His nickname came from the fact that he was a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the two extant photographs of Bob show him playing his guitar while wearing a full length white apron and cook's hat.
He and his brother, Charlie Hicks, together with Curley Weaver, were taught how to play the guitar by Curley's mother, Savannah "Dip" Weaver. Bob began playing the 6-string guitar but picked up the 12-string guitar after moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 1923–1924. He became one of the prominent performers of the newly developing early Atlanta blues style.
In Atlanta, Hicks worked a variety of jobs, playing music on the side. While working at Tidwells' Barbecue in a north Atlanta suburb, Hicks came to the attention of Columbia Records talent scout Dan Hornsby. Hornsby recorded him and decided to use Hicks's job as a gimmick, having him pose in chef's whites and hat for publicity photos and dubbing him "Barbecue Bob".
During his short career he recorded 68 78-rpm sides. He recorded his first side, "Barbecue Blues", in March 1927. The record quickly sold 15,000 copies and made him the best selling artist for Columbia up to that date. Despite this initial success, it was not until his second recording session, in New York during June 1927, that he firmly established himself on the race market. At this session he recorded "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues", a song inspired by the major floods taking place in Mississippi at that time. This song, as well as his other blues releases, gained considerable popularity, and his records sold much better than those of other local blues musicians.
The two part duet with crosstalk, "It Won't Be Long Now" was recorded with his brother Charlie (a/k/a Charlie Lincoln, or Laughing Charlie) in Atlanta on November 5, 1927. In April 1928 Bob recorded two sides with the female vocalist Nellie Florence, whom he had known since childhood, and also produced "Mississippi Low Levee Blues", a sequel to "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues". In April 1930, he recorded "We Sure Got Hard Times Now", which contains bleak references to the early effects of The Depression. Although Barbecue Bob remained predominantly a blues musician, he also recorded a few traditional and spiritual songs including "When the Saints Go Marching In", "Poor Boy, Long Ways from Home" and "Jesus' Blood Can Make Me Whole".
Barbecue Bob also recorded as a member of The Georgia Cotton Pickers in December 1930, a group that included guitarist Curley Weaver and harmonica player Buddy Moss. As a group they recorded a handful of sides including their own adaptation of Blind Blake's "Diddie Wa Diddie" (recorded as "Diddle-Da-Diddle") and the Mississippi Sheiks' "Sitting on Top of the World" (recorded as "I'm On My Way Down Home"). These were the last recordings that Bob recorded.
He died in Lithonia, Georgia, of a combination of tuberculosis and pneumonia brought on by influenza, at the age of 29, on October 21, 1931. His recording of "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (about the 1927 flood) was apparently played at his graveside before burial.
Bob developed a "flailing" or "frailing" style of playing guitar more often associated with the traditional clawhammer banjo (as did his brother, and, initially, Curley Weaver). He used a bottleneck regularly on his 12-string guitar, playing in an elemental style that relied on an open Spanish tuning reminiscent of Charley Patton. He had a strong voice that he embellished with growling and falsetto, and a percussive singing style.
Bob had some influence on Atlanta blues musicians such as the young Buddy Moss (who played harmonica with him on The Georgia Cotton Pickers recordings), but his way of playing was quickly overshadowed by the finger-picked Piedmont blues style that rose in popularity by the late 1920s/early 30s as can be heard in the development of the recordings of Curley Weaver.
Bob's elder brother, Charley, also played blues and was recorded by Columbia under the name "Laughing" Charley Lincoln. However, he never received the same acclaim as his brother.
Robert Hicks was an extrovert young man of 24 when Columbia's Dan Hornsby arranged his first recording session in March 1927, and had only moved into Atlanta from the countryside a few years before. When he recorded He had learned guitar, along with their friend Curley Weaver, from Curley's mother; all three played in a similar style, favouring the big, booming sound of the 12-string guitar, and relishing the contrast of pulsing bass riffs with the whine of a bottleneck on the treble strings. Barbecue Blues was a good seller, but it was at his second session, in New York in June 1927, that Bob firmly established himself with black record buyers, and thus with Columbia; Mississippi Heavy Water Blues, inspired by the catastrophic floods that had occurred that very month, was a considerable seller, and as a result Robert became Atlanta's most-recorded blues singer of the 20s. It was probably his success that persuaded Columbia to record both his brother Charlie and, in 1928, Curley Weaver.
