"Match Box Blues" History
Although Blind Lemon Jefferson was the first to record "Match Box Blues" under that title in 1927, Ma Rainey had earlier recorded the famous line in her March 1924 recording of "Lost Wandering Blues" in Chicago, which was released as a Paramount 78 single, 12098, in 1924:
- "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 down the road."
Blind Lemon Jefferson first recorded the song "Match Box Blues" on March 14, 1927 for Okeh in Atlanta, Georgia, three years after Ma Rainey's recording of "Lost Wandering Blues". In "Screening the Blues," Paul Oliver stated that both Rainey and Jefferson "may have absorbed from traditional usage."
As later developed, the song consists of traditional blues lyrics that open with 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.
Read more about this topic: Matchbox (song)
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