Original subtitles

Once I had a pretty little girl

I lose my baby,ain't that sad?

Once I had a pretty little girl

I lose my baby, ain't that sad?

You know you can't spend What you ain't got

You can't lose What you ain't never had

Well you know you can't spend What you ain't got

You can't lose What you ain't never had

Won't somebody tell me

Tell me What is the soul of a man?

I'm going to ask the question

Please, answer if you can

I want somebody to tell me

Tell me What is the soul of a man

I want somebody to tell me

Please, answer if you can

I want somebody to tell me

In the summer of 1977...

NASA sent a very special vessel into space.

Voyager.

It was to explore the outer planets of our Solar System...

and then continue its journey into deep space...

never to return.

Voyager has been on its way now for a quarter of a century.

And in case it would ever be intercepted by other inhabitants of the universe...

the spacecraft is carrying on board...

a record with pictures and sounds from Earth.

And messages in 50 languages.

"This is a present from a small distant world...

a token of our sounds and our science..."

Among all these sounds from our planet...

there's also music, traveling through space on the Voyager...

representing human spirit from different cultures and time periods...

and believe it or not...

my voice is out there...

in space.

Yeah! One of my songs was chosen...

to represent American music in the 20th Century.

It's a record I cut for Columbia in 1927...

called "Dark Was the Night".

And I'm Blind Willie Johnson.

By the year of 2003...

Voyager has gotten to the edge of our Solar System.

For my voice to reach you, it needs to travel for more than a half a day...

at the speed of light that is.

Time is relative and...

distance changes your perspective. I can tell you.

I was born in Marlin, Texas around 1900.

Not rightly sure when.

I sang on street corners and at church gatherings...

continued to do so after my successful recordings.

I didn't care none about a career.

I only cared about God and spiritual matters.

Taught myself to play the guitar...

and tuned it to open D to suit my next life style.

Oh, trouble will soon be over

Sorrow will have an end

Oh, trouble will soon be over

Sorrow will have an end

Well, Christ is my burden bearer

He's my only friend

Tell me the end of my sorrow

And tell me to lean on him

Oh, trouble will soon be over Sorrow will have an end

Oh, trouble will soon be over Sorrow will have an end

God is my strong protection

He's my bosom friend

It trouble rose all around me

I know who'll take me in

Oh, trouble will soon be over

Sorrow will have an end

Oh, trouble will soon be over

Sorrow will have an end

Oh, trouble will soon be over

Sorrow will have an end

Oh, trouble will soon be over

Sorrow will have an end

Oh, trouble will soon be over

Sorrow will have an end

Oh, trouble will soon be over

Sorrow will have an end

I was blinded when I was a child. About 7 years old.

My stepmother threw lye into my face...

to avenge a beating my father had given her.

Yeah. Tough luck.

But why talk so much about myself? It was hard times for everybody.

And I looked to the Bible for answers.

What's John writing?

Ask the Revelator

The Book of the Seven Seals

"As it turned out from the very beginning...

prohibition led straight to violence.

Rival gangs...

contraband liquor diluted by a nation's tears.

That can be highly compatible combination.

Here's a young man from back in my day.

He made his living as a bootlegger.

Name was Nehemiah James, from Bentonia, Mississippi.

But folks called him Skippy...

'cause he never stayed anywhere for long.

Skip James.

One evening, his friends tried to make Skip take part in a talent contest...

that was being held at a music store in Downtown Jackson.

Mister H.C. Speirs had already discovered many a bluesman.

He had seen them all, and heard them all.

I'd rather be the devil

Than to be that woman's man

I'd rather be the devil

Than to be that woman's man

Skip James won the contest!

That meant a recording contract with Paramount Records...

and a train ticket to Grafton, Wisconsin...

where the recording was going to take place.

