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.
Copeland Special
Johnny Copeland Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
what
the bull of our from
no back yard
like she does
every midnight
with her killer be burnt
how's a kite
an took her over
it tokok her down
everything's mine
The lyrics to Johnny Copeland's song "Copeland Special" are quite cryptic and leave a lot of room for interpretation. The mention of Nadia seems to refer to a woman who is engaging in some kind of dangerous or thrilling behavior, possibly with a man referred to as "the bull of our." It's unclear what this behavior is, but it is described as happening "every midnight." The line "with her killer be burnt" suggests that there is some kind of danger involved, perhaps from a weapon or some kind of explosive.
The next lines, "how's a kite/he is in slumber/an took her over/it tokok her down" are even more enigmatic. It's possible that "he" refers to the bull of our, and "took her over" means that he has control over Nadia. "How's a kite" could be a metaphor for feeling light and carefree while engaging in risky behavior. The final line, "everything's mine," could be interpreted a few different ways - it could be the bull of our claiming ownership over Nadia, or it could be a statement of triumph or satisfaction.
Line by Line Meaning
Nadia
Referring to someone named Nadia
what
Asking a question, in this context likely asking about something Nadia did
the bull of our from
Possibly an obscure reference or metaphor, unclear without further context
no back yard
No place to hide or escape
like she does
As if it is something Nadia does or always has done
every midnight
Referring to a specific time when something happens
with her killer be burnt
Possibly a reference to a weapon or tool, unclear without further context
how's a kite
Possibly referring to someone who is high or intoxicated, unclear without further context
he is in slumber
Someone is asleep or unconscious
an took her over
Someone took control or took possession of something
it tokok her down
Unclear without further context
everything's mine
Someone has taken ownership of everything
Writer(s): Johnny Copeland
Contributed by Peyton R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.