One commentator noted that Burnside, along with Big Jack Johnson, Paul "Wine" Jones, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes and James "Super Chikan" Johnson, were "present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues sound."
Early life and career
Burnside was born in Harmontown, Mississippi, in Lafayette County. He spent most of his life in North Mississippi, working as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman, as well as playing guitar at weekend house parties. He was first inspired to pick up the guitar in his early twenties, after hearing the 1948 John Lee Hooker single, "Boogie Chillen" (which inspired numerous other rural bluesmen, among them Buddy Guy, to start playing). He learned music largely from Mississippi Fred McDowell, who lived nearby in an adjoining county. He also cited his cousin-in-law, Muddy Waters, as an influence.
During the 1950s, Burnside grew tired of sharecropping and moved to Chicago in the hope of finding better economic opportunities. But things did not turn out as he had hoped. Within the span of one year his father, brother, and uncle were all murdered in the city, a tragedy that Burnside would later draw upon in his work, particularly in his interpretation of Skip James's "Hard Time Killing Floor" and the talking blues "R.L.'s Story", the opening and closing tracks on Burnside's 2000 album, Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down.
Around 1959, he left Chicago and went back to Mississippi to work the farms and raise a family. Burnside was convicted for murder and sentenced to six months' incarceration (in Parchman Prison) for the crime. Burnside's boss at the time reputedly pulled strings to keep the murder sentence short, due to having need of Burnside's skills as a tractor driver. Burnside later said "I didn't mean to kill nobody ... I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord."
His earliest recordings were made in the late 1960s by George Mitchell and released on Arhoolie Records. Another album of acoustic material was recorded that year and little else was released before Hill Country Blues, in the early 1980s. An album's worth of singles followed, released on ethnomusicology professor Dr. David Evans' Highwater Records record label in Memphis, Tennessee.
Later life and career
In the 1990s, he began recording for the Oxford, Mississippi, label Fat Possum Records. Founded by Living Blues magazine editor Peter Redvers-Lee and Matthew Johnson, the label was dedicated to recording ageing North Mississippi bluesmen such as Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Burnside remained with Fat Possum from that time until his death, and he usually performed with his friend and understudy, the slide guitarist Kenny Brown, with whom he began playing in 1971 and claimed as his "adopted son."
Burnside attracted the attention of Jon Spencer, the leader of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, touring and recording with this group and gaining a new audience in the process.
After the death of Kimbrough and the burning of Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma, Mississippi, Burnside quit recording studio material for Fat Possum, though he did continue to tour. After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play.
Members of his large extended family continue to play blues in the Holly Springs area: grandson Cedric Burnside tours with Kenny Brown and most recently with Steve 'Lightnin' Malcolm as part of the 'Juke Joint Duo', while his son Duwayne Burnside has played guitar with the North Mississippi Allstars (Polaris; Hill Country Revue with R. L. Burnside). Duwayne's solo career began when "Duwayne Burnside and the Mississippi Mafia" recorded "Live At the Mint" in October 1997. Members included Cedric Burnside, Eddie Batos, Joe Hill from Alien Ant Farm, and David Kimbrough, Jr. (Junior Kimbrough's son) with Duwayne's father sitting in on a few tracks. Duwayne and the Mississippi Mafia released "Under Pressure" in March 2005, which was recorded at Delta Studios in Clarksdale, Mississippi featuring Jimbo Mathus, rhythm guitar (Squirrel Nut Zippers), Roy Cunningham on drums (Stax Sessions), and Burnside's son Garry Burnside on bass guitar. In 2004, the Burnside sons opened Burnside Blues Cafe, located 30 miles southeast of Memphis at the intersection of U.S. Highway 78 and Mississippi Highway 7 in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
In January 2006, Garry and Cedric released The Record under the moniker "Burnside Exploration".
