We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Bad Bad Girl

from Love Call Me Home by Peggy Seeger

/

about

(note by Elisabeth Higgins Null with Charles H. Baum)
When Peggy sings "Bad, Bad Girl" she captures and reinterprets the extraordinary emotional power of Ozella Jones's original rendition recorded by John A. and Alan Lomax at the State Penitentiary, Raiford Florida in 1936. In their notes to Our Singing Country (New York: 1941), the Lomaxes communicate their experience not only of hearing that particular singer but encountering the rural blues tradition among women:

If the Bessie Smith enthusiasts could hear Ozella Jones or some other clear-voiced Southern Negro girl sing the blues, they might, we feel, soon forget their idol with her brassbound, music-hall throat. The blues, sung by an unspoiled singer in the South, sung without the binding restrictions of conventional piano accompaniment or orchestral arrangement, grow up like a wild flowering vine in the woods. Their unpredictable, incalculably-tender melody bends and then swings and shivers with the lines like a reed moving in the wind. The blues then show clearly their country origin, their family connection with the "holler."

Ozella sings out of the depth of her own experience as a prisoner and may well be expressing a personal commentary on the facts that caused her to be convicted. There is no motivation here, no excuse, just a recognition of her "badness" coupled with an apology and a promise to do better. The voice is high, girlish with none of the sassiness or injured dignity of the great classic, blues singers. There is an almost passive innocence in her rendition.

Peggy pitches the song lower and sings the song as a mature woman with gravel in her voice: slowly, deliberately, with plenty of space between the phrases. She brings a musician's appreciation to the gapped, pentatonic tune Ð drawing it out and emphasizing its mournful singularity. She is neither passive nor innocent but resigned and even tragic.

Ozella Jones rendition is included on the two-disc anthology Alan Lomax: Blues Songbook (Rounder: 2003, #1866)

lyrics

09 BAD BAD GIRL

from the singing of Ozella Jones. State Penitentiary, Raiford, Florida, 1936
Listen to Bad Bad Girl (mp3)

I been a bad, bad girl
Wouldn't treat nobody right.
I been a bad, bad girl
Wouldn't treat nobody right.
They wanna give me thirty-five year
Someone wanted to take my life.

CHORUS:
Now'm so sorry, even the day I was born
Now'm so sorry, even the day I was born.
I wanna say to all you bad fellas
That you are in the wrong.

Judge, please don't kill me,
I won't be bad no more
Judge, please don't kill me
I won't be bad no more.
I'll listen to everybody,
Something I never done before. (chorus)

I'm sittin' here in prison
With my black cap on
I'm sittin' here in prison
With my black cap on.
Boys, remember me
Even when I am dead and gone. (chorus)

credits

from Love Call Me Home, released April 26, 2005

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Peggy Seeger image

Peggy Seeger Oxford, UK

Peggy is one of the most influential folk singers on either side of the Atlantic. She is Pete Seeger’s half-sister and Ruth Crawford Seeger’s daughter; her first life partner was the English songwriter Ewan MacColl, who wrote First Time Ever I Saw Your Face for her. She has made more than 22 solo recordings to date. Please check ewanmaccoll.bandcamp.com for other albums featuring Peggy. ... more

shows

contact / help

Contact Peggy Seeger

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Peggy Seeger recommends:

If you like Peggy Seeger, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Attic frontman Meister Cagliostro talks heavy metal theatrics and the band's new album.
listen now