Today’s post was written by Paul.

When I was a kid, Pap often sat on the couch and sang whatever came to his mind. There was no telling what kind of song I might hear. It could be a love song, cowboy song, gospel song, ballad, etc. Before I started playing music with him, I often heard him sing scraps of songs, meaning songs to which he could remember perhaps a verse and a chorus. Examples include: “Blackboard of My Heart,” “Little Pal,” and “Don’t Daddy and I’ll Be Good.” When I got a little older, I started listening to a lot of records and radio, and I started ordering my own records from a place called County Sales. They sent me catalogs every month, and I always scanned the titles of albums and tracks, looking for any of the songs that Pap could only partially remember from his childhood. Of course, when the internet came along, it became much easier to track down rare songs. Eventually, I found at least one complete version of all the songs listed above. “Early One Morning” (if that’s even the title) is an exception. To this day, I am unable to find any recording of anyone singing this song, nor even the full lyrics online. Pap only remembered the first two verses, and he couldn’t remember who sang it or where he heard it. I suspect the song is very old, not just because I can find no trace of it but also because of the song’s lyrical/note pattern. It’s similar to the pattern in “I’m Just Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail,” which was first recorded in 1934. Ironically, the young man in both songs share similar father figures and life paths. It’s almost like “Get My Baby Out of Jail” could be the sequel to “Early One Morning.” Though it’s hard to describe the pattern that I’m talking about, I think it’s a pattern that goes back to very early folk songs and was continued into blues and early country music. You can hear an updated version of the pattern in Hank Williams’ “Move it on Over,” especially the first verse, and even in Bill Haley’s singing of “Rock Around the Clock.”  

I was always drawn to the song for several reasons, other than just the mystery of its unknown origin. It’s one of those songs that has an interesting pitch in terms of the notes for the vocal. The song is in a major key, yet some of the notes sound a little darker, more like a minor or a seven. I always loved how this song begins en medias res (in the middle of things), very quickly establishing the setting and initial action. For some reason, the song’s opening verse always made me think of my own family and what it would be like to be woken up at four in the morning by a knock at the door, the kind of knock that you know can only be a harbinger of tragic news. The second verse fascinated me because it quickly bore out a scenario that I’ve seen so many times in my life. Often, I’ve seen children and young people have a really hard time because of a parent making destructive life choices–and the child or young person remark about how much they hate those decisions, the associated consequences for the family, and even the parent for making the choices–only to later make the same choices personally and continue the destructive cycle. I have seen some young people rise out of a bad environment in which they were born, but sadly I’ve seen far more who continued the cycle when they grew to adulthood. 

Way back in 2008, I wanted to sing this song with Pap. If we had sung the song with only the original verses that he knew, the song would have been a minute or so long, so I wanted to write a third verse to create a fuller piece and to bring resolution to the story. In my experience, it seems like we can all find positive role models around us, even if it’s not our parents. It seems like there’s always someone who will tell us right from wrong, if we’ll listen and heed what they’re saying. For the third verse, I chose to make that source of wisdom be the mother. We knew there was a mother because she lit the lamp in the first verse. In keeping with the plot in the second verse, I had the speaker of the song ignore his mother’s advice and warnings and wind up in prison. I chose to have the speaker observe that he was both told (by his mother) and shown (by his father’s life). I chose to have the speaker admit that he understood that his father’s way was wrong and his mother’s way was right. There are certainly exceptions, but I think most of the time, when we go astray and make wrong choices, we not only know that we’re doing wrong but also know that the consequences will be bad. You can hear this idea communicated well in Mel Tillis’ “I Could Have Gone Right” and even better in the Native American myth of the brave who chooses to carry a snake to its destination. I placed links to both below. 

I feel like the song turned out pretty good with the added verse and that it offers a complete story/lesson. When we played the song, I had us change keys (D to E to G) as it progressed through the verses. I thought this musical change might mirror or help convey the increased tension as the young man’s life gets more and more out of control. In the video, my nephews, Mark and Ben, each did some nice, unconventional picking. For example, Mark used a seven note before going to the low chord, something typically done only before going to the high chord, and Ben used a nice A major position when the song went to B. I also like how Ben utilized the B string in the C position and D major position. In other words, they didn’t play any overused bluegrass scales in their breaks, even though they were just kids when this video was shot. One day, I would love to hear a good banjo break in this song (after it has migrated to G for the third verse and chorus).

I Could Have Gone Right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPBh-U5tizY

Native American Myth: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecherokeenation/video/7222329534513696046

Lyrics: 

Early one morning, ‘long about four, 

Came a knock upon our door. 

Mother lit the lamp to see who it might be. 

Well, they knocked. They knocked again. 

We opened the door, and we let them in, 

And they laid my Papa dead upon the floor. 

Oh, Papa, you’ll drink and gamble your life away no more. 

Just like Pop, I went astray, 

Drinkin’ and a gamblin’ on my way, 

Wouldn’t listen to the words my Mama said. 

Ran into a gamblin’ man, 

Dealt me an awful, crooked hand. 

When I called him for his gun, he made the start, 

But I beat him. Sent a bullet crashin’ through his crooked heart. 

Now I’m lying here in jail, 

Got nobody to go my bail, 

And I’ll waste away forever more. 

She told me right. He showed me wrong. 

You know, I knew it all along, 

But I can’t go back to how things were before. 

Oh, Mama, your warning, I never should have ignored. 

Now that Tipper has reminded me of this song by asking me to write this blog entry, I may have to ask Jamie Shook if he would like to learn to sing this song with me… Maybe we’ll play it somewhere and someone will know where the song came from, but I doubt it. 🙂 

Paul

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