Vernita Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer "can't get along" with Vernita. "...tell her to hurry home." When she came home last night "the moon was shining bright." He met Alberta across the sea; she wrote him no letter. He would have Vernita change her mind and "treat me nice and kind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Sleepy John Estes)
KEYWORDS: love request rejection derivative nonballad parody lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Sleepy John Estes, "Vernita Blues" (Decca 7342,1937; on USChartersHeroes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alberta Blues" (original source)
NOTES [175 words]: Estes is taking off on Mississippi Shieks' "Alberta Blues." Shieks sing "Alberta, Alberta, where'd you stay last night... Come home this morning sun is shining bright" while Estes's Vernita came home "this morning ... the moon was shining bright." Singers that cover the "across the sea" verse are singing about their own lover. So, Furry Lewis sings, "I see Roberta going 'cross the sea"; Jimmy Gordon sings, "Alberta went across the sea." In keeping with the idea of the original, Estes would have his Vernita across the sea. Instead he copies the Shieks' line "I met Alberta way across the sea"; he's not only talking about the Sheiks' lover rather than his own, but, unlike other covers, he meets her there, as the Shieks do. Finally, Estes uses two tunes, neither anything like the Shieks' "Alberta Blues." To take Henry Lewis Gates Jr's term, there's "Signifyin(g)" going on here, but I don't understand how it works. Is "Vernita Blues" parity? Respectful referencing? Or something else? The liner notes for USChartersHeroes is silent on this. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcVernBl

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