"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" is a
blues standard
Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues s ...
written by pianist
Jimmie Cox in 1923 and originally performed in a
Vaudeville-blues style. The lyrics in the popular 1929 recording by
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and ...
are told from the point of view of somebody who was once wealthy during the
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
era and reflect on the fleeting nature of material wealth and the friendships that come and go with it. Since her 1929 recording, the song has been interpreted by numerous musicians in a variety of styles.
Lyrics and composition
When the song was composed in 1923, the "
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the U ...
" were coming into full swing. Cox's publisher Clarence Williams Music filed a copyright registration on December 17, 1923 listing the title as "Nobody knows you when you are down and out" (no contraction). After the post-World War I recession, a new era of prosperity was experienced in the U.S. and elsewhere. However, in the face of all the optimism, the known lyrics form a cautionary tale about the fickle nature of fortune and its attendant relationships:
The song is a moderate-tempo blues with
ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...
-influences, which follows an eight-bar progression :
:
Early recordings
Although "Nobody Knows You When You Are Down and Out" was copyrighted in 1923, the first known publication did not appear until a recording of 1927.
Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melo ...
musician Bobby Leecan, who recorded with various ensembles such as the South Street Trio, Dixie Jazzers Washboard Band, and
Fats Waller
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz pi ...
's Six Hot Babies, recorded "Nobody Needs You When You're Down and Out" under the name "Blind Bobby Baker and his guitar", with his vocal and
fingerpicking-style guitar. His version, recorded in New York around June 1927, is credited on the record label to Bobby Leecan and has completely different lyrics from the popular 1929 version, with emphasis on being poor, including a verse about being cheated playing "
The Numbers".
The second known recording of the song was on January 11, 1929, by an obscure vocal quartet, the Aunt Jemima Novelty Four, first to use the now-familiar title, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out".
Four days later, influential
boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pian ...
pianist
Pinetop Smith
Clarence Smith (June 11, 1904 – March 15, 1929), better known as Pinetop Smith or Pine Top Smith, was an American boogie-woogie style blues pianist. His hit tune "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" featured rhythmic "breaks" that were an essential i ...
recorded "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" in Chicago,
[ Vocalion 1256] crediting himself as the author. In it, lyrics (again quite different from either Bobby Leecan's or Bessie Smith's) are spoken rather than sung, by Pinetop Smith and Alberta Reynolds,
to Pinetop's piano accompaniment. The song is one of 11 known recordings by Smith, who died two months after he recorded it.
Bessie Smith song
Bessie Smith recorded the song on May 15, 1929, in New York City. Unlike the earlier versions, she recorded the song with instrumental accompaniment, including a small trumpet section. When Smith's record was released on September 13, 1929 (a Friday), the lyrics turned out to be oddly prophetic. The New York stock market had reached an all-time high less than two weeks earlier, only to go into its biggest decline two weeks later in the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, which signaled the beginning of the ten-year
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.
Bessie Smith's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" became one of her biggest hits, but was released before "
race records
Race records were 78 rpm, 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s.Oliver, Paul. "Race record." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Feb. 2015. They primarily contained race music, comprising vari ...
" were tracked by record industry publications, such as
''Billboard'' magazine. Today, it "more than any other, is the song that most people associate with Bessie Smith".
1940s–1960s renditions
The song was so identified with Bessie Smith that no one recorded the song again until a generation later. It became a
blues standard
Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues s ...
that "forced the crowds of her
mith'sfemale imitators to try (in vain) to equal her through the following decades". In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it became popular during the
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Billie Holiday, Richard Dyer-Benn ...
; a version by
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, ...
reached number 23 in the
Billboard R&B chart
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...
as well as number 93 in the
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
pop chart in 1960.
Eric Clapton versions
When he was an art student in the early 1960s,
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...
was attracted to London's folk-music scene and the fingerpicking acoustic guitar-style of
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 ...
. Along with "
Key to the Highway
"Key to the Highway" is a blues standard that has been performed and recorded by several blues and other artists. Blues pianist Charlie Segar first recorded the song in 1940. Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy followed with recordings in 1940 an ...
", "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" was one of the first songs that Clapton learned to play in this style. In 1970, he recorded a group version with his band,
Derek and the Dominos
Derek and the Dominos was an English–American blues rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton, keyboardist and singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon. All four members had previou ...
, for their debut album ''
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
''Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs'' is the only studio album by the English–American rock band Derek and the Dominos, released in November 1970 as a double album. It is best known for its title track, "Layla", and is often regarded as Eric ...
''. The recording took place at the
Criteria Studios
Criteria Studios is a recording studio in North Miami, Florida, founded in 1958 by musician Mack Emerman. Hundreds of gold, platinum, and diamond singles and albums have been recorded, mixed or mastered at Criteria, for many notable artists and ...
in Miami, Florida, with
Jim Gordon (drums),
Carl Radle
Carl Dean Radle (June 18, 1942 – May 30, 1980) was an American bassist who toured and recorded with many of the most influential recording artists of the late 1960s and 1970s. He was posthumously inducted to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame i ...
(bass),
Bobby Whitlock
Robert Stanley Whitlock (born March 18, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as a member of the blues-rock band Derek and the Dominos, with Eric Clapton, in 1970–71. Whitlock's musical career began with Memph ...
(organ), and
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American rock guitarist, session musician, and the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in ...
(slide guitar). As Whitlock recalled,
Sam Samudio
Domingo "Sam" Samudio (born February 28, 1937, in Dallas, Texas, United States), better known by his stage name Sam the Sham, is a retired American rock and roll singer. Sam the Sham was known for his camp robe and turban and hauling his equipme ...
, who was also recording at Criteria, suggested that they record the song.
Allman had recorded "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" earlier with his brother Gregg and used similar guitar lines for the Derek and the Dominos recording. Whitlock also noted that Clapton played through a
Fender Champ
The Fender Champ was a guitar amplifier made by Fender. It was introduced in 1948 and discontinued in 1982. An updated version was introduced in 2006 as part of the "Vintage Modified" line.
The Champ had the lowest power output and the simplest ...
guitar amplifier (a five-watt practice amp), while Allman used a
Fender Twin
The Fender Twin and Twin Reverb are guitar amplifiers made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The Twin was introduced in 1952, two years before Fender began selling Stratocaster electric guitars. The amps are known for their characteristi ...
.
Shortly after the studio recording, the song became part of the Dominos live set. Although it did not appear on their 1973 ''
In Concert'' album, a recording from the
Fillmore East
The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. ...
on October 24, 1970 was later included on the expanded ''
Live at the Fillmore'' album released in 1994. For this version, Clapton played all the guitar parts and Whitlock performed on piano. In 1992, Clapton recorded another rendition for the ''
MTV Unplugged
''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV showcasing musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999 and less frequently from 2000 to 2009, when it was usually billed as ''MTV Un ...
'' series. In keeping with the show's theme, the song was performed in an acoustic style. Clapton recounted: "I also enjoyed going back and playing the old stuff like 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out', which was how it all started back in Kingston
niversityso long ago."
Notes
References
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1923 songs
1960 singles
1992 singles
Bessie Smith songs
Blues songs
Columbia Records singles
Derek and the Dominos songs
Eric Clapton songs
Nina Simone songs
Peter, Paul and Mary songs