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[zipp]

I guess they felt like singing the word "pal," zipp.  But that's the blues where lyrics are often extemporaneous.

The only formal music training I ever had was blues guitar with Ian Buchanan. He was taught blues guitar by Reverend Gary Davis and Brownie McGee and in turn taught John Hammond, Jr. and Jorma Kaukonen this style of Delta Blues.  I studied with Ian Buchanan from 1972 to 1974.

Thanks for the Ian Buchanan song. Was he Canadian, American or British? I can't find much info about him on the net.

As for the Beatles and Kansas City, as I've already said, they were following Little Richard's second arrangement. They replaced the sax solo with George's guitar solo and followed through with the lead singer and the answering chorus. This was in no way extemporaneous. In fact they had a very tight routine that runs all the way from the Cavern to the McCartney clip from 2014 with very little variation.

Did Paul misunderstand Little Richard's 'chile' ? Did he think 'pal' and 'gal' were more fun or more American-sounding?

For whatever reason Paul and the chorus always sing more or less the following :

Hey Hey Hey Hey

Hey Hey Hey Hey

Hey Baby

Hey Baby

Wooh, now gal / girl

Now gal

I say now pal

Oh pal,

Now now now tell me baby, what's been wrong with you ...

[Hello Goodbye]

Thanks for the Ian Buchanan song. Was he Canadian, American or British? I can't find much info about him on the net.

You won't find much about him on the net.  He was American and lived in Forest Hills (Queens, New York).  I'll let Jorma Kaukonen explain who Ian Buchanan was in his own words...


https://youtu.be/mZOI2he4p5k

Ian played club dates with his band in the NYC area.  He and Jorma Kaukonen were classmates at Antioch College in the early 1960s and it was there that Ian taught him fingerpicking Delta Blues.  Ian appeared on the 1964 Elektra LP called The Blues Project and sang Winding Boy Blues...


https://youtu.be/UNfywuCuUmg

All the artists on that album knew each other and were good friends.  One of Ian's friends was Al Kooper (Blonde On Blonde organist and The Blues Project keyboardist) who one day paid a visit to Ian during one of my lessons.  He sat quietly in the room during my lesson and I didn't know who he was.  I was starstruck when Ian introduced me to him afterward.

Ian and his band, The Pigmeat Blues Band, put out a promotion album in the late 1960s when he went electric...


https://youtu.be/LtbGI_yIdr0

Goin' So Far wasn't written by Ian.  It's an old traditional blues song which just happens to have some lyrics similar to Little Richard's Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey.  Maybe Goin' So Far is where Little Richard copped those lyrics.

[Hello Goodbye]

Hesitation Blues


https://youtu.be/Rw5u6xQQ0Lc
Ian Buchanan   From my lesson tapes



https://youtu.be/syboL0dv5Eg
Hot Tuna  1970


Funny story about Jorma Kaukonen in Hesitation Blues singing the lyrics

If the river was whiskey
Say and I was a duck
You know I'd swim to the bottom
Might never come up.


When I started taking lessons, Ian asked me to play blues songs I knew so he'd know where to start.  I played Canned Heat's Rollin' And Tumblin' which had similar lyrics in it...


https://youtu.be/HIbvtdK02AA

Well if the river was whiskey
I was a divin' duck
Well if the river was whiskey
I was a divin' duck
Well I would swim to the bottom
And then I wouldn't come up

[Hello Goodbye]

I told him I thought it was such a cool line.  Ian said he liked it too and that I could stick it into many of the blues songs he would teach me.  I asked him if he ever heard Cream do Rollin' And Tumblin.'


https://youtu.be/1PLLjfSnTV0

He said yeah and pulled down an old 78 record.  He said that the song was older than you think...


https://youtu.be/OlARZkfGDOE
Roll And Tumble Blues   Hambone Willie Newbern   1929

[Hello Goodbye]

As for the Beatles and Kansas City, as I've already said, they were following Little Richard's second arrangement. They replaced the sax solo with George's guitar solo and followed through with the lead singer and the answering chorus. This was in no way extemporaneous. In fact they had a very tight routine that runs all the way from the Cavern to the McCartney clip from 2014 with very little variation.

Did Paul misunderstand Little Richard's 'chile' ? Did he think 'pal' and 'gal' were more fun or more American-sounding?

