During the late 1950s, Crosby was a member of a local Oneonta teen band called The Tones. The band traveled to Philadelphia to audition for Dick Clark's "American Bandstand", but were turned down. Members of the band found Dick Clark's house and were able to get a recommendation to audition at New York City's Baton Records through the company's lead producer Sol Rabinowitz. The band was given a recording contract, but the studio wanted a quintet backed by studio musicians, which left Crosby and another member out of their recordings.
After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to go AWOL and roam the country busking for a living in areas like New Orleans, Texas, Florida, and New York. He played mostly ukulele until Harriet Ottenheimer, one of the founders of The Quorum, got him settled on a guitar in 1963. He adopted his stage name "Jerry Jeff Walker" in 1966. He spent his early folk music days in Greenwich Village in the mid 1960s. He co-founded a band with Bob Bruno in the late 1960s called Circus Maximus that put out two albums one with the popular west coast hit "Wind", but Bruno's interest in jazz apparently diverged from Walker's interest in folk music. Walker thus resumed his solo career and recorded the seminal album "Mr. Bojangles" with the help of David Bromberg and other influential Atlantic recording artists. He settled in Austin, Texas, in the 1970s associating mainly with the country-rock outlaw scene that included artists such as Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings, and Townes Van Zandt.
"Mr. Bojangles" (written by Walker) is perhaps his most well-known and most-often covered song. It was about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter, (not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill Robinson, as usually assumed). Bojangles is thought to have been a folk character who entertained informally in the south of the US and California, and some say he might have been one of the most gifted natural dancers ever. Authentic reports of him exist from the 1920s through about 1965. Artists from Nina Simone to Bob Dylan, Philip Glass to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, have covered the song. Walker has also recorded songs written by others such as "LA Freeway" (Guy Clark), and "Up Against the Wall Red Neck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard).
A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed Jerry Jeff's move to Austin, before he gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label. Tried & True Music was founded in 1986, with his wife Susan as President and manager. Susan also founded Goodknight Music as his management company and Tried & True Artists for his bookings. A series of increasingly autobiographical records followed under the Tried & True imprint. Tried & True also sells his autobiography called "Gypsy Songman". In 2004, Jerry Jeff released his first DVD of songs from his past as performed in an intimate setting in Austin, TX.
He interpreted the songs of others like Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Keith Sykes, Paul Siebel, Bob Dylan, Todd Snider and even a rodeo clown named Billy Jim Baker.
His son, Django Walker, is also a musician. In addition to his residence in Austin, Walker had a retreat on Ambergris Caye in Belize where he recorded his "Cowboy Boots and Bathing Suits" album in 1998.
Members of his band varied over the years. The Lost Gonzo Band and the Gonzo Compadres have backed him in the past. Key members of his band included Craig Hillis - guitarist and arranger on Viva Terlingua, John Inmon, Freddy Krc, Gary P. Nunn, Bob Livingston, Bobby Rambo, Mitch Watkins, Steve Samuel, David Bromberg and others.
Mississippi You're On My Mind
Jerry Jeff Walker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With the weeds growing tall between the tracks,
And along one side runs a
Rusty barbed wire fence and beyond there
Sits an old tar paper shack.
[Chorus]
Mississippi, you're on my mind,
Mississippi you're on my mind.
I think I hear a noisy old John Deere in a field
Specked with dirty cotton lint, and below the
Field runs a little shady creek, and there you'll
Find the cool green leaves of mint.
[Chorus]
I think I smell the honeysuckle vine,
The heavy sweetness like to make me sick.
And the dogs, my God, they're hungry all the time
And the snakes are sleeping where the weeds are thick.
[Chorus]
I think I feel an angry oven heat,
The southern sun just blazes in the sky.
And in the dusty weeds, an old fat grasshopper jumps.
I wanna make it to that creek before I fry.
[Chorus: x 2]
In Jerry Jeff Walker's song Mississippi You're On My Mind, the lyrics paint a vivid picture of the Mississippi countryside. The singer describes a scene of a wagon rutted road, weeds growing tall between the tracks, an old rusty barbed wire fence, and a tar paper shack. He then imagines a noisy old John Deere tractor in a cotton field, adjacent to a shady creek, where cool green leaves of mint grow. He can almost smell the honeysuckle vine that makes him feel sick and hears the constant hunger of the dogs and sleeping snakes hiding in the thick weeds. He also feels the angry oven-like heat of the southern sun blaring in the sky, hoping to make it to the creek before frying.
Overall, the song has a nostalgic feel to it, where the singer longs for a place he once knew or a place he has heard and is missing. The lyrics are describing the Mississippi countryside, but it could be any other rural American location. Mississippi becomes a metaphor for any place that is lost, unreachable, or a distant memory. The juxtaposition of vivid and sensory descriptions with the emotional longing and nostalgia creates a powerful melancholic effect in the song.
Line by Line Meaning
I think I see a wagon rutted road
I see the remnants of an old wagon road that has been carved out over time
With the weeds growing tall between the tracks,
The path is neglected and overgrown with tall weeds
And along one side runs a Rusty barbed wire fence and beyond there Sits an old tar paper shack.
The road is marked by a decrepit fence and a derelict tar paper shack sits nearby
Mississippi, you're on my mind,
The artist is deeply preoccupied with Mississippi
I think I hear a noisy old John Deere in a field Specked with dirty cotton lint, and below the Field runs a little shady creek, and there you'll Find the cool green leaves of mint.
The sound of a John Deere is heard in a cotton field filled with lint, while a cool creek lined with mint flows nearby
I think I smell the honeysuckle vine,
The singer senses the sweet scent of honeysuckle in the air
The heavy sweetness like to make me sick.
The overwhelming aroma of honeysuckle is nauseating
And the dogs, my God, they're hungry all the time
The hungry dogs are a constant presence
And the snakes are sleeping where the weeds are thick.
The artist knows that snakes are hiding in the dense foliage
I think I feel an angry oven heat,
The oppressive heat of Mississippi is felt intensely
The southern sun just blazes in the sky.
The sun seems to scorch everything in sight
And in the dusty weeds, an old fat grasshopper jumps.
The artist observes an old and obese grasshopper hopping in the dry brush
I wanna make it to that creek before I fry.
The singer is determined to reach the creek before being overtaken by the heat
Mississippi, you're on my mind, Mississippi, you're on my mind, Mississippi you're on my mind.
The singer cannot stop thinking about Mississippi
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JESSE WINCHESTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind