Donegan was born as Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist. His ethnic mix was Scottish/Irish. He moved with his mother to London at an early age, after his parents divorced. Inspired by blues music and New Orleans jazz bands he heard on the radio, he resolved to learn the guitar, and bought his first at the age of fourteen.
The first band he ever played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his group. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and managed to bluff his way through the audition. His stint in this group was interrupted, however, when he was called up for National Service in 1949. He also played in Ken Colyer's group
In 1952, he formed his first own group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall. Donegan was a big fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.
With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan entertained audiences with folk and blues songs by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side. It was an enormous hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money from this recording beyond his original session fee. (Nevertheless, Donegan received considerable music publishing royalties from "Rock Island" simply by claiming the British copyright on an unregistered song which was considered to be in the Public Domain. This led to the peculiar situation that any "cover" version of "Rock Island Line" which was released on record in Britain from 1956 showed the song composition credited to Lonnie Donegan.) It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and reached the Top Ten in the United States. His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954.[4] Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band by then, and by the spring of 1955, Donegan signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.
His success at the time saw Donegan sent to the United States, where he appeared on television on both Perry Como Show and Paul Winchell Show. Returning to the UK, Donegan recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in the summer of 1956, which featured songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP was a hit, securing sales in the hundreds of thousands.[4] The popular skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" single was number one on the UK chart in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.
Donegan went on to make a series of popular records with successes including "Cumberland Gap" and, particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)", his only hit song in the U.S., released on Dot. He turned to a music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic in 1960, but it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevitt's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett - later Steve Jones - on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby and Mark Goodwin - on drums or percussion and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.
He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music.
Add 1: In the early fifties after Donegan was demobbed from National Service he joined Chris Barber and Ken Colyer and others called Ken Colyer's Jazzmen which consisted of Ken Colyer (trumpet), Chris Barber (trombone), Monty Sunshine (clarinet), Lonnie Donegan (banjo), Jim Bray (bass) Dickie Bishop (Guitar) and Ron Bowden (drums). This group recorded two excellent blues numbers with Lonnie Donegan as vocal called "In the evening when de sun go down" and "The Midnight Special" After a year, Ken colyer stormed out of the group and Chris Barber took over.
http://www.p.griggsy.btinternet.co.uk/Untitled/Lonnie.html (Memories of Lonnie Donegan by Paul Griggs)
Pick a Bale of Cotton
Lonnie Donegan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Turn around
Pick a bale of cotton
Gonna jump down
Turn around
Pick a bale a day
Gonna jump down
Pick a bale of cotton
Gonna jump down
Turn around
Pick a bale a day
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale of cotton
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale a day
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale of cotton
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale a day
I said
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale of cotton
Now
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale a day
I said
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale of cotton
Now
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale a day
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale of cotton
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale a day
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale of cotton
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale a day
Gonna jump down
Turn around
Pick a bale of cotton
Gonna jump down
Turn around
Pick a bale a day
The lyrics to Lonnie Donegan's song "Pick a Bale of Cotton" are steeped in the history of African American slavery and sharecropping in the southern United States. The song describes the arduous labor of picking cotton, which was the primary cash crop of the region from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The phrase "pick a bale of cotton" refers to the weight of the harvested cotton, which was traditionally baled in 500-pound bundles.
The repeated lines, "gonna jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton," suggest the physical exertion involved in the work. The singer emphasizes that they will pick a bale of cotton every day, underscoring the difficult and never-ending nature of the labor. The lyrics also reference the idea of camaraderie and working together, as the singer says "me and my buddy gonna pick a bale of cotton."
Donegan's version of this song is a cover of an old folk song that was passed down through generations of African Americans. The song is believed to have originated in the Mississippi Delta in the late 1800s, and was likely sung by enslaved people and later by sharecroppers who continued to work on cotton plantations after the abolition of slavery.
Line by Line Meaning
Gonna jump down
I'm going to bend my knees and jump down to the ground.
Turn around
Once I get down to the ground, I'm going to turn my body around.
Pick a bale of cotton
I'll be harvesting cotton by picking large bundles of it from the field.
Gonna jump down
After I've picked the cotton, I'm going to jump down again to move to another spot.
Turn around
I'll turn my body around again to face the next area where there's more cotton to pick.
Pick a bale a day
I plan to pick a large amount of cotton every day to keep up with the demand.
Oh, lordy
An exclamation used to express excitement or shock.
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale of cotton
My friend and I are going to work together to harvest as much cotton as possible.
Now
Used to emphasize the following statement or to indicate a change in topic.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: TRADITIONAL, J BAIRD, PD TRADITIONAL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@mikedonovan8501
I learned this song 30 years ago in elementary school. I have never forgotten it.
Our music teacher said it was a masterpiece
The curious part is that I am Italian and it’s no part of our culture.
@mc-ue6gc
Ho avuto letteralmente la stessa esperienza. L’abbiamo imparata con una coreografia per presentarla a un gruppo di tedesco con cui abbiamo fatto uno scambio culturale
@lisacaron7224
Like you I learned it in first grade and we had to "jump down turn around" as we sang it 😂 That was in 1970 in Massachusetts, of all places. At least now that I live in Georgia, I've met white folks who picked cotton so I don't feel as much of a racist for singing it...
@berryvdmeulen9938
Same here!
@johnnysalami27
Yeah we sang it too about 10-13 years ago in elementary school. Still not sure why though
@johnnysalami27
@lisa caron YES! I’m from Massachusetts and we sang it too in the 2000s. Of all places Mass doesn’t change no matter how woke or politically correct or “Democrat” they think.
@kristinabailey.
I had to learn this song in elementary school, never forgot it.
@jqck_roseig9829
What was your teachers name ?
@Zombittenkitten
Me too!! And I'm mixed, lol
@tohru741
Same! It's so wild to think they taught us this