John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt (July 3, 1893 or Mar… Read Full Bio ↴John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt (July 3, 1893 or March 8, 1892 - November 2, 1966) was an American country blues singer and guitarist.
Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine. Singing to a melodious finger-picked accompaniment, he began to play local dances and parties while working as a sharecropper. He first recorded for Okeh Records in 1928, but these were commercial failures. Hurt then drifted out of the recording scene, and he continued his work as a farmer. Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, would be the first to locate Hurt in 1963. He convinced Hurt to relocate to Washington, D.C., where he was recorded by the Library of Congress in 1964. This rediscovery helped further the American folk music revival, which had led to the rediscovery of many other bluesmen of Hurt's era. Hurt entered the same university and coffeehouse concert circuit as his contemporaries, as well as other Delta blues musicians brought out of retirement. As well as playing concerts, he recorded several studio albums for Vanguard Records.
Born John Smith Hurt in Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi (there is confusion about his date of birth, but the grave marker mentions March 8, 1892) and raised in Avalon, Mississippi, he learned to play guitar at age nine. He was completely self-taught, stealthily playing the guitar of a friend of his mother's, who often stayed at the Hurt home while courting a lady who lived near by. His style was not reminiscent of any other style being played at the time; it was the way Hurt "thought the guitar should sound". He spent much of his youth playing old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farmhand into the 1920s. His fast, highly syncopated style of playing made his music adept for dancing. On occasion, a medicine show would come through the area; Hurt recalls being wanted by one of them. "One of them wanted me, but I said no because I just never wanted to get away from home." In 1923 he partnered with the fiddle player Willie Narmour as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith.
When Narmour got a chance to record for Okeh Records as a prize for winning first place in a 1928 fiddle contest, he recommended Hurt to Okeh Records producer Tommy Rockwell. After auditioning "Monday Morning Blues" at his home, he took part in two recording sessions, in Memphis and New York City (see Discography below). While in Memphis, Hurt recalled seeing "many, many blues singers ... Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, and lots, lots more." Hurt described his first recording session as such:
... a great big hall with only the three of us in it: me, the man [Rockwell], and the engineer. It was really something. I sat on a chair, and they pushed the microphone right up to my mouth and told me that I couldn't move after they had found the right position. I had to keep my head absolutely still. Oh, I was nervous, and my neck was sore for days after.
Hurt attempted further negotiations with Okeh to record again, but after the commercial failure of the resulting records, and Okeh Records going out of business during the Great Depression, Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity, working as a sharecropper and playing local parties and dances.
After Hurt's renditions of "Frankie" and "Spike Driver Blues" were included in The Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952, and an Australian man discovered a copy of "Avalon Blues", there became increased interest in finding Hurt himself. In 1963, a folk musicologist, Tom Hoskins, supervised by Richard Spottswood, was able to locate Hurt near Avalon, Mississippi using the lyrics of "Avalon Blues":
Avalon, my home town, always on my mind/Avalon, my home town.
While in Avalon, Hoskins convinced an apprehensive Hurt to perform several songs for him, to ensure that he was genuine. Hoskins was convinced, and seeing that Hurt's guitar playing skills were still intact, Hoskins encouraged him to move to Washington, D.C., and begin performing on a wider stage. His performance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival saw his star rise amongst the new folk revival audience. Before his death he played extensively in colleges, concert halls, coffee houses and also on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, as well as recording three further albums for Vanguard Records. Much of his repertoire was recorded for the Library of Congress, also. His fans particularly liked the ragtime songs "Salty Dog" and "Candy Man", and the blues ballads "Spike Driver Blues" (a variant of "John Henry") and "Frankie".
Hurt incorporated a fast, pick-less, syncopated fingerpicking style that he taught himself. He was influenced by very few people; but did recall an elderly, unrecorded, blues singer from that area, Rufus Hanks, who played twelve-string guitar and harmonica. He also recalled listening to the country singer Jimmie Rodgers. On occasion, Hurt would use an open tuning and a slide, as he did in his arrangement of "The Ballad of Casey Jones".
Hurt's influence spanned several music genres including blues, country, bluegrass, folk and contemporary rock and roll. A soft-spoken man, his nature was reflected in the work, which consisted of a mellow mix of country, blues and old time music.
Material recorded by Hurt has been re-released by many record labels over the years (see discography); and his influence has extended over many generations of guitarists. Songs recorded by Hurt have been covered by Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Beck, Doc Watson, John McCutcheon, Taj Mahal, Bruce Cockburn, David Johansen, Bill Morrissey and Gillian Welch.
Hurt died on November 2nd, 1966, of a heart attack in Grenada, Mississippi.
There is now a memorial in Avalon, Mississippi for Mississippi John Hurt. It is parallel to RR2, the rural road on which he grew up.
American singer-songwriter Tom Paxton, who met Hurt and played on the same bill as him at the Gaslight in Greenwich Village around 1963, wrote and recorded a song about him in 1977 entitled "Did You Hear John Hurt?" Paxton still frequently plays this song at his live performances.
