Otis Spann (March 21, 1930 – April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician… Read Full Bio ↴Otis Spann (March 21, 1930 – April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style.
Born to Frank Houston Spann and Josephine Erby. One of five children - three boys and two girls. His father played piano, non professionally, while his mother had played guitar with Memphis Minnie.[citation needed] Spann began playing piano by age of eight, influenced by his local ivories stalwart, Friday Ford. At the age of 14, he was playing in bands around Jackson, finding more inspiration in the 78s of Big Maceo Merriweather, who took the young pianist under his wing once Spann migrated to Chicago in 1946. Other sources say that he moved to Chicago when his mother died in 1947 playing the Chicago club circuit and working as a plasterer. Spann gigged on his own, and with guitarist Morris Pejoe, working a regular spot at the Tic Toc Lounge before hooking up with Muddy Waters in 1952.
Although he recorded periodically as a solo artist, Spann was a full-time member of the Muddy Waters band from 1952 to 1968. In that period he also did session work with other Chess artists like Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley.
Spann's own Chess Records output was limited to a 1954 single, "It Must Have Been the Devil" / "Five Spot", which featured B.B. King and Jody Williams on guitars. He recorded a session with the guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. and vocalist St. Louis Jimmy in New York on August 23, 1960, which was issued on Otis Spann Is The Blues and Walking The Blues. A largely solo outing for Storyville Records in 1963 was recorded in Copenhagen. A set for UK Decca Records the following year found him in the company of Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton, and a 1964 album for Prestige followed where Spann shared vocal duties with bandmate James Cotton.
The Blues is Where It's At, Spann's 1966 album for ABC-Bluesway, sounded like a live recording. It was a recording studio date, enlivened by enthusiastic onlookers that applauded every song (Muddy Waters, guitarist Sammy Lawhorn, and George "Harmonica" Smith were among the support crew). A Bluesway encore, The Bottom of the Blues followed in 1967 and featured Spann's wife, Lucille Jenkins Spann (June 23, 1938 – August 2, 1994[5]), helping out on vocals.
In the late 1960s, he appeared on albums with Buddy Guy, Big Mama Thornton, Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac.
Several films of his playing are available on DVD, including the Newport Folk Festival (1960), while his singing is also featured on the American Folk Blues Festival (1963) and The Blues Masters (1966).

Following his death from liver cancer in Chicago in 1970, at the age of 40, he was interred in the Burr Oak Cemetery, Alsip, Illinois. Spann's grave laid unmarked for almost thirty years, until Steve Salter (president of the Killer Blues Headstone Project) wrote a letter to Blues Revue magazine to say "This piano great is lying in an unmarked grave. Let's do something about this deplorable situation". This lit a spark in the blues community on a world wide level. Blues enthusiasts from Alaska to Venezuela, from Surrey to England, and Singapore sent donations to purchase Spann a headstone. On June 6, 1999 the marker was unveiled during a private ceremony. The stone reads "Otis played the deepest blues we ever heard - He'll play forever in our hearts".
He was posthumously elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980.

Someday
Otis Spann Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Some day
Some where
You know down the road
Well some day
Yeah some where
I'm going away

Want you to look inside

My walls
Please get me my walking cane
Cause the dawn looks cloudy
Because I believe its gonna rain

Some day
Some where
I been standing on the road
Well some day
Some where
You'll find me

Some day
Some where
Hey daddy
You'll find me standing there
Some day
Some where
Gonna go

Told me that you love me
Oh I love you daddy
I believed it to
Ain't nothing in the world I wouldn't do
I love you you won't believe me
I love you
Then you walked out from me with another man

Some day
Some where

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Otis Spann's song "Someday" speak about the feeling of longing and sadness due to a lost love. The song begins with the singer expressing their desire to leave, to go away someday, somewhere down the road. These feelings seem to stem from the pain of heartbreak, as the singer implores someone to look inside their walls and help them find their walking cane because they believe it's going to rain. The rain could be seen as a metaphor for the tears that the singer is shedding over lost love.

The song progresses to suggest that someday, somewhere, the singer will be found standing on the road, waiting for someone to come find them. The listener gets a sense that the singer is all alone, abandoned by their lover who left them for another man. Despite this heartache, the singer still professes their love to their former partner, reminding them that they said they loved them too, that they believed it, and that there's nothing they wouldn't do for them. It's unclear whether the lover will see the error in their ways and return, but the song closes with the singer confidently stating that they will someday, somewhere, be leaving for good.

Overall, "Someday" by Otis Spann is a poignant song that speaks to the universal experience of lost love and heartbreak. It's a song about moving on and finding oneself in the face of adversity, even when it seems impossible to do so.

Line by Line Meaning

Some day
At some point in the future

Some where
At some unspecified location

You know down the road
In the future; eventually

Well some day
At an undetermined time in the future

Yeah some where
At some point and location

I'm going away
Leaving this place and moving on with life

Want you to look inside
Asking someone to understand one's emotions and thoughts

My walls
The emotional barriers a person puts up to protect themselves from being hurt

Please get me my walking cane
Asking for assistance in dealing with physical limitations

Cause the dawn looks cloudy
Feeling uncertain or pessimistic about the future

Because I believe its gonna rain
Anticipating difficulties or challenges ahead

I been standing on the road
Having been on a journey or path

You'll find me
Indicating that one will be located somewhere

Hey daddy
Addressing someone in a familiar way, possibly a father figure

Gonna go
Intending to leave or move on

Told me that you love me
Someone claiming to feel affection or care for another person

Oh I love you daddy
Expressing feelings of love and attachment for someone called daddy

I believed it to
Trusting and accepting someone's words as true

Ain't nothing in the world I wouldn't do
Willingness to do anything to please or help the loved one

You won't believe me
Doubting the sincerity or truthfulness of their own words

Then you walked out from me with another man
Betrayal and abandonment by the person who claimed to love them

Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS

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Some day
Some where
You know down the road
Well some day
Yeah some where
I'm going away

Want you to look inside
My walls
Please get me my walking cane
Cause the dawn looks cloudy
Because I believe its gonna rain

Some day
Some where
I been standing on the road
Well some day
Some where
You'll find me

Some day
Some where
Hey daddy
You'll find me standing there
Some day
Some where
Gonna go

Told me that you love me
Oh I love you daddy
I believed it to
Ain't nothing in the world I wouldn't do
I love you you won't believe me
I love you
Then you walked out from me with another man

Some day
Some where