John Henry's body Went to the White House

And they buried it in the sand

Every time a locomotive rolled

"Yonder lays a steel-drivin' man Lord, Lord

Yonder lays a steel-drivin' man Lord, Lord

Yonder lays a steel-drivin' man Lord, Lord

Yonder lays a steel-drivin' man"

Yonder lays a steel-drivin' man"

Yonder lays

Skip James was picked up by the producer for Paramount Records...

Mr. Art Laibley.

In those days, furniture companies made gramophones...

and records too.

That's why the recording facility was located...

in the attic of an old chair factory.

Mr. Laibley was not impressed with Skip's cheap guitar.

So he gave him a company instrument, a "Stella".

Now, Skip had never held anything that pretty in his hands before.

Boy, was he ready to play.

Hard times here Everywhere you go

Times are harder Than ever been before

You know people are drifting From door to door

They can't find no heaven I don't care where they go

People, if I ever get off This killing floor

I'll never get down This low no more

You go to Banglin

Tell all my boys

In Illinois

In Illinois

Illinois

In Illinois

You go to Banglin Tell all my boys

You go to Banglin Tell all my boys

The time I had in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois

The time I had in Illinois

You get there Before I do

You get there Before I do

Tell all my boys I'm coming through

Coming through Coming through

Tell all my boys I'm coming through

Tell me baby Still at night

Tell me baby Still at night

Hope morning Summer bright

Summer bright Summer bright

Hope morning Summer bright

Hope morning Summer bright

Alright, Skip, wherever you are this one's for you.

You know I'd rather be the devil

You know I'd rather be the devil

Than the woman to that man

You know I'd rather be the devil

Than be a woman to that man

You know I'm so sorry

You know I'm so sorry

That I ever fell in love With you

Because you know You don't treat me

Baby Like the way you used to do

I'd rather be the devil

Than to be that woman's man

I'd rather be the devil

Than to be that woman's man

I'm a fucked up soul

I'd rather be the devil

Than be that woman's man

I'd rather be the devil

Than be that woman's man

No

I say nothing but the devil

Would change my babe's mind

No No, nothing but the devil

Would change my babe's mind

Nothing, nothing, nothing

Nothing but the devil

Nothing but the devil

I said nothing but the devil

Would change my babe's mind

Nothing but the devil

I love Cherry Ball Better than I love myself

I'm so glad

And I'm glad I'm glad

I don't know what to do

I don't know what to do I don't know what to do

I'm so glad I'm glad

I am glad I am glad

I don't know what to do Don't know what to do

Don't know what to do

And I'm so glad I'm glad

I am glad I am glad

I'm tired of weeping Tired of moaning

Tired of groaning for you

And I'm so glad I'm glad

I am glad I'm glad

I'm so tired of moaning

The session went on late into the night.

Skip recorded 18 tracks...

on that day in February 1931.

Some traditional, but most, he wrote himself.

They were some powerful songs.

And the session was to become legendary.

I wonder what went through Skip's head that night.

This had been a dream come true, the greatest day of his life.

I wonder.

Did he know he'd marked his place in the history of the blues?

If I send for my baby

And she don't come

If I send for my baby

And she don't come

All the doctors in Wisconsin

They won't help her none

You're talking' about your.44-40

Buddy, it'll do very well

You're talking' about your.44-40

Buddy, it'll do very well

But my.22-20

Lord, it's a burning' hell

If she gets unruly

Thinks she don't wanna do

If she gets unruly

She don't wanna do

I take my.22-20

I cut her half in two

On that second day in February 1931...

they recorded another 8 tracks on piano.

Skip could play both instruments, better than most could play one.

I, I, I

And I can't take my rest

I, I, I

I can't take my rest

And my.44

Laying' up and down my breast

When the recordings finally came to an end...

there was just one issue left...

Skippy left Grafton with just 40 dollars of expense money in his pockets...

but he sure felt like a rich man.

Skip James never saw a red cent from his percentage.

He never even heard any of his own recordings.

Record sales dropped in the early thirties.

