Madame George lyrics

[Jon Ford]

Stephanie-- I looked up this song on 10 different websites, and the lyrics 
are almost identical. So the oral thing is real, but modern media can pin a 
song down better than in the pure oral period of the blues, where songs 
weren't copuwrite and were learned and improvised upon through ear, mouth, 
and hand. Jeff Buckley, for instance, learned "Madame George" from 
Morrison's records, and his song, if a little shorter, is quite similar. I 
noted in my research than in every version of the songs the key lyrics were 
vitually the same. Same shalimar perfume, same playing dominies in drag, 
etc, etc.

Jon


>From: Stephanie Chernikowski <stephaniecher@earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
>To: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
>Subject: Re: Madame George lyrics
>Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 16:00:03 -0500
>
>
>On Monday, March 22, 2004, at 12:25 PM, Jon Ford wrote:
>
>>
>>Bob-- the actual lyrics to the song are a little different than you 
>>remember-- the perfume was "Shalimar" and it's Madame George 
>>himself/herself "playing dominoes in drag." But you got a lot of it right 
>>and made your point about Morrison being able to enunciate.
>>
>>
>
>i'm not sure i fully buy the lyrics as written, especially since van does 
>so much scatting, and since an online search didn't turn up anything as 
>definitive as the lyrics database sony has on dylan.
>
>let's face it, what are the real words of shakespeare or homer or the 
>bible? oral tradition simply is not the written words. we stumble on:
>jose can you see
>by the dawn's early light....??????
>
>

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