Death
Burnside had been in declining health since heart surgery in 1999. He died at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on September 1, 2005 at the age of 78.[4] Services were held at Rust College in Holly Springs [which is also where services were held for his friend, Junior Kimbrough, who died in 1998], with burial in the Free Springs Cemetery in Harmontown. Around the time of his passing, he resided in Byhalia, Mississippi and his immediate survivors included:
His wife: Alice Mae Taylor Burnside (married 1951); died November 16, 2008
Daughters: Mildred Jean Burnside, Linda Jackson, Brenda Kay Brooks, and Pamela Denise Burnside;
Sons: Melvin Burnside, R.L. Burnside Jr., Calvin Burnside, Joseph Burnside, Daniel Burnside, Duwayne Burnside, Dexter Burnside, Garry Burnside, and Rodger Harmon
Sisters: Lucille Burnside, Verelan Burnside, and Mat Burnside
Brother: Jesse Monia
35 Grandchildren
32 Great-Grandchildren
Style
Burnside had a powerful, expressive voice and played both electric and acoustic guitars (both with a slide and without). His drone-based style was a characteristic of North Mississippi hill country blues rather than Mississippi Delta blues. Like other country blues musicians, he did not always adhere to 12- or 16-bar blues patterns, often adding extra beats according to his preference. He called this "Burnside style" and often commented that his backing musicians needed to be familiar with his style in order to be able to play along with him.
His earliest recordings, like those of John Lee Hooker, sound very similar in their vocal and instrumental style. Many of his songs do not have chord changes, but use the same chord or repeating bass line throughout, giving his music a hypnotic feel. His vocal style is characterized by a tendency to "break" into falsetto briefly (usually at the ends of long notes).
Like the bluesman T-Model Ford, Burnside utilized the stripped-down element of his music, playing up the rawness, emphasizing his image as a lifelong hard-drinking man, and singing songs of swagger and rebellion. Burnside collaborated in the late 1990s with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on the album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey. Consequently, he gained the attention of many within this underground music scene, cited as an influence by Hillstomp[9] and covered on record by The Immortal Lee County Killers. Burnside's "Skinny Woman" was also interpolated into the song "Busted" by fellow Fat Possum musicians The Black Keys, a band associated with the punk blues scene in their early years.
He also knew many toasts (African American narrative folk poems such as "Signifying monkey" and "Tojo Told Hitler") and frequently recited them between songs at his live concerts and on his recordings.
Selected albums
First Recordings (recorded in the late 1960s by George Mitchell; re-released by Fat Possum Records in 2003)
Too Bad Jim (produced in 1992 by Robert Palmer)
Well, Well, Well (songs and interviews from 1986-1993, released in 2001 on MC Records)
A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (1996, featuring the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion)
Mr. Wizard (1997)
Acoustic Stories (1997)
My Black Name A-Ringin' (1999)
Burnside on Burnside (a critically acclaimed 2001 live album recorded in the Crystal Ballroom on Portland, Oregon's Burnside Street)
Come On In, Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down, and A Bothered Mind (three albums of remixed material, often featuring guest artists, released in 1998, 2000 and 2004, respectively)
Films
Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads (1991). Directed by Robert Mugge
American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America, part 3: "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1990). Written, directed, and produced by Alan Lomax; developed by the Association for Cultural Equity at Columbia University and Hunter College. North Carolina Public TV; A Dibb Direction production for Channel Four. This is a lightly re-edited version of "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1978) made by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long in Association with Mississippi Authority for Educational Television
You See Me Laughin': The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen (2003; released by Fat Possum Records in 2005). Produced and directed by Mandy Stein. Oxford, Mississippi: Plain Jane Productions, Inc; Fat Possum Records.
In popular culture
The 2007 Samuel L. Jackson / Christina Ricci film, Black Snake Moan is infused with countless Burnside nods, including: the Reverend R. L. character and when Jackson plays the blues toward the end of the film, he thanks "Ced" and "Kenny" - Cedric Burnside (Burnside's grandson) and Kenny Brown (Burnside's "adopted son"), who were primary sidemen through the 1990s and early 2000s. Cedric and Kenny are also part of Jackson's band in the juke joint scene.
"It's Bad You Know," and "Shuck Dub" were featured in the HBO series The Sopranos.
"Got Messed Up" was featured in the FX series Rescue Me during an opening montage on Season 5 Episode 18, "Carrot".
A Burnside poster can be seen on a wall in brothers Drake and Josh's room in the Nickelodeon sitcom, Drake & Josh.
