Johnny Copeland was born March 27, 1937, in Haynesville, LA, about 15 miles south of Magnolia, AR (formerly Texarkana, a hotbed of blues activity in the 1920s and '30s). The son of sharecroppers, his father died when he was very young, but Copeland was given his father's guitar. His first gig was with his friend Joe "Guitar" Hughes. Soon after, Hughes "took sick" for a week and the young Copeland discovered he could be a front man and deliver vocals as well as anyone else around Houston at that time.
His music, by his own reasoning, fell somewhere between the funky R&B of New Orleans and the swing and jump blues of Kansas City. After his family (sans his father) moved to Houston, Copeland was exposed, as a teen, to musicians from both cities. While he was becoming interested in music, he also pursued boxing, mostly as an avocation, and it is from his days as a boxer that he got his nickname "Clyde."
Copeland and Hughes fell under the spell of T-Bone Walker, whom Copeland first saw perform when he was 13 years old. As a teenager he played at locales such as Shady's Playhouse — Houston's leading blues club, host to most of the city's best bluesmen during the 1950s — and the Eldorado Ballroom. Copeland and Hughes subsequently formed The Dukes of Rhythm, which became the house band at the Shady's Playhouse. After that, he spent time playing on tour with Albert Collins (himself a fellow T-Bone Walker devotee) during the 1950s, and also played on stage with Sonny Boy Williamson II, Big Mama Thornton, and Freddie King. He began recording in 1958 with "Rock 'n' Roll Lily" for Mercury, and moved between various labels during the 1960s, including All Boy and Golden Eagle in Houston, where he had regional successes with "Please Let Me Know" and "Down on Bending Knees," and later for Wand and Atlantic in New York. In 1965, he displayed a surprising prescience in terms of the pop market by cutting a version of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" for Wand.
After touring around the "Texas triangle" of Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, he relocated to New York City in 1974, at the height of the disco boom. It seems moving to New York City was the best career move Copeland ever made, for he had easy access to clubs in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Boston, all of which still had a place for blues musicians like him. Meanwhile, back in Houston, the club scene was hurting, owing partly to the oil-related recession of the mid-'70s. Copeland took a day job at a Brew 'n' Burger restaurant in New York and played his blues at night, finding receptive audiences at clubs in Harlem and Greenwich Village.
Copeland recorded seven albums for Rounder Records, beginning in 1981 and including Copeland Special, Make My Home Where I Hang My Hat, Texas Twister, Bringing It All Back Home, When the Rain Starts a Fallin', Ain't Nothing But a Party (live, nominated for a Grammy) and Boom Boom; he also won a Grammy award in 1986 for his efforts on an Alligator album, Showdown! with Robert Cray and the late Albert Collins. Although Copeland had a booming, shouting voice and was a powerful guitarist and live performer, what most people don't realize is just how clever a songwriter he was. His latter-day releases for the PolyGram/Verve/Gitanes label, including Flyin' High (1992) and Catch Up with the Blues, provide ample evidence of this on "Life's Rainbow (Nature Song)" (from the latter album) and "Circumstances" (from the former album).
Because Copeland was only six months old when his parents split up and he only saw his father a few times before he passed away, Copeland never realized he had inherited a congenital heart defect from his father. He disovered this in the midst of another typically hectic tour in late 1994, when he had to go into the hospital in Colorado. After he was diagnosed with heart disease, he spent the next few years in and out of hospitals, undertaking a number of costly heart surgeries. Early in 1997, he was waiting for a heart transplant at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. As he was waiting, he was put on the L-VAD, a recent innovation for patients suffering from congenital heart defects. In 1995, Copeland appeared on CNN and ABC-TV's Good Morning America, wearing his L-VAD, offering the invention valuable publicity.
Despite his health problems, Copeland continued to perform and his always spirited concerts did not diminished all that much. After living 20 months on the L-VAD — the longest anyone had lived on the device — he received a heart transplant on January 1, 1997 and for a few months, the heart worked fine and he continued to tour. However, the heart developed a defective valve, necessitating heart surgery in the summer. Copeland died of complications during heart surgery on July 3, 1997.
