Got A Letter This Morning

A companion piece to the R n R D podcast Death Letter.

With an almost matter of fact delivery Son House delivers the opening line to ‘Death Letter.’ The simple statement is followed up by the question “whaddya reckon it read?â€? The tragic denoument of “It said, hury hurry. The gal you love is dead” sets up one of the great Blues songs and performances of all time (I refer to the 1965 Columbia recording).

The events in ‘Death Letter’ were not experienced by Son House himself. He drew on traditional sources for the song. But there is a historical foundation for the song as Mr House himself relates:

‘Used to be such things as death letters. Of course most of the young generation don’t know nothing about that to much. But the older head do and it can be proven because..well don’t get no ideas y’all because I’m no that old, I just have some young ideas. But this is true though. There used to be that you’d get a letter with a narrow, black stripe all the way around. You’d used in the mail back in, I’d say the 19 and ..and..(19)16, (19)17, (19)18, (19)20. That was true! There was such thing as a death letter. And you would know it when you meet the mailman.’

Postal themes have been quite common in the history of American Folk music. In 1897 Hattie Nevada is credited with writing ‘Letter Edged In Black.’ Thematically the song is a antecendant of ‘Death Letter’ though there is little similarity lyrically. It is something of a folk standard and quite a few versions are around. You can find Marty Robbins singing a version here.

The song ‘Death Letter Blues’ was something of a standard for Jazz/Blues singers in the mid 1920. Ida Cox, Helen Gross, Clara Smith and Monette Moore all recorded versions of ‘Death Letter Blues’. The theme of ‘The Letter Edged in Black’ is very much evident but the lyrics have taken on the more traditional blues form. While there are no direct influences on Son House the lyrics were chaning from ‘The Letter Edged in Black’ so something closer to Son House’s 1930 recording of ‘My Black Mama’.

More likely he was influenced by Ishman Bracey and James McCoy in regards to lyrics and structure of ‘Death Letter’. James McCoy is credited with teaching Son House ‘My Black Mama.’ Little is known about McCoy other than he was an influence on Son House. As far as I know there are no existing recordings of McCoy.

Ishman Bracey’s ‘Trouble Hearted Blues’ is an obvious influence on ‘Death Letter’ and was recorded in 1928. Bukka White’s ‘Fixin’ To Die Blues’ also references some of the same lyrics as in ‘Trouble Hearted Blues.’ Blind Willie McTell’s ‘Coolin’ Board’ is another likely influence.

Son House’s 1930 Paramount recording of ‘My Black Momma pt II’ contains the stanzas that would become ‘Death Letter’ in 1965. These recordings were made in Grafton, Wisconsin with Charley Patton, Willie Brown and Louise Johnson and the songs from these sessions are rightly regarded as classics. At this time Patton and House often played together though for the sessions they recorded solo (sometimes with Willie Brown on second guitar). Son House recorded solo and cut ‘My Black Mama Pt I and II,’ ‘Dry Spell Blues Pt I and II’, ‘Preachin’ The Blues Pt I and II’, a test acetate of ‘Walking Blues’ (only found in 1985) and ‘Clarksdale Moan’ and ‘Mississippi County Farm Blues.’ These last two songs were considered lost until a 78 was found just last year.

Son House was recorded again until 1941 and then again in 1942 by Alan Lomax. This interesting thing about these sessions is there are no tunes that reference ‘Death Letter’ at all. Leadbelly in 1935 did record a version of ‘Death Letter Blues’ that lyrically owes something to Son House.

Son House disappeared soon after the Lomax recordings. He retired from music went and worked on the railroads until his rediscovery in 1964. In 1965 he recorded for Columbia. He had to relearn how to play the guitar (and some of his songs) with help from Al Wilson from Canned Heat. ‘My Black Momma’ finally became what we know today as ‘Death Letter.’

Another interesting conjecture related to his rediscovery was Son House’s age. At the time it was believed that he was in his mid-60s his birth to have been in 1902. However it was discovered that the 1902 birthdate was likely fabricated so that Son House could gain employment on the railroads in the 1940s. There is evidence (including from Mr House himself) that he was born in 1886. That would put him close to 80 when rediscovered (and a grand 102 when he died). As Dick Waterman said “This must be some kind of a commentary on hard living and bad liquor “. Rob Hutton has an excellent interview with Dick Waterman regarding this and other aspects of Son House’s life.

Son House’s ‘Death Letter’ has been covered a number of times. It is a brave song to choose as a cover. I still remember well walking into a bar in Japan and the CD playing had a British band (I forget who was in it but the names were familiar) doing a version of ‘Death Letter’. Unfortunately they misread the song and decided an uptempo, stomping boogie version was in order. Maybe not the most culturally or thematically sensitive version of the song.

The White Stripes have done as cover as well as John Cougar Mellancamp. The most interesting version for mine is by Diamanda Galas on Malediction and Prayer.

Even though Son House did not experience the events recounted in the song and  obviously used traditional sources the song is undeniably his own. It still stands as one of the most powerful and influential blues song ever recorded.