The Great Depression was on.

And on radio you could hear music for free.

Paramount released some of Skip's songs in limited numbers...

then they went bankrupt.

Me too, I didn't cut records no more.

Not that it mattered to me much.

I was never after fortune and fame no way...

but I guess the way his records went nowhere...

hit Skip James real hard.

It dawned on him that he had come to a crossroads.

I would rather be dead and

Six feet in my grave

When your knee bone's aching' And your body's cold

Let Jesus lead you

Let Jesus lead you All the way

All the way From Earth to Heaven

Let Jesus lead you All the way

All the way

Let Jesus lead you Let Jesus lead you

Let Jesus lead you All the way

All the way From Earth to Heaven

Let Jesus lead you All the way

Skippy walked away from the blues and his music career.

He "skipped" one life to start another.

His father was a Baptist minister, and he followed in his footsteps.

Skip James started a new life, with the Lord.

You better run Better run, better run

- You better run - Better run, better run

You better run To the City of Refuge

You better run

- You better - Run, run, run

You better run

Skip just disappeared.

The few recordings that were released became precious collectors' items.

The name "Skip James", a legend among blues fans.

Only the man himself had no idea.

But let me tell you about another fella.

In the nineteen-sixties, English kids picked up the blues...

electrified and amplified it, and reached a whole new audience.

John Mayall's tune "THE DEATH OF JB LENOIR"...

impressed a young film student in Germany so much...

that he started to wonder who this JB Lenoir was...

and dug out everything about the man...

who became his all-time blues idol.

Our film student became a director...

who over the years met lots of other folks who loved JB.

They could find no filmed record of their hero.

Until one day, unseen footage of JB Lenoir turned up...

shot in the early Sixties by two art students...

one American and one Swedish.

This is how we met JB Lenoir.

We went to Bob Koester's record store...

on Grand Avenue in Chicago...

and said "Where are the blues going on?"

Once he said Roosevelt Sykes, the pianist...

is having a rent paying party on the South Side.

And at this party was this man who appeared in a zebra stripped tuxedo.

And that was JB.

And we thought he was terrific and we became friends almost immediately.

And the next day he called us up and we talked on and off for very...

and we said please tell us about every place you're going to play in Chicago...

which he did.

And it started with television. We saw this...

show on TV that JB called us up and said: "I'm going to be on TV".

We didn't have a TV but we managed to see it, and...

we thought my God it has to be done different.

Well, the show is interesting. It was a religious show called...

"The Jubilee Hour" or something, and...

both JB and Willie Dixon were in it...

accompanying the gospel singers but their names were never mentioned.

And they just played...

and you were never told who they were, and we thought...

we got to do better than that.

So we were going to Sweden...

and we thought that we would make a short movie...

and take it Swedish television and show them...

something that we wouldn't have to explain.

Well, I feel so good I feel like playing my box

I'm so glad I know What's on your mind

I'm so glad I know What's on your mind

I'm so glad, glad, glad Glad, glad

I'm so glad I know What's on your mind

I feel so good I don't know what to do

I feel so good I don't know what to do

I feel so good I feel I want to play with you

I feel so good I feel like playing my box

I feel so good I feel like playing my box

Give me one more shot I believe my name through the top

I feel so good

I'm so glad I know What's on your mind

I'm so glad I know What's on your mind

I'm so glad I know What's on your mind

I'm so glad I know What's on your mind

I'm so glad I know Glad, glad, glad, glad

Glad I know what's on your mind

I feel

I feel so glad

and each one was in a tuxedo form and a tail coat.

And I asked him, you know, where did you get them from...

and he had them made.

Nobody else had anything like that. He was the first in town.

There was black, white, chartreuse, zebra stripped.

And gold.

So we took the movie with us to Sweden and...

It wasn't a big success.

Well, they said it wasn't very good technically, but we knew that.