Ain't Nobody's Business
Johnny Copeland Lyrics
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Then you get another for Monday
Ain't nobody's business but my own
You say you're always home alone
How come I can't get you on the phone
Nobody's business
Nobody's business
Nobody's business but my own
Nobody's business
Nobody's business
Nobody's business but my own
All night long your playin' poker
Tell me what's the name of that joker
Ain't nobody's business but my own
I come over, say "Here I am!"
Then I hear the back door slam
Well, that ain't nobody's business but my own
Nobody's business
Nobody's business
Nobody's business but my own
Nobody's business
Nobody's business
Nobody's business but my own
You tell me you're in bed by seven
But your light's on past eleven
Well, that ain't nobody's business but my own
Now you ain't so amart and you ain't good lookin'
How come you got so much cookin'
Ain't nobody's business but my own
Nobody's business
Nobody's business
Nobody's business but my own
Nobody's business
Nobody's business
Nobody's business but my own
And you wear the prettiest ties and collars
Whereabouts do you get those dollars
Ain't nobody's business but my own
You always talk about settlin' down
When I bring a ring, you're not around
Well, I'll be there the next time that you call
Well let's not fuss and let's not fight
I'm sick and tired of sayin' "Goodnight"
Well, let's make up and hold each other tight
We both know we're birds of a feather
Let's go into business together
We can start a business of our own
Nobody's business
Nobody's business
Nobody's business but our own
Nobody's business
Nobody's business
Nobody's business but our own
The lyrics to Johnny Copeland's song "Ain't Nobody's Business" tells the story of a love affair that is being kept under wraps. The song opens with the singer expressing that he has a woman he loves on Sundays and another on Mondays, and that it is no one's business but his own. We then hear that the woman he is singing about tells him she is always alone, but he can't reach her on the phone. He continues to remind everyone that their business is nobody's business but their own.
The song takes a playful tone as the singer asks the woman about her late-night activities such as poker and how she manages to afford nice clothing. He laments that she talks about settling down but isn't present when he brings a ring. The song ends on a hopeful note with the couple reconciling, suggesting that they will go into business together and that their business will be nobody's business but their own.
Overall, the lyrics to "Ain't Nobody's Business" convey a sense of secrecy and the struggles of love affairs that are kept hidden from the public eye. It's a reminder that some things are best kept between two people and that no one else has the right to pry into their life.
Line by Line Meaning
You got a gal you love on Sunday
You have a girlfriend on Sunday.
Then you get another for Monday
Then you get another girlfriend for Monday.
Ain't nobody's business but my own
It doesn't concern anyone other than me.
You say you're always home alone
You say you're always home alone.
How come I can't get you on the phone
I can't reach you by phone.
Well, that ain't nobody's business but my own
It doesn't have anything to do with anyone other than me.
All night long your playin' poker
You're playing poker all night long.
Tell me what's the name of that joker
Tell me the name of the person who's playing a joke on me.
Nobody's business
It's not anyone else's business.
Now you ain't so amart and you ain't good lookin'
You're not particularly smart or good-looking.
How come you got so much cookin'
Why are you so successful or lucky?
And you wear the prettiest ties and collars
You wear the best ties and shirts.
Whereabouts do you get those dollars
Where do you earn your money?
You always talk about settlin' down
You always talk about wanting to settle down.
When I bring a ring, you're not around
But when I offer a ring, you're not around.
Well, I'll be there the next time that you call
I'll be there for you when you call.
Well let's not fuss and let's not fight
Let's not argue, let's not fight.
I'm sick and tired of sayin' "Goodnight"
I'm tired of saying goodnight.
Well, let's make up and hold each other tight
Let's make up and hug each other tightly.
We both know we're birds of a feather
We know we have a lot in common.
Let's go into business together
Let's start a business together.
Nobody's business but our own
It's a private matter between us.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Spirit Music Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: PORTER GRAINGER, ROBERT GRAHAM PRINCE, CLARENCE WILLIAMS, JIMMY WITHERSPOON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
MrBaseball2490
This is a great cut
MrBaseball2490
This is a great cut