Billie's Blues and Ethel Waters antecedent

[Pete C]

Check out the lyrics starting at 1:43

[John L]

Interesting. Thanks.

There was a lot of recycling of blues lyrics back in those days. I just realized not long ago that Leroy Carr's most famous composition "How Long, How Long Blues" is a basically a recycling of a song recorded earlier by Ida Cox of almost the same name: "How Long, Daddy, How Long." There are a number of country blues songs usually celebrated as original compositions that are actually covers of tracks recorded by the classic blues singers in the 20s.

[Pete C]

There's a song on Dylan's Love & Theft, Bye & Bye, whose melody is pretty much the same as a song Billie Holiday did, Having Myself a Time.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUN636BNNys

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/bye-and-bye