They said to us that we should do something in black and white...

because Sweden's TV didn't have color at that time.

So we said fine. We went back to Chicago and...

the next summer we were going to go to Sweden again...

and right before we left we made another movie in black and white...

not much longer. We rented a camera for two days and...

this is it.

Where were you born JB?

I was born in Mississippi.

In a little town, by the name, we called it Tilden, Mississippi.

And I started to play down there I was awful young. I used to plow...

and I'd go out and play my box at night...

learn all the different types of songs and create 'em...

- Where were you born at, Steve? - Well, I was born in Evanston, JB.

Where did you learn how to play a box like this?

Well, I learned from a man who was in vaudeville. He used to play the banjo.

He taught me how to play the banjo...

and then I switched to the guitar when I was in high school.

I see, I see.

Why don't you and I try get together and do a little thing here?

Wait. Maybe I should tell in Swedish what we've been saying.

Well, tell them in Sweden.

I played the guitar a couple of times, which was his idea, by the way.

He said we all ought to do something in this so we all did.

It was really collaborative.

The interaction was really his idea, not ours.

- What's your wife's name, JB? - Ella-Louise.

You've got kids too?

Yeah, I've got 4 kids. My son is named Jerry Lenoir...

and I have a daughter named Roberta. And my baby...

she's a little girl. Her name is Emily Tina.

And my oldest daughter is named Barbara Anne.

By the way, Barbara Anne, she can do whole lot of brand new dancing.

That's why...

I created this song here about her, Steve, about the brand new dance.

I got an elevator man

Deep in the heart of town

And when he's feeling right

He'll carry me round and round

Round and round Up and down

Round and round Up and down

Well, don't be jealous

When I come to town

Then I'm just a country girl

Everybody tries to push me around

Round and round Up and down

Round and round Up and down

Round and round Up and down

Round and round Up and down

And of course they did not want that movie either...

because of technical shortcomings...

and we were rather annoyed with their lack of imagination.

When they were doing the Voodoo there was...

a terrific thunder that was natural outside.

Voodoo music got The whole world on the go

Voodoo music all over the world

Look what it's done To the beautiful girls

Got them shake And act real crazy

Voodoo music gonna knock you crazy Voodoo

Voodoo

Voodoo music got The whole world on the go

Voodoo music got hold of the boys

Make them sing And laugh with joy

Makes them feel Like they own the world

Makes them think They can choose the girls, voodoo

Voodoo

Voodoo music got The whole world on the go

I think J. B. Later songs...

by the more mature artist and person...

tended to be more spiritual. They were more political.

But also some kind of profound introspection...

and looking at life as a spiritual event.

See there is this tradition that the people who sing gospel...

don't sing the blues, and the blues singers are not gospel artists.

Well that's very artificial. I remember JB had called us up one day...

and he said that he had so much fun all day, he had been playing...

at church with his friends all day long.

And of course his friends were not...

strictly gospel musicians and singers, but they were...

professional musicians who were just doing the best they could...

and having as much fun as they could and it was Sunday.

And this was not a question of making money.

It was a question of creating spirit.

Now here is another one I'm going to try to do.

The title of it is: "God's Word".

Why don't you release me Devil

Free me for I can go home

Why don't you release me Devil

Free me for I can go home

If you don't let me go home

My dad will come and make you Leave me alone

If you don't let me come home

My dad will come and make you Leave me alone

If you don't let me come home

My dad will come and make you Leave me alone

Shortly after we had returned to the United States...

we got a call one day from Ella-Louise Lenoir...

that JB was dead.

He was only a year older than Steve. It was absolutely shocking...

and ended his artistic development...

just when he was getting known...

and making deep impressions on people like Mayall...

and known and unknown youths.

The words to his songs, the lyrics of course were...

often quite different from other blues singers...

particularly when he got in to doing things about the Vietnam War and...

things like that.

And he had just begun doing songs about the civil rights movement...

which of course were really important issues at that time...

but often ignored in the popular music.

