If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
(Robert Johnson)
If I had possession over judgement day.
If I had possession over judgement day.
Any woman didn’t want no lovin’ wouldn’t have no right to pray.
I went to the mountain and it burned my eyes to see.
I went to the mountain and it burned my eyes to see.
Some other man got my woman and these lonesome blues got me.
Well, I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long.
I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long.
When I woke up this mornin’, my biscuit roller gone.
Had to fold my arms and I slowly walked away.
Had to fold my arms and I slowly walked away.
I said in my mind, “Your trouble gonna come some day”.
Now run here baby, set down on my knee.
Yes, run here, baby, set down on my knee.
I want to tell you all about the way they treated me.
If I had possession over judgement day.
If I had possession over judgement day.
Any woman didn’t want no lovin’ wouldn’t have no right to pray.
GUITAR:
Not a guitar at all, but a homemade, single-stringed instrucment known in North Carolina as a
“one-string”, but called a “diddley bow” in Georgia and some other parts of the south. This instrument is the acknowledged source of Bo Diddly’s stage name. Taking Robert Johnson’s If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day back a step inmusical technology felt like living in a different time.
Read more about the diddley bow, access photos and video
clip in BluesNotes andin my MediaArchives (the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center clip.)