Knopfler, Mark - Cool Drink Of Water Blues Lyrics

U.S. Prohibition 1920-1933

If there is devil music it's the delta blues

The quality of this is amazing to be from 1928

90 years gone by and Tommy Johnson gives me the sweet shivers.

respect master

I was watching a documentary about demonology.. and it's been said that this guy sold his soul to the devil... I have to say it surely sounds like that.... this stuff is eerie but still amazing.

It's sad that their will never be another artist like this.This is real music.No producers no fancy record label shit.Just pure music at its finest

There*. Don't throw rocks when you live in a glass house...

A Delta Blues genius. Hail Satan

Growing up I remember this song by the mighty wolf

Check out The Gun Club's version great cover!

A timeless human expression!

I'd take that deal.

Jeffery Lee Pierce (RIP) and the Gun Club got me here. Now I know the source of his vocal style.....

Same thing hear. I'm not a big blues fan however JLP's versions of blues songs I do like.

People seem to not understand the difference between blues and delta blues. There is a difference. Find it

This tune grabbed my attention. Thanks for posting.

did he also sold his soul to the devil Tommy jonhson

Devil got something from him for sure

Your grammar is absolutely horrible

he is buried in a christian graveyard, so.... no. he sold his soul to alcohol, sure had a bitter life, but what a blues shouter !

This is the haunting stuff. I’ve known about this guy for years, but lately finally heard his music. Robert Johnson knocked me for a loop 30 years ago. I’ve been in love with this music ever since. Through the years I’ve had a pretty meager collection of Delta blues, but I’ve been digging lately on YouTube for these gems. This is the shit. Like RJ, Skip James, Son House, Blind Lemon, Blind Willie Johnson, their best stuff to my ears is the dark, spooky songs, that get under your skin, and never get old. Anyway, thanks for sharing this music. ✌️

Check also Kid Bailey, Willie Brown (M&O Blues), and Charly Patton of course

Gray - I’ve had a similar journey and similar taste in blues as you. Skip, Son, Tommy, RJ - the “dark blues”. That’s what I want.

I also have a penchant for this so called haunting song, or songs that just get under your skin in some way and they never really get old. I think we tend to here that sound a bit more in the delta country blues stuff like this song here but certainly not limited to. Try Robert Wilkin's That's No Way To Get Along. To mention a few others right off the top of my head, first that comes to mind would be Robert Johnson's Hellhounds On My Trail, or check out Bukka T. White's original recording of Shak'em on Down or Missisppi Fred McDowell's version of the same song, Blind Wille Johnson's Dark Was The Night - Cold Was the Ground is another for sure, but for sure check out Robert Wilkin's That's No Way To Get Along and also Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard's The One I Love Is Gone

howlin wolf- i asked for water

This sounds like hell

Miguelizk00l you came back to comment once again after dissing him over 4 years ago lmao

fuck off, wetbag.

this track is spending

Smokestack lightning borrowed the basic structure from the song. The guitar part and singing

You hear Smokestack Lightning. I hear Crossroad Blues. I think we're both right.

The second guitar on here is Ishman Bracey, something I just learned and feel anxious to share.

I got to Tommy Johnson through Robert Nighthawk, and what they put together is at the root of what I love, and just great on its own.

Thanks for the info on Bracey. The great great old music. Also John Dudley doing this piece for Alan Lomax. Those were the greats.

Wrong the second guitar here is Charlie or Papa Charlie Mccoy he plays here and on "Maggie Campbell"

@Moris Foster you are correct, papa charlie mccoy was a mandolin player too so thats why some of the second guitar sounds like a mandolin

you can hear the mandolin runs ,doah.

Criminally underrated.

Very very good blues my goodness i have heard a lot but like this is very special.

Good stuff!