And he was sensitive to women's position...

which of course came with the '60s too.

People have remarked that he looked like Martin Luther King which...

he did a little bit. Maybe it was just this tremendous...

positive will power and artistic gift. Something.

But they had a lot in common.

Both of them were, of course, family men too...

and both of them had early tragic deaths.

JB was in an auto accident and he wasn't taken care of in the hospital...

in Illinois where he should have been taken better care of.

Slow down, slow down

Let me step on board

I just wanna ride your train

Just before I go

You're about the sweetest little girl

I believe I've ever seen

And if I had you by my side

You would mean so much to me

I'm a stranger I'm a stranger

Slow down, slow down

Please, let me step on board

Just let me ride your train

Just before I go

Slow down, slow down

Let me step on board

I wanna ride your train

One time before you go

You're about the sweetest The sweetest man

I have ever seen

And if I had you by my side

It'd mean so much to me

I want the whole world to know that I love you too.

I wished we had just bought more reels of film.

They weren't that expensive.

I don't know what, we thought they were very expensive.

We thought there was enough, see. We thought there was enough to show...

because our purpose was just to introduce people to him.

We didn't think we were making a documentary in any way.

We just thought that when people saw this they would book him...

- for tours. - Right. They would immediately...

immediately say: "My God, who is that?

We got to have him on our stage".

Lights going out.

The Seabergs' two films about JB Lenoir...

were never shown anywhere...

not even on Swedish TV.

And JB could find no more gigs in Chicago.

Strange as it seems at the same time...

the blues became popular in Europe...

American bluesmen couldn't make a living at home.

But then that same summer...

when the Seabergs shot their second film with JB...

something extraordinary happened in Mississippi.

Okay. This is Roosevelt Sykes and Big Mama Thornton.

Willie Dixon.

Okay, now these are the two pictures you came to see.

Mississippi John Hurt was rediscovered in 1963...

and brought to Newport.

So now here's an old hand at this rediscovery.

Exactly a year later, Newport '64...

John is wearing his performer.

Skip James has just been found in a hospital.

So they bring him to Newport where they put a badge on him that says...

"Kin". That's what they gave to the wives and the children.

So he is wearing a kin badge.

Now he's rehearsing, he is just tuning a bottleneck guitar...

and he's getting ready to go on stage and play.

So he recorded in 1931...

vanished for 33 years...

and now here he is ready to go on stage, just...

this is seconds before he goes on stage.

Now he gets ready to come on stage and I have some sense of history...

the arc of history being made here.

So I want to get the first note. The first note. The first word.

First verse. First song. Skip James...

plucks the guitar, puts his head back and says "l"...

"I'd rather be the Devil than to be that woman's man".

This is the precise first note of rediscovery.

Still wearing his kin badge.

He just... he stepped out of 1931.

He was riveting, electrifying, charismatic...

just stole the festival!

Stole the festival.

Skip James at Newport '64 was what people left talking about.

That he... you didn't even have to be a blues fan...

to comprehend the story that a man had stepped out of 1931...

and just was amazing. He only did 3 or 4 songs and he brought magic.

You have to realize that at Newport '64, that may have been...

the largest number of people that he was ever going to play to...

at any one point.

Those concerts were full, 18,000... 17-18,000.

But now the people who rediscovered Skip were really incompetent.

They had no idea what they were doing.

So the next year for Skip from Newport '64 to Newport '65...

was a lost opportunity.

He didn't get a recording contract...

and the blues world buzz that was out on him...

was wasted.

Skip's tunings were so odd...

and his vocal style was so strange...

"Cherry Ball" and "I'd Rather Be the Devil"...

no one had really heard him or even heard of him.

Skip didn't sound like anybody.

I was listening to some of his '60s stuff...

and his fingers are really flying. In other words, he has great dexterity.

Just barely brushing the strings.

Picking really fast but very clean.

