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)
Worried Man Blues
Lonnie Donegan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The train that I ride is twenty one coaches long
The train that I ride is twenty one coaches long
My love is on that train and gone
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I went across the river and I lay down to sleep
I went across the river and I lay down to sleep
I went across the river and I lay down to sleep
I woke up and I had shackles on my feet
Twenty-nine links of chain around my leg
Twenty-nine links of chain around my leg
Twenty-nine links of chain around my leg
And on each link, an initial of my name
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long
I asked the judge, "What's gonna be my fine"
I asked the judge, "What's gonna be my fine"
I said, "Oh, judge, what's gonna be my fine"
He said, "Twenty-one years on the Rocky Mountain Line"**
Twenty-one years to pay for my awful crime
Twenty-one years to pay for my awful crime
Twenty-one years to pay for my awful crime
Twenty one years, but I still got ninety-nine
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long
The train pulled out, sixteen coaches long
The train pulled out, sixteen coaches long
The train pulled out, sixteen coaches long
The one I love, she's on that train and gone
I looked down the track, as far as I could see
I looked down the track, as far as I could see
I looked down the track, as far as I could see
A Little bitty hand was a-wavin' back at me
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long
If anyone asks you who composed this song
If anyone asks you who composed this song
If anyone asks you who composed this song
Tell him it was I and I sing it all day long
Oh, it takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long
The song "Worried Man Blues" by Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group speaks of the worries of a man whose love is on a train that he cannot catch up with. The train is 21 coaches long, emphasizing the distance between the singer and his love. The repetition of the train's length emphasizes the pain of separation, while the writer's unrelenting determination to reach her remains present even in his worry.
The lyrics show that it takes a worried man to sing a worried song, showcasing the deep sorrow the writer has. He sleeps across the river but wakes up in shackles with his name engraved on every link, emphasizing that he has been imprisoned for his love. The punishment is harsh, 21 years on the Rocky Mountain Line, leaving him with 99 years left to think on his terrible crime.
The writer's love has already boarded a train, and it slowly pulls out with the writer looking down the track, feeling helpless. However, a little hand is waving back at him, showing hope for the future. In the end, the writer claims that he wrote the song and sings it all day long, showing that even though he is worried now, he will eventually overcome this feeling of worry.
Line by Line Meaning
The train that I ride is twenty one coaches long
The train I'm on is really long, with 21 coaches, and my love is on that train, but now she's gone.
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
Only a person who is worried can sing a song of worry, and I'm that worried man, but I won't be worried for long.
I went across the river and I lay down to sleep
I crossed the river and fell asleep, but when I woke up, I found that I had shackles on my feet.
Twenty-nine links of chain around my leg
There are 29 links of chain wrapping around my leg, with each link bearing an initial of my name.
And on each link, an initial of my name
Each link in the chain has a letter of my name inscribed on it.
I asked the judge, "What's gonna be my fine"
I asked the judge what my punishment will be for the crime I committed.
He said, "Twenty-one years on the Rocky Mountain Line"
The judge replied saying that I'll have to spend 21 years working on the Rocky Mountain Line as punishment for my crime.
Twenty-one years to pay for my awful crime
I have to spend 21 years to pay for my terrible crime.
Twenty one years, but I still got ninety-nine
I've served 21 years of my sentence, but I still have 99 more to go.
The train pulled out, sixteen coaches long
The train I love left, with 16 coaches, and she's gone.
A Little bitty hand was a-wavin' back at me
At the far end of the track, I saw the little hand of my love waving goodbye to me.
If anyone asks you who composed this song
If someone asks you who wrote this song, tell them it was me.
Tell him it was I and I sing it all day long
Let them know it was me who wrote this song and I sing it all day long, because it takes a worried man to sing a worried song, but I won't be worried long.
Contributed by Annabelle L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Mike Hannon
on Wabash Cannonball
If you want the donegan lyrics from the recording this link has provided instead of the johnny cash ones they are as fallows;
Wabash Cannonball
by Lonnie Donegan
She came down from Birmingham, one cold December day
As she rolled into the station, you could hear the people say
That train from Indiana, she's long and she's tall...
That’s a combination called the Wabash Cannonball
Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar
As she comes down the mountains through the hills and by the shore
Hear the mighty rush of the engine, hear the lonesome hobos call
He’s racing through the jungle on the Wabash Cannon Ball
From the great Atlantic Ocean to the wide Pacific shore
From the green and flowing mountains to the old mill by the moor
She's long and handsome, and quite well known by all...
That’s a combination called the Wabash Cannonball
Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar
As she comes down the mountains through the hills and by the shore
Hear the mighty rush of the engine, hear the lonesome hobos call
He’s racing through the jungle on the Wabash Cannon Ball
Well here's to that old engineer his name will ever stand
And always be remembered in the courts throughout the land
When his mighty race is over and the curtains 'round him fall...
It'll carry him back to dixie on the Wabash Cannon Ball
Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar
As she comes down the mountains through the hills and by the shore
Hear the mighty rush of the engine, hear the lonesome hobos call
Yeah he’s racing through the jungle on the Wabash Cannon Ball