Tampa Red is best known as an accomplished and influential blues guitarist who had a unique single-string bottleneck style. His songwriting and his silky, polished slide technique influenced other leading Chicago blues guitarists, such as Big Bill Broonzy and Robert Nighthawk, as well as Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Mose Allison and many others. In a career spanning over 30 years he also recorded pop, R&B and hokum records.
He was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia. His parents died when he was a child, and he moved to Tampa, Florida, where he was raised by his aunt and grandmother and adopted their surname, Whittaker. He emulated his older brother, Eddie, who played guitar, and he was especially inspired by an old street musician called Piccolo Pete, who first taught him to play blues licks on a guitar.
In the 1920s, having already perfected his slide technique, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and began his career as a musician, adopting the name "Tampa Red" from his childhood home and red hair. His big break was being hired to accompany Ma Rainey and he began recording in 1928 with "It's Tight Like That", in a bawdy and humorous style that became known as "hokum". Early recordings were mostly collaborations with Thomas A. Dorsey, known at the time as Georgia Tom. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom recorded almost 90 sides, sometimes as "The Hokum Boys" or, with Frankie Jaxon, as "Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band".
In 1928, Tampa Red became the first black musician to play a National steel-bodied resonator guitar, the loudest and showiest guitar available before amplification, acquiring one in the first year they were available. This allowed him to develop his trademark bottleneck style, playing single string runs, not block chords, which was a precursor to later blues and rock guitar soloing. The National guitar he used was a gold-plated tricone, which was found in Illinois in the 1990s and later sold to the "Experience Music Project" in Seattle. Tampa Red was known as "The Man With The Gold Guitar", and, into the 1930s, he was billed as "The Guitar Wizard".
His partnership with Dorsey ended in 1932, but he remained much in demand as a session musician, working with John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, Memphis Minnie, and many others. In 1934 he signed for Victor Records. He formed the Chicago Five, a group of session musicians who created what became known as the Bluebird sound, a precursor of the small group style of later jump blues and rock and roll bands. He was a close friend and associate of Big Bill Broonzy and Big Maceo Merriweather. He enjoyed commercial success and reasonable prosperity, and his home became a centre for the blues community, informally providing rehearsal space, bookings, and lodgings for the flow of musicians who arrived in Chicago from the Mississippi Delta as the commercial potential of blues music grew and agricultural employment in the south diminished.
By the 1940s he was playing electric guitar. In 1942 "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" was a # 4 hit on Billboard Magazine's new "Harlem Hit Parade", forerunner of the R&B chart, and his 1949 recording "When Things Go Wrong with You (It Hurts Me Too)", another R&B hit, was covered by Elmore James. He was "rediscovered" in the late 1950s, like many other surviving early recorded blues artists such as Son House and Skip James, as part of the blues revival. His final, undistinguished, recordings were in 1960.
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It hurts me too
Tampa Red Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When you keep on worrying the way you do
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
It hurts me too
The man you loving, he don't want you 'round
So take me mama, let's leave this town
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
It hurts me too
If he keep on dolling you, the way you do
I may lose my head mama, and my temper too
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
It hurts me too
He wrecked your life mama, right at the start
And if you ain't careful mama, he will break your heart
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
It hurts me too
I love you baby, you know it's true
So why put up mama, with the way you do
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
It hurts me too
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
It hurts me too
The song “It Hurts Me Too” by Tampa Red expresses his sympathy towards a woman who keeps on worrying and suffering from her relationship. He conveys his empathy towards her sorrows and acknowledges how her condition reflects on him too. The opening lines, “I can’t be happy, mama, for being so blue / When you keep on worrying the way you do,” depict how the woman’s despair affects him. He doesn't ask her to leave her man, instead suggests that they both depart from the town.
Tampa Red further explains how the woman's partner doesn't value or acknowledge her worth, and how he might also lose his cool if he keeps on watching her suffer. He adds, “If he keeps on dolling you, the way you do / I may lose my head mama, and my temper too.” The second verse introduces the idea that the man in her life ruined her life right at the start, and if she's not careful, he'll break her heart. Overall, the tone of the song is empathetic and critical of the man who's causing this pain.
The lyrics of the song were later used by many other blues musicians like Elmore James, Grateful Dead, and Eric Clapton. Tampa Red’s song was one of the most influential blues records of the '40s and was highly popular among the people in the era of its release. It was recorded twice, once in 1940 and then again in 1941. The original version by Tampa Red in 1940 was titled "When Things go Wrong with You,” The version most prominently known today is the 1941 recording, which has the same melody but is called “It Hurts Me Too.” The song features a delta blues style guitar and Charles "Cow Cow" Davenport on piano.
Line by Line Meaning
I can't be happy, mama, for being so blue
I'm not happy because you're not happy, mama
When you keep on worrying the way you do
Your constant worrying is adding to my sadness, mama
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
When things go wrong for you, it hurts me deeply
It hurts me too
Your suffering affects me as well
The man you loving, he don't want you 'round
The man you love doesn't want to be around you
So take me mama, let's leave this town
Let's leave this town together, mama
If he keep on dolling you, the way you do
If he keeps treating you badly, like he's doing
I may lose my head mama, and my temper too
I might lose my cool and get angry, mama
He wrecked your life mama, right at the start
He ruined your life from the beginning, mama
And if you ain't careful mama, he will break your heart
If you're not careful, he will break your heart, mama
I love you baby, you know it's true
I love you, baby, and it's true
So why put up mama, with the way you do
Why do you put up with it, mama?
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
When things go wrong for you, it hurts me deeply
It hurts me too
Your suffering affects me as well
When things go wrong, so wrong with you
When things go wrong for you, it hurts me deeply
It hurts me too
Your suffering affects me as well
Contributed by James R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Kellie Everts 48-28-38 conducts Night Train
You said you hurtin', you almost lost your mind
The man you love he hurt you all the time
When things go wrong, go wrong with you
It hurtin' me too
You love him more, when you should love him less
Why pick up behind him and take his mess
But when things go wrong, go wrong with you
It hurtin' me too
He loves another woman, and I love you
But you love him and stick to him like glue
When things go wrong, go wrong with…
lazy bertl
Tampa Red wrote some of the most beautiful melodies as well as sensitive and heartfelt lyrics in blues. This one, Seminole Blues, Better Let My Gal Alone, Denver Blues. Yet he could be decently frivolous too. He seemed to be have been a quite fine guy too. He deserves way more attention than he gets.
Pelu Maad
Damn shame Tampa and Cliff Edwards never worked together....
Cody Stegemueller
He didn't write this song
Slim Davenport
Amen
P. David Hornik
A classic, one of the greatest blues numbers.
RRROG
This version is my personal favorite. Raw and authentic to the core.
John the Resonator
Beautifully sweet delivery from one of the smoothest slide players ever. Don't know why but something about an eight bar blues just says it all for me.
scottcampbell1958
Love it. Many thanks for putting it up.
RichZ Fishes!
Elmore's version of this was the song that first made me realize I liked the blues. But Tampa's original is great too!
bluesborn
The 1940s and early 50s really does it for me-people like Red,Memphis Minnie,Peetie Wheatstraw,Big Maceo and Champion Jack Dupree just to name a few all produced the kind of blues that hits me as deep as they can go.Of course the 40s also saw the rise of the great T-Bone Walker who influenced thousands of young electric guitarists.My favorite (pickers) are the young BB and my personal hero Gatemouth Brown who could swing like no one else.I also LOVE the swing bands from that incredible time.