Don't Ease Me In Here's a fun, rollicking song that dates back to when the Grateful Dead were still called "Mother McCree's Blue Ribbon Jug Champions" ~1965 .... "The girl I love She's sweet and true. Ya know the dress she wears, Sweet Mama, it's pink and blue. She brings me coffee. Ya know she brings me tea. She brings me bout every damn thing But the jailhouse key. .... Don't ease, don't ease. Don't ease me in. I been all night long coming home Don't ease me in." .... Umm...Yeah. But what does it mean? Andrew Lawrence posits the following: It would take a better musicologist than I to track the precise steps that bring this song to us in its most popular rendering, that of the Grateful Dead. That said, even a modest effort in the age of the internet (and its vast reserves of early recordings) gives us access to resources unheard of in the early 1960s. Had they had access to the same resources, chances are the song never would have existed in this quizzical form: Don't Ease Me In. After all, what could that possibly mean? It could mean, simply, that they were working from an unintelligible recording and got the lyrics wrong. The version they heard was no doubt that of Henry Thomas, a terrific and inexplicably unheralded Texas songster who was already in his 50's by the time he recorded on the Vocalion label in the late 1920's. (His collected works are now available on Yazoo Records. Highly recommended.) Thomas is the source of a number of other well-known blues covers. Audio Clip: Henry Thomas singing Don't Ease Me In That's enough to give big-eared cryptographers a workout, but it sure sounds like, "Don't ease me in" doesn't it? It wouldn't be the first blues tune with lyrics that ring nonsensical to folks of another era and a different culture. Plus, it rolls off the tongue nicely. Who knows, maybe that's actually what Thomas was saying on this take. In any case, whoever among Jerry's crew first learned the song just ran with what he had and didn't ask too many questions. Questions like, "I wonder if Henry Thomas did any other recordings of the song?" If they'd asked that one, they might have run across another track, recorded under the more transparent title Don't Leave Me Here. Mystery solved, good or bad, depending on how you feel about Unsolved Mysteries and Nonsensical Lyrics. One more syllable away from the original title and we find Don't You Leave Me Here credited to none other than Jelly Roll Morton. That song was in circulation around the time of Thomas' recording and while the melody and words are not exactly the same, there are too many crossover points to be explained away by coincidence. My uninformed, but not unfounded guess: Henry Thomas was somewhat familiar with this song and came up with his own based roughly on what he recalled of it. So how come, you might well ask, are we learning the song as "Don't Ease Me In" rather than "Don't Leave Me Here?" Simply because a lot more people have heard of the Grateful Dead than of Henry Thomas, Laura Smith or even (sadly) Jelly Roll Morton. Released in 1966 and never fully retired from their concert repertoire. Whatever the song's roots, it is now its own cryptic self. In an odd tip of the cap to street-musician Henry Thomas, I was reminded of the song's existence by one of Northampton's many buskers. And they get the last word on what is legit when it comes to Blues. Andrew Lawrence Community Guitar 413.320.8154 andolawrence AT gmail DOT com
Don't Ease Me In
Here's a fun, rollicking song that dates back to when the Grateful Dead were still called "Mother McCree's Blue Ribbon Jug Champions" ~1965
....
"The girl I love
She's sweet and true.
Ya know the dress she wears,
Sweet Mama, it's pink and blue.
She brings me coffee.
Ya know she brings me tea.
She brings me bout every damn thing
But the jailhouse key.
....
Don't ease, don't ease.
Don't ease me in.
I been all night long coming home
Don't ease me in."
....
Umm...Yeah.
But what does it mean?
Andrew Lawrence posits the following:
It would take a better musicologist than I to track the precise steps that bring this song to us in its most popular rendering, that of the Grateful Dead. That said, even a modest effort in the age of the internet (and its vast reserves of early recordings) gives us access to resources unheard of in the early 1960s. Had they had access to the same resources, chances are the song never would have existed in this quizzical form: Don't Ease Me In.
After all, what could that possibly mean?
It could mean, simply, that they were working from an unintelligible recording and got the lyrics wrong. The version they heard was no doubt that of Henry Thomas, a terrific and inexplicably unheralded Texas songster who was already in his 50's by the time he recorded on the Vocalion label in the late 1920's. (His collected works are now available on Yazoo Records. Highly recommended.) Thomas is the source of a number of other well-known blues covers.
Audio Clip: Henry Thomas singing Don't Ease Me In
That's enough to give big-eared cryptographers a workout, but it sure sounds like, "Don't ease me in" doesn't it? It wouldn't be the first blues tune with lyrics that ring nonsensical to folks of another era and a different culture.
Plus, it rolls off the tongue nicely. Who knows, maybe that's actually what Thomas was saying on this take. In any case, whoever among Jerry's crew first learned the song just ran with what he had and didn't ask too many questions.
Questions like, "I wonder if Henry Thomas did any other recordings of the song?" If they'd asked that one, they might have run across another track, recorded under the more transparent title
Don't Leave Me Here.
Mystery solved, good or bad, depending on how you feel about Unsolved Mysteries and Nonsensical Lyrics.
One more syllable away from the original title and we find Don't You Leave Me Here credited to none other than Jelly Roll Morton. That song was in circulation around the time of Thomas' recording and while the melody and words are not exactly the same, there are too many crossover points to be explained away by coincidence.
My uninformed, but not unfounded guess:
Henry Thomas was somewhat familiar with this song and came up with his own based roughly on what he recalled of it.
So how come, you might well ask, are we learning the song as "Don't Ease Me In" rather than "Don't Leave Me Here?" Simply because a lot more people have heard of the Grateful Dead than of Henry Thomas, Laura Smith or even (sadly) Jelly Roll Morton. Released in 1966 and never fully retired from their concert repertoire.
Whatever the song's roots, it is now its own cryptic self. In an odd tip of the cap to street-musician Henry Thomas, I was reminded of the song's existence by one of Northampton's many buskers. And they get the last word on what is legit when it comes to Blues.
Andrew Lawrence
Community Guitar
413.320.8154
andolawrence AT gmail DOT com
thanx- for all that. Stuff got borrowed a lot in the old days and transformed into the modern...
Jailhouse Key ! 😀😁😂🤣😃
Hysterical !
Its been years yes sir don't ease me in
Ther will never be anything close to way these guy's meshed musically! If im ever down and pissed off ,this is the remedy👍
DOUGH KNEES! DOUGH KNEES!
🎧🎤🎶🎵🎼🎹
Damn, this Song is Better Than a Morning Cup' of Joe!
Coffee,Tea...No Key 😂😂😂
My dad’s in this song, Ray Lawrence!
Brent at his beginnings hated to see them go but always alive
Their first single.
Yes. In 1966. But this version here is a new, 1979 re-recording (released in April 1980 on the "Go To Heaven" LP).
Love the song live. This is all right but it seems to be pitched higjer than Jerrys actual voice. ❤
Wait... WHY AREN'T THEIR LIPS MOVING?
Scrum!
👁️👁️