The first track of John Fahey's 1968 solo acoustic guitar album Requia is entitled "Requiem For John Hurt". Fahey's posthumous live album The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick also features a version of the piece, there entitled "Requiem For Mississippi John Hurt".
British folk/blues artist Wizz Jones recorded a tribute song called "Mississippi John" for his 1977 album Magical Flight.
Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine. Singing to a melodious finger-picked accompaniment, he began to play local dances and parties while working as a sharecropper. He first recorded for Okeh Records in 1928, but these were commercial failures. Hurt then drifted out of the recording scene, and he continued his work as a farmer. Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, would be the first to locate Hurt in 1963. He convinced Hurt to relocate to Washington, D.C., where he was recorded by the Library of Congress in 1964. This rediscovery helped further the American folk music revival, which had led to the rediscovery of many other bluesmen of Hurt's era. Hurt entered the same university and coffeehouse concert circuit as his contemporaries, as well as other Delta blues musicians brought out of retirement. As well as playing concerts, he recorded several studio albums for Vanguard Records.
Born John Smith Hurt in Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi (there is confusion about his date of birth, but the grave marker mentions March 8, 1892) and raised in Avalon, Mississippi, he learned to play guitar at age nine. He was completely self-taught, stealthily playing the guitar of a friend of his mother's, who often stayed at the Hurt home while courting a lady who lived near by. His style was not reminiscent of any other style being played at the time; it was the way Hurt "thought the guitar should sound". He spent much of his youth playing old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farmhand into the 1920s. His fast, highly syncopated style of playing made his music adept for dancing. On occasion, a medicine show would come through the area; Hurt recalls being wanted by one of them. "One of them wanted me, but I said no because I just never wanted to get away from home." In 1923 he partnered with the fiddle player Willie Narmour as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith.
When Narmour got a chance to record for Okeh Records as a prize for winning first place in a 1928 fiddle contest, he recommended Hurt to Okeh Records producer Tommy Rockwell. After auditioning "Monday Morning Blues" at his home, he took part in two recording sessions, in Memphis and New York City (see Discography below). While in Memphis, Hurt recalled seeing "many, many blues singers ... Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, and lots, lots more." Hurt described his first recording session as such:
... a great big hall with only the three of us in it: me, the man [Rockwell], and the engineer. It was really something. I sat on a chair, and they pushed the microphone right up to my mouth and told me that I couldn't move after they had found the right position. I had to keep my head absolutely still. Oh, I was nervous, and my neck was sore for days after.
Hurt attempted further negotiations with Okeh to record again, but after the commercial failure of the resulting records, and Okeh Records going out of business during the Great Depression, Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity, working as a sharecropper and playing local parties and dances.
After Hurt's renditions of "Frankie" and "Spike Driver Blues" were included in The Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952, and an Australian man discovered a copy of "Avalon Blues", there became increased interest in finding Hurt himself. In 1963, a folk musicologist, Tom Hoskins, supervised by Richard Spottswood, was able to locate Hurt near Avalon, Mississippi using the lyrics of "Avalon Blues":
Avalon, my home town, always on my mind/Avalon, my home town.
While in Avalon, Hoskins convinced an apprehensive Hurt to perform several songs for him, to ensure that he was genuine. Hoskins was convinced, and seeing that Hurt's guitar playing skills were still intact, Hoskins encouraged him to move to Washington, D.C., and begin performing on a wider stage. His performance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival saw his star rise amongst the new folk revival audience. Before his death he played extensively in colleges, concert halls, coffee houses and also on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, as well as recording three further albums for Vanguard Records. Much of his repertoire was recorded for the Library of Congress, also. His fans particularly liked the ragtime songs "Salty Dog" and "Candy Man", and the blues ballads "Spike Driver Blues" (a variant of "John Henry") and "Frankie".
Hurt incorporated a fast, pick-less, syncopated fingerpicking style that he taught himself. He was influenced by very few people; but did recall an elderly, unrecorded, blues singer from that area, Rufus Hanks, who played twelve-string guitar and harmonica. He also recalled listening to the country singer Jimmie Rodgers. On occasion, Hurt would use an open tuning and a slide, as he did in his arrangement of "The Ballad of Casey Jones".
Hurt's influence spanned several music genres including blues, country, bluegrass, folk and contemporary rock and roll. A soft-spoken man, his nature was reflected in the work, which consisted of a mellow mix of country, blues and old time music.
Material recorded by Hurt has been re-released by many record labels over the years (see discography); and his influence has extended over many generations of guitarists. Songs recorded by Hurt have been covered by Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Beck, Doc Watson, John McCutcheon, Taj Mahal, Bruce Cockburn, David Johansen, Bill Morrissey and Gillian Welch.
Hurt died on November 2nd, 1966, of a heart attack in Grenada, Mississippi.
There is now a memorial in Avalon, Mississippi for Mississippi John Hurt. It is parallel to RR2, the rural road on which he grew up.
