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.
Heebie Jeebies
Johnny Copeland Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've got the heebies, but I can't go wrong
'Cos when I got 'em, I just roll along
Listen everybody while I sing this song
I'm singin' 'bout that dance that makes you shake your shoes
That dance that gives you folks the heebie jeebie blues
It's called the heebie jeebie dance, wah-la-la-la-loo
It's called the heebie jeebie dance
Oh, I've got the heebies
Got the heebie jeebies
I'm talkin' about
Got the heebie jeebie blues
Sweet ?
Come on now, just a little bit o' joy
Said, babe, don't ya know it
Come on and show it
And we don't feel blue
Say, come on down and do that dance
Called the heebie, heebie jeebie dance
Called the heebie jeebie dance
Oh, skee, skat
Baby, don't ya know it
Come on and show it
And we don't feel blue
Say, come on down and do that dance
Called the heebie jeebie dance, young man
Called the heebie jeebie dance
I've got the heebie jeebies
What'ya doin' with the jeebies
Said I got those heebies
Wab-bob-bom-wah-wob-bob-bom-waaaaaaaaah!
Johnny Copeland's Heebie Jeebies is a classic rhythm and blues song that captured the spirit of the dance-driven American Black society. The song is a map of the singer's experience of the heebie-jeebies. Johnny Copeland claims he's had the Heebie-jeebies all day long and found a way to turn it into a dance. The lyrics show that he's confident in his moves and, despite the continual flow of doubts, keeps the dance rolling. The lyrics express the contagious nature of the dance to the listeners, describing it as the one that makes you shake your shoes and indulges a sense of unity. The singer's goal is to invite the audience to "come on down and do that dance" together with him, providing a sense of community.
Line by Line Meaning
Now, I been having 'em, been having 'em all day long
I have been experiencing the heebie jeebies all day long
I've got the heebies, but I can't go wrong
I have the heebie jeebies, but it does not affect me negatively
'Cos when I got 'em, I just roll along
I am able to keep moving even when I feel the heebie jeebies
Listen everybody while I sing this song
Pay attention to what I am singing about heebie jeebies
I'm singin' 'bout that dance that makes you shake your shoes
This song is about a dance that makes you move your feet vigorously
That dance that gives you folks the heebie jeebie blues
The dance is so good that it gives you the feeling of heebie jeebie blues
It's called the heebie jeebie dance, wah-la-la-la-loo
The dance is called the heebie jeebie dance
It's called the heebie jeebie dance
The name of the dance is heebie jeebie dance
Oh, I've got the heebies
I have the heebie jeebies
Got the heebie jeebies
I have the heebie jeebies
I'm talkin' about
I am discussing
Got the heebie jeebie blues
I am feeling the heebie jeebie blues
Sweet ?
Unknown
Come on now, just a little bit o' joy
Let's have some joy
Said, babe, don't ya know it
Hey, do you realize it?
Come on and show it
Express your joy
And we don't feel blue
And we don't feel sad
Say, come on down and do that dance
Come over here and dance
Called the heebie, heebie jeebie dance
The dance is called heebie jeebie dance
Called the heebie jeebie dance
The name of the dance is heebie jeebie dance
Oh, skee, skat
Unknown
Baby, don't ya know it
Hey, you realize it?
Come on and show it
Express your joy
And we don't feel blue
And we don't feel sad
Say, come on down and do that dance
Come over here and dance
Called the heebie jeebie dance, young man
The dance is called heebie jeebie dance
Called the heebie jeebie dance
The name of the dance is heebie jeebie dance
I've got the heebie jeebies
I have the heebie jeebies
What'ya doin' with the jeebies
What is happening to you when you have the heebie jeebies
Said I got those heebies
I am feeling the heebie jeebies
Wab-bob-bom-wah-wob-bob-bom-waaaaaaaaah!
Unknown
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JOHNNY COPELAND
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind