Lipscomb was born April 9, 1895 to an ex-slave father from Alabama and a half Native American (Choctaw) mother. Lipscomb spent most of his life working as a tenant farmer in Texas and was "discovered" and recorded by Mack McCormick and Chris Strachwitz in 1960 during the country blues revival. He released many albums of blues, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley and folk music (most of them on Strachwitz' Arhoolie label), singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. He had a "dead-thumb" finger-picking guitar technique, and an expressive voice. Lipscomb often honed his skills by playing in nearby Brenham, Texas, with a blind musician, Sam Rogers. His debut release was Texas Songster (1960). Lipscomb performed old songs like "Sugar Babe," the first song he ever learned, to pop numbers like "Shine On, Harvest Moon" and "It's a Long Way to Tipperary".[4]
Trouble in Mind was recorded in 1961, and released on a major label, Reprise. In May 1963, Lipscomb appeared at the first Monterey Folk Festival in California.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not record in the early blues era, but his life is well documented thanks to his autobiography, I Say Me for a Parable: The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman, narrated to Glen Alyn, which was published posthumously, and also a short 1971 documentary by Les Blank, A Well Spent Life.
He began playing guitar early on and played regularly for years at local gatherings, mostly what he called "Saturday Night Suppers" hosted by someone in the area. These gatherings were hosted regularly for a while by himself and his wife. The majority of his musical activity took place within what he called his "precinct", meaning the local area around Navasota, until around 1960.
Following his "discovery" by McCormick and Strachwitz, Lipscomb became an important figure in the folk music revival of the 1960s. He was a regular performer at folk festivals and folk-blues clubs around the United States, notably the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, CA.
He died in his hometown of Navasota in 1976, two years after suffering a stroke.
A Well Spent Life (1971). Documentary directed by Les Blank and Skip Gerson. El Cerrito, California: Flower Films. Released on video in 1979. ISBN 0-933621-09-4.
He also appeared in Blank's The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins (1970)
An annual Navasota Blues Festival is held in his honor, and on August 12, 2011, a bronze sculpture of him was unveiled in Mance Lipscomb Park in Navasota. The statue was sculpted by artist Sid Henderson of California and weighs almost 300 pounds. It portrays Lipscomb playing his guitar whilst seated on a bench, with room for fans to sit beside him and play their own guitars "with" him.
Mance Lipscomb (1895-1976), guitarist and songster, was born to Charles and Jane Lipscomb on April 9, 1895, in the Brazos bottoms near Navasota, Texas, where he lived most of his life as a tenant farmer.
Lipscomb represented one of the last remnants of the nineteenth-century songster tradition, which predated the development of the blues.
Though songsters might incorporate blues into their repertoires, as did Lipscomb, they performed a wide variety of material in diverse styles, much of it common to both black and white traditions in the South, including ballads, rags, dance pieces (breakdowns, waltzes, one and two steps, slow drags, reels, ballin' the jack, the buzzard lope, hop scop, buck and wing, heel and toe polka), and popular, sacred, and secular songs. Lipscomb himself insisted that he was a songster, not a guitarist or "blues singer," since he played "all kinds of music." His eclectic repertoire has been reported to have contained 350 pieces spanning two centuries. (He likewise took exception when he was labeled a "sharecropper" instead of a "farmer."
Between 1905 and 1956 he lived in an atmosphere of exploitation, farming as a tenant for a number of landlords in and around Grimes County, including the notorious Tom Moore, subject of a local topical ballad. He left Moore's employ abruptly and went into hiding after he struck a foreman for abusing his mother and wife. Lipscomb's own rendition of "Tom Moore's Farm" was taped at his first session in 1960 but released anonymously (Arhoolie LP 1017, Texas Blues, Volume 2), presumably to protect the singer. Between 1956 and 1958 Lipscomb lived in Houston, working for a lumber company during the day and playing at night in bars where he vied for audiences with Texas blues great Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins,qv whom Lipscomb had first met in Galveston in 1938. With compensation from an on-the-job accident, he returned to Navasota and was finally able to buy some land and build a house of his own. He was working as foreman of a highway-mowing crew in Grimes County when blues researchers Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records and Mack McCormick of Houston found and recorded him in 1960.