American singer-songwriter Tom Paxton, who met Hurt and played on the same bill as him at the Gaslight in Greenwich Village around 1963, wrote and recorded a song about him in 1977 entitled "Did You Hear John Hurt?" Paxton still frequently plays this song at his live performances.
The first track of John Fahey's 1968 solo acoustic guitar album Requia is entitled "Requiem For John Hurt". Fahey's posthumous live album The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick also features a version of the piece, there entitled "Requiem For Mississippi John Hurt".
British folk/blues artist Wizz Jones recorded a tribute song called "Mississippi John" for his 1977 album Magical Flight.
Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor
Mississippi John Hurt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Well make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me a pallet down, soft and low
Make me a pallet on your floor
Up to country twenty miles or more
Going up to country twenty miles or more
Going up to country where the cold, sleet and snow
No tellin' how much further I might go
Well make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me a pallet close behind your door
Make it where your good man never goes, now
Oh, my good gal catch you here
Don't you let my good gal catch you here
She, might shoot you, might cut and scar you too
No tellin' what that gal might do
Oh make me down a pallet on your floor
Just make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me down, a pallet soft and low
Make me a pallet on your floor
Oh make me down
Yeah make me down
Make me a pallet down, soft and low
Make me a pallet on your floor
Well make me down, make me down
Right over here in the corner would be fine baby, hm
Yeah, this roll-out blanket right there in
Yeah, come on over baby
Make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me a pallet down, soft and low
Make me a pallet on your floor
Up to country twenty miles or more
Going up to country twenty miles or more
Going up to country where the cold, sleet and snow
Well make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me a pallet close behind your door
Make it where your good man never goes, now
Oh, my good gal catch you here
Don't you let my good gal catch you here
She, might shoot you, might cut and scar you too
No tellin' what that gal might do
Oh make me down a pallet on your floor
Just make me down a pallet on your floor
Make me down, a pallet soft and low
Make me a pallet on your floor
Oh make me down
Yeah make me down
Make me a pallet down, soft and low
Make me a pallet on your floor
Well make me down, make me down
Right over here in the corner would be fine baby, hm
Yeah, this roll-out blanket right there in
Yeah, come on over baby
The lyrics to Mississippi John Hurt's "Make Me a Pallet On the Floor" speak of a traveler who seeks refuge in the home of his lover. The first verse says "make me down a pallet on your floor," which is a request for a place to rest for the night. The subsequent verse "up to country twenty miles or more" suggests that he has journeyed a long way to get there. The theme of distance and the cold weather also appear in the following lines "going up to country where the cold, sleet, and snow, no telling how much further I might go." The singer pleads with his lover to "make it where her good man never goes," suggesting that she is also in a relationship with someone else. The final verse warns of the potential danger that could befall the traveler if he were to be discovered by the jealous lover.
The song has its roots in the traditional African-American folk song "The Wagoner's Lad," which dates back to at least the 19th century. Mississippi John Hurt's version of the song was recorded in 1928 and influenced other blues and folk musicians such as Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, and Doc Watson. The song has been covered over 200 times, providing a platform for numerous musical interpretations. Notably, the song was featured in O Brother, Where Art Thou? as well as the TV series The Walking Dead.
Line by Line Meaning
Well make me down a pallet on your floor
Please create a bed for me on the floor
Up to country twenty miles or more
I'm traveling a long distance to reach you
Make me a pallet close behind your door
Create my bed near your door, away from your husband
Oh, my good gal catch you here
If my wife finds you here with me
Just make me down a pallet on your floor
Please create a bed for me on the floor
Make me down, a pallet soft and low
Create a soft and low bed for me
Well make me down, make me down
Please create my bed
Right over here in the corner would be fine baby, hm
I prefer to sleep in the corner
Yeah, this roll-out blanket right there in
Use this roll-out blanket to make my bed
Yeah, come on over baby
Join me in my bed
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JOHN S HURT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@stphnmrrs3982
His voice sounds so kind
@hanserikkratholmrasmussen6623
Absolutely.
@winstonchurchill624
This song makes me so happy. Just hearing that guitar makes me smile.
@ojberrettaberretta5314
same such great music
@homefreeonasuzuki7999
Stop that smiling... It should be illegal!!
@jillishan
Agreed Winston and God bless the Queen and The Great British Isles
@janelljohnston8616
always loved this song even when i first heard it living in my little car homeless this song helped the shit path of life at time super good. so grateful as i was that friends allowed me a spot on thier floor. i got up though. and i share my pallet as often as needed. give back always appreciate things you get better attitude and move on with a step in your foot. love my blues.
@themanwithnoname5325
I hope that the future generations can keep John’s and others in his era memory alive. Such beautiful music and amazing instrumental work.
@ladycharsw
Loved John's singing. Thank you John 🙏❣️.🎶🙋 Charlotte in Oregon
@PopTartNeko
Ridiculously good. Some of the best music in the planet.
Bluesmen from this era have such mastery of the scale and can put so much heart and soul into one instrument. Honest and soulful music that will put Mozart or Borvoven to shame.