Matchbox (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| “Matchbox” | ||
|---|---|---|
|
EP cover
|
||
| EP track by The Beatles | ||
| Album | Long Tall Sally (EP) | |
| Released | 19 June 1964 | |
| Recorded | 1 June 1964 | |
| Genre | Rock and roll | |
| Length | 1:57 (Misprinted as 1:37 on both singles and albums) | |
| Label | Parlophone GEP 8913 (mono) |
|
| Writer | Carl Perkins | |
| Producer | George Martin | |
| Long Tall Sally track listing | ||
|
||
| “Matchbox” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Single by The Beatles from the album Something New |
|||||
| B-side | "Slow Down" | ||||
| Released | 24 August 1964 | ||||
| Format | 7" (1964) | ||||
| Length | 1:57 (Misprinted as 1:37 on both singles and albums) | ||||
| Label | Capitol | ||||
| The Beatles singles chronology | |||||
|
|||||
"Match Box Blues" is a 12-bar blues recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1927. The song was the inspiration for "Matchbox", a rockabilly 12-bar blues written by Carl Perkins and first recorded by him at Sun Records in December of 1956. It is one of Perkins' best-known recordings, gaining notoriety through the wealth of cover versions that followed, notably the cover by The Beatles.
[edit] Perkins' Matchbox
On December 4, 1956 Carl Perkins recorded a song titled "Matchbox". After recording "Your True Love", Carl's father Buck suggested that Carl do "Matchbox Blues". Buck knew only only a few of the lines of the song. That verse was from one of the 1927 recordings by Blind Lemon Jefferson, which Buck had likely heard either in the cotton fields or on the radio, and Carl had heard his father sing the lyric, but had never heard the complete song as sung by Jefferson. As Carl sang the few words his father had suggested. Jerry Lee Lewis, who was at that time a session piano player at Sun Studios, began a restrained boogie-woogie riff. Carl began picking out a melody on the guitar and improvised lyrics.[1]
Perkins maintains that he had never heard Jefferson's "Match Box Blues" when he recorded "Matchbox". Jefferson's song is about a mean, spirited woman. Carl's was about a lovelorn "poor boy" with limited prospects.[2]
Perkins' father may also have heard the song as done by country musicians the Shelton Brothers,[1] who recorded the song twice in the 1930s, and again in 1947.[2]
Although Jefferson was first to record his versions of "Match Box Blues", Ma Rainey used the following lines in a 1923 recording of "Lost Wandering Blues:" I'm leaving this morning , with my clothes in my hand I won't stop to wandering , till I find my man I'm sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes I've got a *sun to beat* , I'll be farther beyond the road [3]
In "Screening the Blues", Paul Oliver acknowledged that both Rainey and Jefferson "may have absorbed [the line] from traditional usage." [4]
[edit] Match Box Blues in General
The song consists mainly of traditional blues lyrics, including the initial verse:
- "I'm sittin' here wonderin', will a matchbox hold my clothes (2X)
- "I ain't got no matches but I still got a long way to go."
This verse is the only one common to all versions of the song.
An extensive history of this song begins at this url: [5]
Samples of the many versions of MatchBox Blues can be heard at this url: [6]
[edit] The Beatles
The Beatles, being fans of Perkins, began performing the song circa 1961. Their then-drummer, Pete Best, performed the lead vocals, but no studio recording featuring Best doing the song is known to exist. In 1962, John Lennon sang the song during a performance at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; a recording of this exists and was included on Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962.
The next year, The Beatles performed "Matchbox" with Ringo Starr on lead vocals for their BBC radio show, and this version would be included on the Live at the BBC album. Starr also got to sing lead vocals on it when it was recorded in 1964. There are suggestions that Perkins may have been present in the studio at that time. As was usually the case, all instruments on the song are played by The Beatles themselves, with the exception of the piano, which was played by producer George Martin. It appeared on the Long Tall Sally EP in the United Kingdom and the Something New album in the United States, and was also the B-side of the American "Slow Down" single, released on 24 August 1964, which reached no. 17 in the charts.
This song is possibly the only Beatles song to have had three different lead vocalists for their renditions of it.
Numerous other artists have recorded their own versions of "Matchbox", including Ronnie Hawkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. In Sam Cooke's live version, he interjects, "Can you see me putting all my clothes in a little old matchbox?"
Paul McCartney plays the songs during his soundchecks and played them at his recent "secret gigs" promoting his new album.