Arhoolie Records (El Cerrito, California) has released seven albums of material by Lipscomb: Mance Lipscomb: Texas Songster and Sharecropper (Arhoolie 1001); Mance Lipscomb Volume 2 (Arhoolie 1023); Mance Lipscomb Volume 3: Texas Songster in a Live Performance (Arhoolie 1026); Mance Lipscomb Volumes 4, 5, and 6 (Arhoolie 1033, 1049, and 1069); and You'll Never Find Another Man Like Mance (Arhoolie 1077). Trouble in Mind was released by Reprise (R-2012). Individual pieces are included in other anthologies.
Sugar Babe
Mance Lipscomb Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sugar babe, I'm tired of you,
ain't your honey but the way you do
Sugar babe, it's all over now
All I want my babe to do,
make five dollars and give me two
Went downtown and bought me a rope
Whupped my baby till she Buzzard Lope1
Sugar babe, it's all over now
Sugar babe, what's the matter with you?
You don't treat me like you used to do
Sugar babe, it's all over now
Went to town and bought me a line
Whupped my baby till she changed her mind
Sugar babe, sugar babe, it's all over now
Sugar babe, I'm tired of you
Ain't your honey but the way you do
Sugar babe, it's all over now
Mance Lipscomb's song Sugar Babe is a melancholic tune about a man who is tired of dealing with his lover's disrespectful behavior. He is frustrated with the way she treats him and wants their relationship to come to an end. The singer uses various tactics to gain control over his lover, including beating her until she complies with his demands. However, he acknowledges that this kind of behavior is not healthy, and it is time for him to move on from the relationship. The lyrics "Sugar babe, it's all over now" are repeated throughout the song, emphasizing the singer's determination to end the relationship once and for all.
Line by Line Meaning
Sugar babe, I'm tired of you,
I am exhausted and sick of dealing with you, my love.
ain't your honey but the way you do
I am not sweet on you anymore because of the way you treat me.
Sugar babe, it's all over now
Our relationship is now officially finished.
All I want my babe to do,
I only desire that my beloved provides me with five dollars and keeps two of them for herself.
make five dollars and give me two
The money I ask for is more important to me than the satisfaction of my partner.
Sugar babe, it's all over now
Our romantic entanglement has finally come to an end.
Went downtown and bought me a rope
I went to the city to buy a tool to punish my beloved.
Whupped my baby till she Buzzard Lope
I beat her savagely until she was death-like on the ground.
Sugar babe, it's all over now
Our affair has truly concluded to my satisfaction.
Sugar babe, what's the matter with you?
What is wrong with you, my honey?
You don't treat me like you used to do
Your behavior is substantially different from your prior treatment of me.
Sugar babe, it's all over now
Our relationship is now officially terminated.
Went to town and bought me a line
I visited the market to procure an article to punish my significant other.
Whupped my baby till she changed her mind
I whipped her until she yielded to my demands.
Sugar babe, sugar babe, it's all over now
My dear darling, it is conclusively ended to my satisfaction.
Sugar babe, I'm tired of you
I am worn out and no longer interested in you, my sugar.
Ain't your honey but the way you do
Due to mistreatment, I am no longer your lover.
Sugar babe, it's all over now
Our romantic relationship has reached its ultimate conclusion.
Contributed by Cole E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@stephanieduncan933
Years ago when we were traveling in TX, my brother found a record of this gentleman's music. We both loved it. Hope you will too. B
@ddanze
What a great tune, great voice - didn't appreciate him as much when I was a dumb kid in the 60's
@benjaminwalters4786
My dad used to play this!
Brilliant guitar music!
@daveadkins804
The sound that pre-dates the blues and gets right the core of man.
@mr.h5028
I dig the country folk sound that predates typical blues. Leadbelly is one of my favorites, Woody Guthrie is okay. Charlie Poole has a few good tunes but, I'm always trying to find more of these old folky songs. Any suggestions greatly appreciated!
@joeb2665
Try listening to Etta Baker and Henry Thomas.
@sampson623
I second Etta Baker. Also Mississippi John Hurt for a more lively style. Elizabeth Cotten is good as well
@pieterdonkers8095
Try Skip James
@ScottHz
Memphis Minnie & Tampa Red - "When The Levee Breaks" and “What's The Matter With The Mill” ;) Also Thomas A. Dorsey (Georgia Tom)
@3006khz
@GibbyGoba I've never limited myself to one kind of music. I listen to Pre-war blues, Piedmont blues, Delta blues, Texas Delta blues, and Chicago blues.