From the first, Barbecue Bob's music was instantly recognisable, both for the characteristic guitar style and for his warm, nasal singing voice. He could sound fiercely involved with his material, as on Barbecue Blues, ironically detached, as he did when performing Mama You Don't Suit Me!, or crushed by rejection, alike on Crooked Woman Blues and the traditionally based How Long Pretty Mama. The two-part It Won't Be Long Now, in crosstalk and duet with Charlie, is probably an example of the kind of material Robert performed on the medicine show with which he is known to have visited the small town of Waycross, in southwest Georgia, about which he made up a blues.
Barbecue Bob's lyrics are remarkable for their blending of traditional formulae with a wry originality that is all his own. He was well acquainted with traditional songs; the content of Barbecue Blues and Motherless Chile Blues is almost proverbial, and the session where he cut versions of two well-known gospel songs also produced Easy Rider Don't You Deny My Name and a stunning account of Poor Boy A Long Ways From Home. Barbecue Bob rapidly impressed himself on his fans' minds as sharp, clever and original.
We Sure Got Hard Times
Barbecue Bob Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've got a song to sing you, and it's no excuse
And it sure is the devil, I b'lieve he's got a-loose
You want a drink of liquor, you think it's awful nice
When you want a drink of liquor and you think it's awful nice
You put your hand in your pocket and you ain't got the price
You heard about a job, now you is on your way
Twenty mens out for the same job, all in the same old day
Hard times, hard times, we got hard times now
Hard times, hard times, we've sure got hard times now
Just think and think about it, we've got hard times now
You started in moochin', but your mooching's in vain
You started in to moochin', but your mooching's in vain
Be careful with yourself, you'll get a ball and chain
Lard and bacon goin' to a dollar a pound
Well, lard and bacon goin' to a dollar a pound
Cotton has started to sellin', but it keeps goin' down and down
Just before election, you was talkin' how you was going to vote
Just before election, you was talkin' how you was going to vote
And after election was over, your head down like a billy goat
Hard time, hard time, sure got hard time now
Hard time, hard time, we've got hard time now
Once you think and think about it, we've sure got hard times now
The lyrics of Barbecue Bob's song "We Sure Got Hard Times" explore the theme of financial struggles during the Great Depression in the early twentieth century. The song points out that finding work was difficult due to the high level of competition, and even when one did manage to find a job, the wages were low. The opening verse suggests that there is a sense of doom looming and the devil seems to have a grip on things. The second verse illustrates the reality of poverty, how one must resort to drinking cheap alcohol as a means of drowning their sorrows due to their inability to afford better.
The third verse points to the unavailability of jobs in a world where the unemployment rate soared, and the competition for available jobs was high. The fourth verse highlights the futility in mooching, that it will lead one nowhere and lead to trouble. Lard and bacon becoming expensive point to inflation and the general difficulty in accessing essentials in society. The increased expense of fuel and basic necessities, such as lard, speaks to the lack of affordability of basic necessities at that time.
The song's chorus suggests the grim reality of the Great Depression: individuals and families experiencing hard times alongside economic struggle, making it difficult to survive. One can sense the desperation through the repeated inclusion of the phrase, "we've got hard times now," which emphasizes the bleak situation that many people found themselves in at that time. It is a bracing depiction of the financial and social turmoil that characterized life in the early decades of the twentieth century.
Line by Line Meaning
Got a song to sing you, and it's no excuse
I have a song to sing, but it won't excuse the hard times we are facing
And it sure is the devil, I b'lieve he's got a-loose
These hard times are so bad, it's like the devil has been set free
When you want a drink of liquor and you think it's awful nice
Sometimes we turn to drinking to cope with hard times
You put your hand in your pocket and you ain't got the price
But even that is a problem when we can't afford basic necessities
Twenty mens out for the same job, all in the same old day
Finding a job is tough because there are many others competing for the same position
Hard times, hard times, we've sure got hard times now
These are truly hard times that we are experiencing
You started in to moochin', but your mooching's in vain
Even those who try to get by with borrowing or begging struggle in these times
Be careful with yourself, you'll get a ball and chain
And if we're not careful, we may end up in trouble with the law
Cotton has started to sellin', but it keeps goin' down and down
Even when there are signs of economic growth, it doesn't always help the average person
Just before election, you was talkin' how you was going to vote
Politicians make promises during election season that they may not keep
And after election was over, your head down like a billy goat
Leaving people feeling defeated and disappointed when those promises aren't fulfilled
Once you think and think about it, we've sure got hard times now
Taking a moment to truly reflect on our situation, it's clear that these are difficult times that we are living through
Contributed by Mackenzie W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.