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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Why Should I Care?
Tampa Red Lyrics
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And the girl I'm loving, she don't play fair
She's gone and left me, I shouldn't worry
Why should I care?
I got a mind to ramble
I got a mind to leave the town
Oh, the girl I've been a loving
How could she leave me, so cold in hand
She give my money to another man
She's gone and left me, I shouldn't worry
Why should I care?
Good luck is a fortune, mama
And it's bound to come my way
I'm down now, baby
But I will be up someday
She pawned my diamonds, my watch and chains
Would've pawned herself but she felt ashamed
She's gone and left me, I shouldn't worry
Why should I care?
Sometime I wonder, mama
Who put the jinx on me?
Well, I ain't no bad fella
And I don't intend to be
She left me sinkin' down on my bed
Hopin' and wishing that I was dead
She's gone and left me, I shouldn't worry
Why should I care?
? mama
That big boat whistle blows
I'm leavin' your city, mama
And I won't be back no more
Tampa Red's "Why Should I Care?" is a slow blues ballad about heartbreak and betrayal. The song explores the singer's feelings of loneliness, rejection, and resentment after his lover leaves him for another man. The lyrics express the singer's frustration and despair, questioning why he should care about someone who has hurt him deeply. He contemplates leaving town to escape his pain and start anew but feels weighed down by the memories of his lost love. The song ends on a note of hope, with the singer vowing to rise above his troubles and find happiness once again.
Line by Line Meaning
No one to love me, no one to care
I am alone and uncared for by anyone in my life.
And the girl I'm loving, she don't play fair
The girl I love does not treat me properly or fairly.
She's gone and left me, I shouldn't worry
Even though she has left me, I should not worry about it.
Why should I care?
I question why I should care about this situation.
I got a mind to ramble
I am considering leaving town and traveling.
I got a mind to leave the town
I am considering leaving my current location.
Oh, the girl I've been a loving
I have been loving this girl, but...
She's gone and throwed me down
...she has rejected and abandoned me.
How could she leave me, so cold in hand
She left me with no money or resources to survive.
She give my money to another man
She gave my money to another man instead of providing for me.
Good luck is a fortune, mama
Good luck is valuable and rare to come by.
And it's bound to come my way
I believe that good luck will come to me eventually.
I'm down now, baby
I am currently struggling and feeling low.
But I will be up someday
I believe that I will overcome my struggles and be successful in the future.
She pawned my diamonds, my watch and chains
She sold my expensive possessions for money, without my permission.
Would've pawned herself but she felt ashamed
She was willing to sell herself for money, but felt embarrassed to do so.
Sometime I wonder, mama
Sometimes I wonder, mother/mama,
Who put the jinx on me?
Who put a curse or spell on me, causing all these misfortunes?
Well, I ain't no bad fella
I know that I am not a bad person.
And I don't intend to be
I have no intention of becoming a bad person.
She left me sinkin' down on my bed
Her abandonment and actions have left me feeling depressed and hopeless.
Hopin' and wishing that I was dead
I am so overwhelmed by my situation that death seems like a better option.
That big boat whistle blows
I hear a boat's whistle blowing.
I'm leavin' your city, mama
I am leaving this town, mother/mama.
And I won't be back no more
I have no intention of returning to this location.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: HUDSON WHITTAKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
DaveB
on Dead Cat On The Line
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