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.
Look on Yonder Wall
Johnny Copeland Lyrics
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Look over yonder's wall, hand me down my walking cane
I got myself a woman and yonder comes your man
Now I'm in love with you baby but you don't treat me right
Now I'm in love with you baby but you don't treat me right
You take all my money, walk the streets late at night
Now your man went to the war, and I know it was rough
Don't know how many men he killed, but he done killed enough
Look over yonder's wall, hand me down my walking cane
Look over yonder's wall, hand me down my walking cane
I got myself a woman and yonder comes your man
The lyrics of Johnny Copeland's song "Look on Yonder Wall" convey a complex narrative of love, betrayal, and a sense of impending conflict. The repeated invocation to "look over yonder's wall" suggests a sense of distance and separation, as if the singer is observing a situation unfold from a distance. The imagery of the walking cane symbolizes a need for support and stability in the face of uncertainty and tension.
The mention of the woman in the lyrics indicates a romantic relationship that is fraught with difficulty and mistrust. The singer expresses love for the woman, but also acknowledges that she does not treat him right. This imbalance in the relationship is highlighted by the woman's actions of taking all the singer's money and wandering the streets late at night, suggesting a lack of commitment and fidelity.
The lyrics also allude to a third character, referred to as "your man," who has gone to war. This introduces a theme of conflict and violence into the narrative, adding a layer of tension and danger to the already strained relationship between the singer and the woman. The ambiguity surrounding the man's actions in war, as suggested by the line "don't know how many men he killed," further underscores the sense of unease and foreboding.
Overall, the lyrics of "Look on Yonder Wall" paint a vivid picture of a love triangle marked by betrayal, mistrust, and the looming specter of violence. The repetition of the refrain about the walking cane and the image of the man approaching from over the wall create a sense of impending confrontation and resolution, hinting at a dramatic climax to the story being told in the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Look over yonder's wall, hand me down my walking cane
I see trouble coming my way, so pass me my walking cane for protection
I got myself a woman and yonder comes your man
I have found love with another woman, and now your partner is on his way here
Now I'm in love with you baby but you don't treat me right
I care for you deeply, but you do not show me the respect and love I deserve
You take all my money, walk the streets late at night
You consistently drain me of my resources and stay out late without consideration for me
Now your man went to the war, and I know it was rough
I understand that your partner has faced challenges in war, and it must have been difficult for him
Don't know how many men he killed, but he done killed enough
I am unsure of the number of lives he has taken in battle, but it is undoubtedly significant
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, GULF COAST MUSIC LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ELMORE JAMES, MARSHALL E SEHORN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind