Rollin' and Tumblin'
{{Short description|Blues standard popularized by Muddy Waters}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Roll and Tumble Blues
| cover = Roll and Tumble Blues single cover.jpg
| artist = Hambone Willie Newbern
| type = single
| released = {{Start date|1929}}
| recorded = March 14, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia
| genre = Blues
| writer = Unknown (Newbern credited on single)
| length = 3:03
| label = Okeh
}}
"Rollin' and Tumblin'" (or "Roll and Tumble Blues") is a blues standard first recorded by American singer-guitarist Hambone Willie Newbern in 1929.{{Cite book|title=Deep Blues|first=Robert |last=Palmer|year=1981|author-link=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=Penguin Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/123 123]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/123}} Called a "great Delta blues classic", it has been interpreted by hundreds of Delta and Chicago blues artists, including well-known recordings by Muddy Waters.
{{Cite encyclopedia
| last = Herzhaft
| first = Gerard
| encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of the Blues
| title = Rollin' and Tumblin'
| year = 1992
| location = Fayetteville, Arkansas
| publisher = University of Arkansas Press
| isbn = 1-55728-252-8
| page = 468
}} Rock musicians usually follow Waters' versions, with the 1960s group Cream's rendition being perhaps the best known.
Original song
Hambone Willie Newbern recorded "Roll and Tumble Blues" on March 14, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia for Okeh Records. It shares several elements of "Minglewood Blues", first recorded in 1928 by Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers.
{{Cite web
| url = http://jasobrecht.com/rollin-tumblin-story-song
| title= Rollin' and Tumblin': The Story of a Song
| last = Obrecht
| first = Jas
| website = Jas Obrecht Music Archive
| access-date = August 19, 2013
}} Newbern's "Roll and Tumble Blues" is a solo piece with his vocal and slide-guitar accompaniment.
The song is performed in the key of A using an open tuning and an irregular number of bars
{{Cite book
| last = Titon
| first = Jeff Todd
| author-link = Jeff Todd Titon
| title = Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis
| url = https://archive.org/details/earlydownhomeblu00tito
| url-access = registration
| year = 1978
| publisher = University of Illinois Press
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/earlydownhomeblu00tito/page/121 121]–122
| isbn = 9780252007781
}} with an additional bar and a half at the end of each phrase. The tempo varies from an initial 140 beats per minute to a final 158 bpm. A key feature of the song is that the first verse begins on the IV chord, rather than on the more usual I chord (e.g., in the key of A this would be the D chord rather than the A chord). After the first two measures the IV chord resolves to the I chord. Often the IV chord moves to IV♭7 on the second measure or the last two beats of the second measure.
The lyrics follow a standard blues AAB pattern and relate a failed relationship:
{{poemquote|And I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long (2×)
And I rose this mornin' mama and I didn't know right from wrong{{nbsp}}...
And I fold my arms lord and I walked away (2×)
Said "that's all right sweet mama your trouble gon' come some day"}}
"Roll and Tumble Blues" is one of six songs Newbern recorded during his only recording session. It was released before the advent of race records charts, however, it soon became "an oft-covered standard"
{{Cite web
| url = http://www.allmusic.com/artist/hambone-willie-newbern-mn0000661827/biography
| last = Ankeny
| first = Jason
| title = Hambone Willie Newbern: Artist Biography
| website = AllMusic
| access-date = August 19, 2013
}} and Newbern's best-known song. In 1929, Okeh Records issued the song on a 78 rpm record, backed with "Nobody Knows What the Good Deacon Says".
Renditions
=Robert Johnson=
Robert Johnson adapted "Rollin' and Tumblin'" with the title "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day" during his third recording session in San Antonio, Texas, in 1936.
{{Cite book
| last = Wald
| first = Elijah
| author-link = Elijah Wald
| title = Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
| year = 2004
| edition = 1st.
| location = New York City
| publisher = HarperCollins
| isbn = 978-0060524272
}} Musically, his version is based on the original, but added new lyrics: "where Newbern sang about love, Robert sang about sex and power, combining his own fears of them with the fantasy of controlling them", according to biographers.
{{Cite book
| last1 = Conforth
| first1 = Bruce
| author-link1 = Bruce Conforth
| last2 = Wardlow
| first2 = Gayle Dean
| author-link2 = Gayle Dean Wardlow
| year = 2019
| title = Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson
| publisher = Chicago Review Press
| isbn = 978-1-64160-094-1
| pages = 181, 214
}} The song was not released until 1961, when it was included on the first Johnson compilation album, King of the Delta Blues Singers. He also based his "Traveling Riverside Blues" on Newbern's song.