Everything Is Broken
R.L. Burnside Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
突然之间
无法解释的奇妙感觉
阴的天云好远
有些事正发生在我心里面
再也不能假装看不见
是什么在蔓延
从眼里到之间太明显
请问爱情会让你
带我到哪里去
Love is everything
不想公开的秘密
我还盯着你
假装没事欢乐的眼睛
Love is everything
从天而降一万颗星星
我很确定
别想逃出你的手掌心
哦哦耶耶耶
是什么在蔓延
从眼里到之间太明显
如果把手给你
请问爱情会让你
带我到哪里去 哦
Love is everything
不想公开的秘密
我还盯着你
假装没事欢乐的眼睛
Love is everything
从天而降一万颗星星
我很确定
别想逃出你的手掌心
快喘不过气
爱不可思议
真了不起 怎么你还可以装神秘
Love is everything
不想公开的秘密
我还盯着你
假装没事欢乐的眼睛
Love love is everything
从天而降一万颗星星
我很确定
别想逃出你的手掌心
哦 哦哦
I'm not ready yet / Suddenly / An inexplicable wonderful feeling / Cloudy sky and darkness are too far away / Something is happening in my heart / Can't pretend not to see it anymore / What is spreading / From the eyes to in between, it's too clear / If I give you my hand / Love, where will you take me? / Love is everything / Secrets I don't want to reveal / I'm still staring at you / Pretending my happy eyes are fine / Love is everything / Ten thousand stars falling from the sky / I'm sure / You can't escape from my palm / Oh oh yeah yeah yeah / What is spreading / From the eyes to in between, it's too clear / If I give you my hand / Love, where will you take me? / Love is everything / Secrets I don't want to reveal / I'm still staring at you / Pretending my happy eyes are fine / Love is everything / Ten thousand stars falling from the sky / I'm sure / You can't escape from my palm / Can't breathe fast enough / Love is incredible / Amazing, how can you still pretend to be mysterious? / Love is everything / Secrets I don't want to reveal / I'm still staring at you / Pretending my happy eyes are fine / Love, love is everything / Ten thousand stars falling from the sky / I'm sure / You can't escape from my palm / Oh oh
The lyrics of this song, "Everything is Broken" by R.L. Burnside, convey the confusion and mystery that often comes with love. The singer is experiencing a sudden and unexplainable feeling and cannot ignore the fact that something is happening inside of them. They question where love will take them when they offer their hand to it, indicating a sense of surrender and vulnerability. The repeated phrase "Love is everything" reinforces the idea that love is all-consuming and can overshadow everything else. The mention of "secrets I don't want to reveal" suggests that the singer may be hesitant to fully open up and reveal their true feelings. The reference to ten thousand stars falling from the sky implies that the singer feels strongly and in a grand, cosmic way.
Line by Line Meaning
我还没有准备好
I'm not ready yet
突然之间 无法解释的奇妙感觉
Suddenly, an inexplicable wonderful feeling
阴的天云好远
The cloudy sky seems so far away
有些事正发生在我心里面
Something is happening inside of me
再也不能假装看不见
I can't pretend not to see anymore
是什么在蔓延 从眼里到之间太明显
What's spreading is too obvious from my eyes to in-between
如果把手给你 请问爱情会让你 带我到哪里去
If I give you my hand, where will love take us?
Love is everything
Love is all-encompassing
不想公开的秘密 我还盯着你 假装没事欢乐的眼睛
I'm still staring at you with happy eyes, pretending not to have secrets
从天而降一万颗星星 我很确定 别想逃出你的手掌心
Ten thousand stars are falling from the sky, I'm pretty sure you won't be able to escape my grasp
快喘不过气 爱不可思议
I'm out of breath, love is incredible
真了不起 怎么你还可以装神秘
Amazing, how are you still able to act mysterious?
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@likhlalbrahim1333
Bob Dylan – Everything Is Broken Lyrics
Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken.
Broken bottles, broken plates,
Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts.
Broken words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is broken.
Bridge: Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground
Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',
Everything is broken.
Bridge: Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face
Broken hands on broken ploughs,
Broken treaties, broken vows,
Broken pipes, broken tools,
People bending broken rules.
Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,
Everything is broken.
@ThickMolasses
Oh man that raw guitar sound is to die for.
@excelsior2511
I'm a big fan of Dylan, and I usually think the original is the best, but R.L .Burnside captured the pure element of this song.
@frankcanales8650
Dylan's rocks!
@randyborst7517
Kenny Wayne Shepherds rocks it very well.
@zombiegator1
Yeah, I always liked he lyrics to the song, but add that double tapping bass and OH MY!
@semperfubar
First guitar solo: Buddy Guy. Harmonica solo: James Cotton. Second guitar solo: Derek Trucks. Wow!
@sid18208
great tones
@michaelsearer6698
Freaking SICK.
@michaelsearer6698
i wonder if they could play ''Smoke on the Water''?
@TheOldbikerider
Burnside did a great job with this great Bob Dylan song.