For whatever reason Paul and the chorus always sing more or less the following :

Hey Hey Hey Hey

Hey Hey Hey Hey

Hey Baby

Hey Baby

Wooh, now gal / girl

Now gal

I say now pal

Oh pal,

Now now now tell me baby, what's been wrong with you ...

So zipp, I didn't say The Beatles were extemporaneous with their lyrics.  Blues artists often are.  Indeed, The Beatles kept to their recorded lyrics in all their performances we have access to today.

Yep, that's what Paul sings in Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey in all the recordings we have.  I'm not sure why he stuck the word pal in there, he just did. 

I've always wondered if they ever got raunchy with their lyrics in club dates in Germany.  This would have been a good song to do so.  Ian taught me a few verses to Hesitation Blues that I can't post here.   

[Hello Goodbye]

(Non-extemporaneous) Hesitation Blues


https://youtu.be/t1fIv88rBlw
Reverend Gary Davis



(Extemporaneous) Hesitation Blues


https://youtu.be/q_AJifsE2eQ
Reverend Gary Davis



 

[Hello Goodbye]

Some more about the "divin' duck..."


https://youtu.be/mJK0MRF3Ghk
Divin' Duck Blues   Sleepy John Estes   26 September 1929


Now if the river was whiskey
And I was a divin' duck
Now if the river was whiskey
I was a divin' duck
I would dive on the bottom
Never would come up


Obviously a very popular thought in blues songs.   

[zipp]

So zipp, I didn't say The Beatles were extemporaneous with their lyrics.  Blues artists often are.  Indeed, The Beatles kept to their recorded lyrics in all their performances we have access to today.

Yep, that's what Paul sings in Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey in all the recordings we have.  I'm not sure why he stuck the word pal in there, he just did. 

I've always wondered if they ever got raunchy with their lyrics in club dates in Germany.  This would have been a good song to do so. 

Well, no, even in Hamburg they kept to their routine.

Actually it took me a long time to see that Paul was singing 'pal' in this song. I always felt this was something of a let-down. But their version of the song is nevertheless great :

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGwzOvykUeE" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGwzOvykUeE</a>

[Hello Goodbye]

Well, no, even in Hamburg they kept to their routine.

I just figured that there was a chance that these guys raunched up their lyrics a bit in Hamburg...









 

[Hello Goodbye]

Actually it took me a long time to see that Paul was singing 'pal' in this song. I always felt this was something of a let-down. But their version of the song is nevertheless great :

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGwzOvykUeE" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGwzOvykUeE</a>

It shouldn't be a let-down.  If you're bidding your baby "bye-bye" and asking "what's been wrong with you", then changing the way you address her from "gal" to "pal" makes a lot of sense if you're using the word pal as a derogatory term.  I think that's what Paul did here.

[zipp]

It shouldn't be a let-down.  If you're bidding your baby "bye-bye" and asking "what's been wrong with you", then changing the way you address her from "gal" to "pal" makes a lot of sense if you're using the word pal as a derogatory term.  I think that's what Paul did here.

Yeah, I'd never thought of that.

But how many girls does this guy have?

One here and one in Kansas City?

And he's going to bring back the one in KC to meet the one here saying,'Don't worry, babe, this is my ex-girlfriend. She was my gal but now we're just pals'?

If you ask me, he's looking for trouble.

[Hello Goodbye]

But how many girls does this guy have?

Just a one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight nine.   



Too Many Women Blues


https://youtu.be/70VmrLkV-bs
Willie Lane   1949


I've got so many women, I don't hardly know who to choose
I've got so many women, I don't hardly know who to choose
Boy, I wake up every morning, I got too many women blues

I've got a little bitty woman, she lives down in Arkansas
Little bitty woman, she lives down in Arkansas
She's pigeon-toed, she's bow-legged, she got dimples all in her jaw

Some red, some yella, some is black, some is teasin' brown
Some is red, some is yella, some is black, some is teasin' brown
You can't tell much about 'em, 'cause they're scattered all over town

Five on the South Side, seven on the East Side
Nine on the West Side, North Side, too
Ten out in Oak Lawn, 'leven on Sixth Avenue
I've got twelve in the Bottom, thirteen in TCU

Too many women, they weren't good