=Chicago blues=
In 1950, Muddy Waters recorded two early versions of "Rollin' and Tumblin'". On a session for the Parkway label, he provided the guitar with Little Walter on vocal and harmonica and Baby Face Leroy Foster on drums.
{{Cite encyclopedia
| last = Komara
| first = Edward
| year = 2006
| title = Roll and Tumble Blues
| editor-last = Komara
| editor-first = Edward
| encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of the Blues
| location = New York City
| publisher = Routledge
| isbn = 978-0-415-92699-7
| page = 846
}} Biographer Robert Gordon described the performance as a "standout track [which] could have easily have disintegrated into an overenthused party record".
{{Cite book
| last = Gordon
| first = Robert G.
| title = Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters
| url = https://archive.org/details/cantbesatisfied00robe_0
| url-access = registration
| year = 2002
| publisher = Little, Brown
| isbn = 0-316-32849-9
| page = [https://archive.org/details/cantbesatisfied00robe_0/page/100 100]
}} Parkway Records released the song as a two-part single (Part 1 backed with Part 2) and listed the artist as the Baby Face Leroy Trio. In 2022, this recording was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recording{{snd}}Singles" category.{{Cite web|url=https://blues.org/2022-blues-hall-of-fame-inductees/|title=2022 Blues Hall of Fame Inductees|website=Blues.org|date=14 March 2022 |access-date=March 20, 2022}}
For Aristocrat Records, Waters sang as well as played guitar with bass accompaniment by Ernest "Big" Crawford. Gordon called their version "exciting", but felt that it did not have the power or passion of the one with Walter and Foster. In 1960, Elmore James recorded a different arrangement of the song
{{Cite AV media notes
| title = Elmore James: King of the Slide Guitar
| others = Elmore James
| first1 = Chris
| last1 = Morris
| author-link1 = Chris Morris (author)
| first2 = Diana
| last2 = Haig
| type = Box set booklet
| year = 1992
| location = Nashville, Tennessee
| publisher = Capricorn Records
| id = 9 42006-2
| page =
}} and a year later, Howlin' Wolf recorded "Down in the Bottom", which employed a new set of lyrics and is credited to Willie Dixon.
{{Cite AV media notes
| first1 = Les
| last1 = Fancourt
| first2 = Chris
| last2 = Morris
| author-link2 = Chris Morris (author)
| first3 = Dick
| last3 = Shurman
| title = Howlin' Wolf: The Chess Box
| others = Howlin' Wolf
| type = Box set booklet
| year = 1991
| location = Universal City, California
| publisher = MCA Records/Chess Records
| id = CHD3-9332
| page = 29
}}
=Rock adaptations=
{{Listen
| filename = Fresh Cream - Rollin' and Tumblin' Cream clip.ogg
| title = Cream's "Rollin' and Tumblin'"
| description = Studio version sample from Fresh Cream
| pos = right
| type = music
}}
Blues historian Edward Komara notes that subsequent versions by rock groups are based on the Muddy Waters versions, with the one recorded by Cream for their debut album, Fresh Cream (1966) as "perhaps the best known". A recording from May 1968 is included on Live Cream (1970), which is described in an album review as a "searing, rollicking high energy rendition".
{{Cite web
| url = https://www.allmusic.com/album/live-cream-vol-1-mw0000189526
| last = Bowman
| first = Rob
| title = Live Cream, Vol. 1{{snd}}Review
| website = AllMusic
| access-date = March 14, 2021
}} As another noteworthy rendition, Komara includes the Yardbirds' tribute "Drinking Muddy Water" and notes singer Keith Relf's harmonica playing on the Little Games studio version and Jimmy Page's slide guitar solos on the live version that first appeared on Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page (1971) (released by Page in 2017 as Yardbirds '68). Versions of "Rollin' and Tumblin'" by Canned Heat and Johnny Winter reached the extended singles charts and were included on their debut albums, Canned Heat (1967) and The Progressive Blues Experiment (1968).
{{Cite AV media notes
| title = Uncanned! The Best of Canned Heat
| others = Canned Heat
| first = Greg
| last = Russo
| year = 1994
| type = Compilation booklet
| location = New York City
| publisher = EMI Records
| id = E2 29165
| pages = 7, 21
}}{{Cite magazine| date = May 10, 1969| title = Bubbling Under the Hot 100| magazine = Billboard| volume = 81| issue = 19| issn = 0006-2510| page = 96}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Robert Johnson}}
{{Muddy Waters}}
{{Elmore James}}
{{Cream}}
{{The Yardbirds}}
{{Canned Heat}}
{{Johnny Winter}}
{{Authority control}}