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78 RPM



78 RPM Record

Artist:Georgia White
Label:  Decca
Country:USA
Catalogue:7192
Date:Jul 1936
Format:10"
Collection:  I Own It     I Want It 
Community: 2 Own
Price Guide:Valuation Page
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TrackArtistTitleComposerRating
AGeorgia WhiteI'll Keep Sittin' On It (If I Can't Sell It)Hill, RazafRate
BGeorgia WhiteTrouble In MindJonesRate


Notes

Recorded May 12, 1936, Chicago IL
Georgia White (vocals), Richard M. Jones (piano), Les Paul (guitar), John Lindsay (string bass)

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Comments and Reviews
 
Mike Gann
11th Feb 2019
 Videos added
 
 
Mike Gann
11th Feb 2019
 
 
 
Mike Gann
11th Feb 2019
 
 
 
fixbutte
21st Oct 2017
 Review
This was Georgia White's most successful record. It is a striking combination of a sexually charged feminist statement with a gospel-like blues hoping for relief. Both sides were recorded on May 12, 1936 in Chicago, IL, with the singer accompanied by the veteran jazzman and producer Richard M. Jones on piano, the young white guitar virtuoso Les Paul and the in demand session bassist John Lindsay.

On "I'll Keep Sittin' on It (If I Can't Sell It)" the singer comes up to expectations with some of the more risqué material that she had successfully delivered since "Get 'Em From the Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)". Written by Alex Hill and Andy Razaf, the lyrics describe a woman contemplating selling a chair but only for the right price, and it is hard to ignore the sexual innuendo:

If I can't sell it, keep sitting on it
Before I give it away
You've got to buy, don't care how much you want it
I mean just what I say

Just feel that nice old bottom built for wear or tear
I really hate to part with such a lovely chair
If I can't sell it, keep sitting on it
Before I'll give it away

If I can't sell it, I'll keep sitting on it
Before I'll give it away
You've got to buy, don't care how much you want it
I mean just what I say

When you want something good you've got to spend your jack
I guarantee you will never want your money back
If I can't sell it, I'll keep sitting on it
Before I'll give it away

If I can't sell it, keep sitting on it
Before I give it away
You've got to buy, don't care how much you want it
I mean just what I say

When you want something good you've got to spend your jack
I guarantee you'll never want your money back
If I can't sell it, I'll keep sitting on it
Before I'll give it away

Some sources take it for a song about prostitution, but this view seems too narrow for me. The singer does not say that she wants to sell her goods more than once, only that the potential buyer has to pay the appropriate price. So it looks much more like the manifestation of female self-confidence and pride than the willingness to prostitute herself. White presents her serious message in a most humorous way, accompanied by her highly competent trio, featuring Les Paul's acoustic guitar in the bridge. (Ruth Brown's version of some years later is much more explicit.)

"Trouble in Mind", written by Richard M. Jones, is today mostly associated with Bertha "Chippie" Hill who recorded it with Louis Armstrong (cornet) and Jones (piano) in February 1926 (though it was first sung around May 1924 by Thelma La Vizzo, again with Jones, on Paramount 12206), but the song was largely forgotten in 1936.

It was however not forgotten by Georgia White who in 1929 began performing "Trouble in Mind" regularly with Jimmy Noone's jazz combo at Chicago's Apex Club and, as Big Bill Broonzy once reported, was giving the song great visibility until she finally got around to recording it.

Her seminal recording started a new game. After an extensive instrumental introduction, White's powerful contralto voice delivers the sad yet hopeful message most convincingly:

Trouble in mind, I’m blue,
But I won’t be blue always,
For the sun's gon' shine
In my back door someday. ...

As said by Lea Gilmore: "You may have listened to an infinity of versions of this classic, but Georgia's melancholy, world-weary vocal approach over Les Paul and R.M. Jones delicate guitar-piano dialogue belongs in the Twentieth Century Music (any Music!) Hall Of Fame, if there is one."

It was an extraordinary seller for a "race" record and "Trouble in Mind" became Georgia White's signature song, followed by variations like "New Trouble in Mind" and "Trouble in Mind Swing".

From then on, hundreds of cover versions were recorded and "Trouble in Mind" became a blues standard, crossing over to country (Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys made an impressing Western swing version in the same year), pop (Dinah Washington and Nina Simone had chart hits with it in 1952 and 1961 respectively) and jazz.

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See Also

78 Record
Georgia White - I Just Want Your Stingaree / Black Rider - Decca - USA - 7199 (1936)
Next by Artist
78 Record
Georgia White - Get 'Em From The Peanut Man (Hot Nuts) / Tell Me Baby - Decca - USA - 7152 (1936)
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78 Record
Diamond Lil Hardaway - Back In The Country (Where They Ask For You) / You Know I Know (That I Love You So) - Decca - USA - 7193 (1936)
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78 Record
Alice Moore - Grass Cutter Blues / Telephone Blues - Decca - USA - 7190 (1936)
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