesitation Blues. Not only is it a fun song to listen to, but I always smile at one line in particular: “I have a house full of kids, one of them must be mine.”

Okay, I thought, I just write a little bit about Ralph McTell and “his song” and add the lyrics. As it turns out, it is not his song, and there are several versions of the lyrics including what I believe to be a Ralph-McTell-specific version, because none of the lyrics I found online exactly match his version.

But let’s start from the beginning…

Ralph McTell, born Ralph May in Farnborough, Kent, England on December 3rd, 1944, and raised in Croydon, is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s.

Ralph McTell is best known for the song Streets of London, which has been covered by well over two hundred artists around the world.

McTell’s guitar playing has been modeled on the style of the USA’s country blues guitar players of the early 20th century, including Blind Blake, Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell. These influences led a friend to suggest that he change his professional name to McTell as his career was beginning to take shape.

Hesitation Blues is a popular song written by Billy Smythe, Scott Middleton, and Art Gillham (aka “The Whispering Pianist”). The three men were involved in the music publishing business in St. Louis, Missouri. About 1914 they joined a band and went to Los Angeles. They passed their traveling time making up verses to a traditional tune. When they returned to St. Louis the trio went their separate ways. In 1915 Billy Smythe published their musings as “Hesitation Blues” but not crediting Art Gillham. A dispute over the credits was resolved a few years later when Art Gillham and Billy Smythe began writing other songs as a team with the sheet music stating “by the writers of Hesitation Blues.” During time the song was covered by a great number of artists including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, and the before-mentioned Ralph McTell. Versions of the lyrics vary widely, though the refrain is usually mostly consistent with the original. The song is a jug band standard and is also played as blues and sometimes as western swing.

The following are the original lyrics as recorded by Art Gillham in 1925. Very few of the lyrics seem to have survived to current versions:

Hesitation Blues

by Billy Smythe, Scott Middleton, and Art Gillham

I’m going down to the levee, take a rocking chair
The blues don’t leave me, go rocking with them there
Baby how long, how long I have to wait
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate

I had a sweet mama, so bashful and shy
When she [moves] her underware she plugs the needle’s eye
Baby how long, how long I have to wait
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate

A doctor’s in love with my girl they say
I got her eating apples just to keep him away
Baby how long, how long I have to wait
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate

I’ve met girls on railroad trains and on big river boats
But my good woman got what makes a goodmule eat his oats
Tell me honey, tell your papa, how come you make him do like you do?
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate

Well you must love your neighbours, what the good book say
But that don’t mean to love her, when her husbands away
Baby how long, how long I have to wait
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate

When I got home last night, I wasn’t there at all
I looked through the trash, another mule in my stall
Baby how long, how long I have to wait
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate

I’ve got [ham in my knees], I may be awful dumb
But I got more ideas of loving than Wrigley has gum
How long, how long I have to wait
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
I got a black haired mama that the rain can’t rust
Tell me honey, tell your papa, how come you do things things like you do?
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate

I was born down in Georgia, I was raised in Tennessee
When I get hesitation blues, my mama takes them away from me
How long, how long I have to wait
Can I get you now, or must I hesitate