IGKTW – Round 3 - Delta Jones, A Day in the Life (511 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.18 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by GANK (View user info) at 2006-05-10 22:51:31 EDT
"How's everybody doin' tonight?" Delta didn't even wait for a response, "Good, Good."
"I'm Delta Jones. Blues ain't all dat I need, but it's all dat I got. Let me 'splain."
Just then, he got a little bit of feedback, and backed his chair away from the mic a touch. "I come heya all da way from Lou'siana."
And someone in the crowd thought they'd be clever, "You're IN Louisiana."
"Ha ha, I see you made da trip too, den? Good, I like dat."
He started to pick at his instrument, and looked over in the direction of the guy's voice, "Naw, now you don't think Ol' Delta done fo'got wheya he was now do ya? I was bo'ne heya. I ain't never left heya, 'n iffin' I'm lucky I'll prolly die heya."
"You deya, cleva' man," he said after a pause, "let me axe you suttin'."
He took long pauses that made him seem senile. His fingers and hands fidgeted away at the tuning and the strings to be sure, but his face was blank, and his eyes were off somewhere towards the middle of the wall to the audience's left. Right around the third or fourth pause, you could see people in the front tables looking over to try and get a glimpse of what he was looking at. To no avail, their faces remained confused. All that was on it was a rusty old nail that no longer held a picture.
"Have you ever been walking, walking down that old lonesome road?"
Again, Delta didn't wait for a response, and everyone realized that he had already started into a song.
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Have you ever been walking, walking down that old lonesome road?
No place to go, whee well brown no place to room and board
Things look so lonesome, down that road ahead
Things look so dark, down that road ahead
Been thinkin' of the way you livin', whee well boy and what your mother said
Things look so lonesome, when you ain't got a shelter over your head
Things look so lonesome, when you ain't got a shelter over your head
When you could have been at home, whee well boy sleepin' in a feather bed
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"Dat one was called 'Lonesome Road Blues' by Muddy Watuh's. I wish I could tell ya'll dat I knew Ol' Muddy at some point in time, but da truf is, I ain't neva' known a whole lotta folks nohow. An' mos' of da ones I did meet, been mo' int'rested in da coluh' of my skin."
He paused again, looking over at the wall. "I tell ya, dis one time I's almost killt. I's playin' fo' some white folks down 'round N'awleans, 'n I could jus' tell suttin' wudn't right. I looked ova' at a group of 'em, 'n I could tell dey's plottin suttin'. But I wudn't 'timidated. Naw, not Delta, I figu'ed I may'swell git 'em mo' pissed. So's, I sta'ted playin dis li'l blues rendition of 'Strange Fruit'."
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Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black body swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
-
"Well, dem boys ain't like dat none. Dey's fixin' to rush da stage, but couldn't on account of da standin' ovation da rest of da folks was givin' me. It musta been all da pickin' I was doin' in'tween lines, 'cause I know I don't sing dat good. I up'd and slipped out durin' da commotion, on da road in no time to look fo' bettuh sunlight. I figu'ed, I's lonesome enough witout segregatin' my soul dealin' wit dose prejudices."
Delta saw the club owner motioning to him, in the middle of another of his pauses, "Dey tell me I only got time fo' one mo'. So, iffin ya'll allow I'd like to try suttin'. I been thinkin' of a song in my head since I sat down heya, 'n it's goin' be improvised a bit since I ain't nevuh played it befo'. I think I'mma call it 'Da Autobiography of Delta Jones'.
-
I just don't, want no job
If I can't, own the job
No I don't, want no job
If I can't, own the job
And I can't, get no girl
If I don't, hold a job
No I can't, get a girl
If I don't, hold no job
And I can't, own my own
If I can't get a loan
I got the man keepin' me from findin' love
Said I got, holy socks
'Cause there's holes in my shoes
Sit on these, lonesome docks
And sing these, lonesome blues
Don't want no nine-to-five, baby
Can't work no nine-to-five, baby
But if I want to find a baby
I got to do more than sing the blues
Now I can't, get a loan
'Cause of my, skin alone
Said I can't, get a loan
'Cause of my, skin alone
I got girls on the road
I want a, girl at home
I get girls on the road
Can't keep a, girl at home
If I can't, own my own
I'mma always be alone
I got the man keepin' me from findin' love
Might as well, play guitar
'Cause it's all that I got
Might as well, live from my car
Open shows at all the spots
And work from five-to-nine, baby
And play from five-to-nine, baby
So I'mma never find a baby
'Cause all that I can do is sing the blues
All that I can do is sing the blues
-
With that, Delta stood up and walked over to the wall he was staring at all night. He hung his guitar strap on that rusty nail, said to it "thanks fo' da inspiration", and walked out.
User Reviews
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2006-05-11 16:33:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by gank (user info) at 2006-05-11 13:40:17 (#)
Ranking: 0
Then why even rate it?
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Because that's what you do.
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2006-05-11 15:31:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I'll give you a 1 for the writing but I didn't ever really feel connected to or engaged by the story. I don't know if it was the lyrics-heavy presentation or the narration, or something else entirely, but I read it through twice and couldn't ever really get into it.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2006-05-11 15:11:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
This was decent.
Submitted by gank (user info) at 2006-05-11 13:40:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Then why even rate it?
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Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2006-05-11 10:54:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
He started to pick at his instrument, and looked over in the direction of the guy's voice, "Naw, now you don't think Ol' Delta done fo'got wheya he was now do ya? I was bo'ne heya. I ain't never left heya, 'n iffin' I'm lucky I'll prolly die heya."
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Stopped at that paragraph there.
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-05-11 06:57:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Did not grip me.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-05-11 01:00:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Let me get this straight-- you don't want no girl, if you can't own the girl?
I know the feeling.
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2006-05-10 23:51:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-05-10 23:39:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
1.5.
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-05-10 23:39:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by knucklesnelson (user info) at 2006-05-10 22:59:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by gank (user info) at 2006-05-10 22:51:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
"Strange Fruit" was a song recorded by Billie Holiday. But it was written by a schoolteacher from the Bronx named Abel Meeropol, under the pseudonym Lewis Allan.
Contest link: http://www.ubersite.com/m/87630 .
Theme: Racism and Loneliness.