Posting “Big Jim” here, a song we just recorded. It’s blues. To give it a listen, click on the link below this paragraph. The lyrics are under the recording, and there’s a paragraph below them about how I happened to write the song.
BIG JIM
FOLKS CALL HIM BIG JIM
HE’S GOOD TO ROCK ALL NIGHT
FOLKS CALL HIM BIG JIM
LORD, HE WAS BORN TO ROCK ALL NIGHT
ALL HE’S GOT IS THEM THERE BAD BLUES
HE SINGS ‘EM WITH ALL HIS MIGHT
HE GREW UP ON THE SOUTH SIDE
IT WAS TOO COLD TO HIM ROUND THERE
THE SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO
IT WAS TOO COLD TO HIM ROUND THERE
NOW HE LIVES IN JACKSON COUNTY
IT’S HIS HOME, HE DOES DECLARE
THEY GAVE JIM A GUN
AND SENT HIM OFF TO FIGHT
SENT HIM OFF TO NAM
TO BE PART OF THAT THERE FIGHT
THINGS THAT HE SAW THERE
STILL COME BACK TO HIM IN THE NIGHT
THE BLUES AND JACK DANIELS
ARE MUCH OK BY HIM
SINGIN’ THE BLUES AND OLE JACK DANIELS
ARE MUCH OK BY HIM
WHEN THE BAND’S IN THE ZONE
HE’S ALL DOWN WITH THE JAM
REPEAT FIRST VERSE
This New Years Eve my wife Dorothy and I went down to Cumberland State Park in Eastern Kentucky by the Tennessee border. They have a New Years Eve dance there every year and it’s a good one. New Years Day, we were riding back on Highway 61, which winds through miles and miles of farmland, woods, and little towns, and the lyrics to “Big Jim” came to me. We decided to stop in Indianapolis and spend the night; I wrote the lyrics down on some paper that was in our hotel room. When we got back to Chicago, I tossed the lyrics on my desk. Around March I decided to put them to music, and we recorded it this July. Don’t know why I move ahead on projects at the speed of glacier, I just do.
I’d like to dedicate this one to Tawl Pawl, Billy Desmond, and Big Larry. Long may they rock. And to the memory of my brother Doug and the memory of Big Twist.
“Big Jim” copyright 2015 by Donald Kent McDaniel
Dumbfounding Stories 
Leave a Reply