Picking fast and clean. Considering...

I don't even know if he played from the 30's to the 60's. I don't know.

It's very possible that he didn't own a guitar and didn't play very much...

and when he was found in Tunica, that he was very, very rusty...

and hadn't played very much. That's speculation on my part.

But by the mid 1960's he was playing extraordinarily well.

A lot of bluesmen work to faces.

They work to the front row or they told stories.

Skip dealt in the abstract.

He played his music out over your head into the great beyond.

At this time in his life, Skip James was very ill.

When he was discovered, in Tunica, Mississippi...

he was practically dragged from the hospital to the Newport Festival.

He was battling cancer and needed surgery urgently.

I'm so glad I'm so glad

I'm glad, I'm glad I'm glad

I'm so glad I'm glad, I'm glad

Don't know Don't know what to do

I'm so tired of weeping Tired of moaning

Tired of groaning for you

The success of Cream's cover of I'm So Glad paid for the hospital bills.

The operation gave Skip 3 more years to live.

And a chance to be recorded properly.

He cut two entire albums in those last years of his life...

and re-recorded all the tunes he had once sung in vain.

He didn't have much to add to those inspirational days in 1931...

except for a couple of new songs...

one of them about his time in that hospital.

I says I was a good man

And I was a poor man

You can understand

'Cause I'm a good man

I was a poor man

You can understand

Skip sang about his own experiences...

and his own life. He knew there was greatness in his music...

and his songs would survive him.

He was a poor man, for sure, but he was full of pride.

JB was from an altogether new generation of songwriters...

of which he was the forerunner.

He realized his gift wasn't just given to him to talk about himself.

JB sang about the bigger picture.

About how a change was gonna come.

Vietnam, Vietnam

Everybody's crying' about Vietnam

Vietnam, Vietnam

Everybody's crying' about Vietnam

These Ionely days are killing me Down in Mississippi

Oh God, if you can hear my prayer

Please help my brothers Down in Vietnam

You always cry and cry About Peace

But you must clean up Your house before

Down in Mississippi

Down in Mississippi

Down in Mississippi

Down in Mississippi Where I was born

Down in Mississippi Where I come from

I never will love Alabama

Alabama seems To never have loved poor me

From the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring...

From every mountainside...

Let freedom ring. And when that happens...

Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands...

and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual...

"Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last".

JB Lenoir died the tragic death of a poor man...

on April 29th, 1967, in Champagne, Illinois.

At the hospital, they didn't take his injuries seriously.

And he died soon afterwards at home, of internal bleeding.

But, man, he was way ahead of his time!

He didn't live to witness the fruits of his labor, though.

His last job was dishwasher...

Nehemiah "Skip"James...

died of cancer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

on October 3rd, 1969, just two years after JB.

They both left an incredible legacy.

Their songs went way beyond their lives...

celebrating the spirit of life...

exploring its lowest depths and lifting us...

up to the highest heavens.

That's what the blues does. As you can see with me.

I want somebody

To tell me

Answer if you can

I want somebody to tell me

Just what is the soul of a man?

I want somebody

To tell me

Answer if you can

I want somebody to tell me

Just what is the soul of a man?

Well I want somebody to tell me

Answer if you can

I want somebody to tell me

Just what is the soul of a man?

There's one kind of favor I'll ask you

There's one kind of favor I'll ask you

There's just one kind of favor That I'll ask of you

You can see that my grave Is kept clean

Long line ain't got no end

There's a long line That's got no end

It's a long, long line that

Ain't got no end

Bad wind that never came

It's a bad wind that never came

Two white horses standing in line

There's two white horses Standing in line

There's two white horses Standing in line

And take me to the burying ground

Take me to the burying ground

My heart stopped beating And my hands are cold

My heart stopped beating And my hands are cold

My heart stopped beating And my hands were cold, it was a

Long note, what the good book said What the Bible told

What the Bible told