Tommy Johnson – Cool Drink Of Water Lyrics
I asked for water
Then she give me gasoline
I'd ask for water
Gave me gasoline
I asked for water
Then she give me gasoline
Lord, Good Lordy, Lord

Cried, Lord I wonder
Will I ever get back home?
Cried, Lord I wonder
Will I ever get back home?
Lord, Good Lordy, Lord

I went to the depot
Looked upon the board
I looked all over
How long had this eastbound
Train been gone?

He done taken your faror
Blown his smoke on you
He done taken yo'r
Blow'd the smoke on you
Lord, Good Lordy, Lord

Lord, I ask the conductor
'Could I ride the blind?'
'Wanna know could a broke man
Ride the blinds'
'Son, buy yo' ticket, buy yo' ticket
'Cause this train ain't none of mine

'Son, buy yo' ticket
Train ain't none of mine'
'Son, buy yo' ticket
'Son, this train ain't none of mine'
Lord, Good Lordy, Lord

'Train is none of mine'.

Ty sweetheart 🙂😎

It's great to see this music preserved

Thank you. I never could understand what he sang.

foobird58 thanks. It was hard to hear some parts

@Rhoda Yackez me too 😂

Anyone notice something in the title? (1928 Delta)

This shit won't even get me to the shelta

A classic example of the real and early Delta blues. Terrific sound!!

Outstanding bluesman of the old school! Wonderful singer.

........Been searching for an original version of this song by Tommy Johnson for like years, etc., thanks, Gunter...!! It's nice to see that there are others out there who love the real THANG, the original artists like Tommy Johnson and Son House, Robert Johnson, if their playing and singing don't make the hairs on the back of your neck and forearms stand up w/ their eerie, haunting wails,  yet fluid picking and note changes, something's wrong....!! I'm just amazed at how many people make comments about his alcoholism and rough life-style, etc., folks, IF you lived back then in the Delta region of Mississippi and all along the eastbound "Cotton is king Bible belt" row of southern states like Missouri, Arkansas, Bama, etc., life WAS THAT BAD,  times 5,000 % , period...!!! Picked cotton for 15hrs a day  from 5a.m. till  9p.m. or worse , your hands bled badly,  w/ venomous snakes all over and biting insects, and 120 degree heat, and then went "home" to a shack with no electricity - meaning NO AC OR HEAT - or running water, no medical drs for themselves or their children , etc., ,(YIKES.....), but even THAT didn't break their  collective spirit, and they'd LIVE for the chance to  go to & play at their local illegal "Juke-Joint" bars way out in the sticks in each community, from getting to the place about 10p.m. and shutting the place DOWN at 5a.m. or whenever, and  play their guitars & other instruments & drink, dance, fight (LOL) and have some fun.for once in life ...!! These folks not only KNEW what bad , hard times were, and how those times  felt, they LIVED THEM every day!!(Just look at how Robert Johnson died, WOW, some older white fool jealous husband  of a woman (The husband supposedly owned the juke-joint Johnson was playing in at that time , etc...) gave him a bottle of rye whiskey loaded  with Rat poison !!!!! Trust me, that's a terrible way to die !!) Long live the founding, original blues playing men and women both, because without THEM...??? (LOL....) About 1/3rd of the music genre's that exist today would have never been created afterwards , and these men and women did it with like  NOTHING, borrowed, often  low quality guitars and bass guitars and other instruments, basic amps if any, etc.,their passion for life and their voice & sound was all they had , so they made it COUNT  !!! The harder a life anybody has today, the better they can understand the blues, for sure !! Thanxx again, Gunter ..!! Chef David, Tuesday, 3/10/15, 3:16p.m..............................//////////////////////////////////////////////

yep, sounds like deep southern blues;
 good one..

