"Fixin' to Die Blues" is a song by American blues musician
Bukka White
Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White (November 12, 1906 February 26, 1977) was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer.
Biography
White was born south of Houston, Mississippi. He was a first cousin of B.B. King's mother (White's mother and ...
. It is performed in the Delta blues style with White's vocal and guitar accompanied by washboard rhythm. White recorded it in Chicago on May 8, 1940, for record producer
Lester Melrose
Lester Franklin Melrose (December 14, 1891 – April 12, 1968) was a talent scout who was one of the first American producers of Chicago blues records.
Career
Lester Franklin Melrose was born in Sumner, Illinois, the second of six children ...
. The song was written just days before, along with eleven others, at Melrose's urging.
History
White was resuming his recording career, which had been interrupted by his incarceration for two and one-half years at the infamous
Parchman Farm
Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP), also known as Parchman Farm, is a maximum-security prison farm located in unincorporated Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. Occupying about of land, His lyrics reflect his thoughts about his children and wife:
White provides the vocal and acoustic slide guitar (which was borrowed from
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African American audiences. In the 1930s ...
) with backing by
Washboard Sam
Robert Clifford Brown (July 15, 1910 – November 6, 1966), known professionally as Washboard Sam, was an American blues musician and singer.
Biography
Brown's date and place of birth are uncertain; many sources state that he was born in 191 ...
. Despite the somber lyrics, "the music throbs with a restless energy" with White's "bottleneck guitar crying in urgent counterpoint to his imagery". Music historian
Ted Gioia
Ted Gioia (born October 21, 1957) is an American jazz critic and music historian. He is author of eleven books, including ''Music: A Subversive History'', '' The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire'', ''The History of Jazz'' and ''Delta Blu ...
notes that these recordings of White "come as close to art song as traditional blues has ever dared to go, but without losing any of the essential qualities of the Delta heritage". However, as with his other songs from the session, "Fixin' to Die Blues" did not capture the record buying public's interest. As a result, White largely retired from performing music, until a resurgence of interest in the early 1960s and the American folk music revival.
Resurgence and cover versions
In 1961, folksinger
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
recorded "Fixin' to Die" for his debut album, released the following year. The album liner notes indicate that it "was learned from an old recording by Bukka White". However, Dylan's arrangement uses a different melody line and some new lyrics. It is one of three blues songs on the album that deal with the theme of death.
Dave Van Ronk
David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of Ma ...
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie, (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941) is an Indigenous Canadian-American ( Piapot Cree Nation) singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. While working in these ...
(''
Many a Mile
''Many a Mile'' is Buffy Sainte-Marie's second album, released in 1965.
Though originally released on Vanguard Records, it was never reissued on CD when the rest of Sainte-Marie's catalog for that label came out in the late 1990s. It was reissu ...
'') are among Dylan's folk contemporaries who also recorded versions of the song.
Stretch recorded it for ''You Can't Beat Your Brain For Entertainment'' in 1976. In 2002, Robert Plant recorded a version titled "Funny In My Mind (I Believe I'm Fixin' To Die)" for the '' Dreamland'' album. His former group,
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
sometimes included it in live medleys with "
Whole Lotta Love
"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is the opening track on the band's second album, '' Led Zeppelin II'', and was released as a single in 1969 in several countries; as with other Led Zeppelin songs, no single was ...
" (''
Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions
''BBC Sessions'' is a compilation album featuring studio sessions and a live concert recorded by English rock group Led Zeppelin for the BBC. It was released on 11 November 1997, by Atlantic Records. Disc one consists of material from four differ ...
''). A live version by
Chuck Ragan
Charles Allen Ragan (born October 30, 1974) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is the guitarist and vocalist of the band Hot Water Music. Ragan has also released a variety of solo material, including a series of 7-inches on ...
of
Hot Water Music
Hot Water Music is an American punk rock band formed in October 1994 and based in Gainesville, Florida. Since their formation, the group has consisted of Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard on shared lead vocals and guitars, bass guitarist Jason Bl ...
was included on ''Los Feliz'' in 2007.
Valley Entertainment
Valley Entertainment is an American independent record label and music distributor based in New York City, United States. The company was founded in 1994 by Barney Cohen and Jon Birge. In 2001, it acquired the prestigious back catalogue of space ...
issued ''Miss Blues'es Child'' in 2007, which included
Eli Cook
Eli Cook (1814–1865) was Mayor of the City of Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the he ...
's version. In 2010,
G. Love
Garrett Dutton (born October 3, 1972), better known as G. Love, is an American singer, rapper and musician best known as the frontman for the band G. Love & Special Sauce.
Biography
Dutton, the son of a banking lawyer, was born in the Soci ...
and
The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers are an American folk rock band from Concord, North Carolina. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott Avett (banjo, lead vocals, guitar, piano, kick-drum) and Seth Avett (guitar, lead vocals, piano, hi-hat) along with Bob C ...
recorded the song as the title track of '' Fixin' to Die''.