.......Yeah, sure, OK,  I'm drunk , yeah, (LOL) nice "name" there " BRUH"..(& restricted yet, GOOD..) , I'd be careful throwing stones at people, you leave yourself open by showing your hubris and ignorance, etc., see..., there's 4 or 5 of us here that know all about music and can play it on instruments & don't worry about a word count, etc., so go back to your I T job and D & D games , OH. WAIT - ., so , wait, what comment did you make again, ....."Contact Info".......???(LOL...)...Tell me the main augmented difference between a Mississippi Delta Blues Shuffle in E minor no 3rd vs.  a North Carolina  Flatt & Scruggs  Blues shuffle in G major w/ a C bridge...?? Pardon, come again........???Couldn't quite hear you........., you were too RESTRICTED..........Sunday, 10/04/15, 1:34a.m.....................................///////////////

Chef David Mitchell Great comment, you put it all together.

cook me up some blues chefman

Personally I've never gotten a particular feeling for the blues. Sorry. Just not my Thang. What I do enjoy is hearing current versions which then take me to the original artists.

Jack White broke into this song in the middle of one of his one time in a concert, it was beautiful and soft, yet powerful... just like here. So thanks to Jack White for me knowing this artist and song! :)

haunting, atmospheric and beautiful.............haters go fk yaselves. This IS the BLUES.

Can someone please get rid of the comment below, thank you

Can someone please get rid of the comment below, thank you

Fact: he sold his souls to the devil and this song sounds like the devil was fucking him in the ass while he sang this song!

While it may not be literally true that he sold his soul to the devil, he sure sings like he's possessed...

: )Blues( :

something tells me that this guy has smoked some peyote.

alcohol make miracles!!!!

"he done take your pharaoh, blown his smoke on you". May be another version of "fair brown" or "fare". Know any other songs with blues pharaohs? I remember a few, but nothing off hand.

Maybe "Faro" as in a cheap cigarette?

He looked on the board and asked how long this eastbound train been gone. The saying he took your
fare 'O and blow his smoke on you: best I can tell is he missed his train because he asked some women for water and she gave him "gasoline" (strong alcohol) causing him to miss the train. Arriving at the platform ticket in hand, realizing he lost his fare 'O as train just left the station blowing smoke in his face...causing him to try and ride the next train blind.

@D Perry "faro" is slang for a woman/girlfriend in this context, sometimes pronounced "faror" - see this: https://www.americanbluesscene.com/the-language-of-the-blues-faro/

His voice...my God!

Aww, Tommy Johnson... the master!

He's my favorite. This is one of his BEST!

this is a haunting song played by an itinerant alcoholic who lived down on skid row which was pretty good for a bluesman in those days

Remarkable, haunting, version. Released on Feb. 3rd 1928 by Victor Records - 84 years ago today.

That's as bad ass as it gets.

His friend Houston Stackhouse also did a version of this song. I am not sure Howling Wolf ever sang this song.

Creepy.

I love howlin wolf's rendition of this, but you know the original is always better.

LYRICS??? .....anyone??

fantastic! tis making the snow here in glasgow fade away!

Water for black and water for YOU motherfuckers....

@timjmoran ....LOL....you just can't understand why a "black" man may be suicidal in 20s and 30s Mississippi?.....seriously?????

LOL it wasn't just Mississippi in those days. Black men often had it even worse in the big cities up north.

They were actually left alone a little more in the deep south in that era, they just had to stay in the "negro" areas.

@RagtimeDorianHenry ....running out of booze happened a lot....DURING PROHIBITION!

That's some high quality shit for the late 20s

wow.. what a great & unique voice.. never heard ANYbody like this in the early Blues
canon... kinda like John Jacob Niles meets Blind Blake er sumthin'... truly unique.
he must have heard someone yodeling at some point ( I know I am stating the obvious here!!) Shame he had such an obviously self-destructive bent.

Thanks for this comment. I had never heard of John Jacob Niles and "Go away from my window" really hits the spot.

@Clepto202

Yes, shoe polish.
I think that was right before his unfinished album, "Don't Need No Doctor"

Tommy was the real deal man. They say he may have started the whole "sell your soul" thing even before Robert Johnson did.

as someone who likes to drink more than he should, I can relate

im in love with tommy johnson, hes a frikkin amazing blues artist

classic delta blues

he drank the 'canned heat'

Suck on that Jimmie Rodgers!

Very Nice Bro!!