Blood Ran Like Wine
1974 · Biograph BLP-12048 · Chicago, Illinois
- Artist
- Johnny Shines
- Title
- Blood Ran Like Wine
- Release
- Johnny Shines and Company
- Year
- 1974
- Label
- Biograph # BLP-12048
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Songwriter
- Johnny Shines
- Genre
- Blues · Delta Blues · Acoustic Blues
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
Johnny Shines, American Delta blues guitar player from Memphis, Tennessee, who specialised in slide guitar, toured with Robert Johnson in the 1930s and had the odd recording session in 1940s Chicago, although nothing was released at the time. But with the revival of folk and blues in the 1960s, Johnny Shines recorded some material. In 1966 he released the Vietnam War song "So Cold in Vietnam" (Testament Records # T-2212), narrated from the perspective of a soldier, who missed his sweetheart. In 1974 he released the track "Blood Ran Like Wine" (Biograph Records # BLP-12048), in which he sung about a man in a difficult position, in the first person: "standing in water...walking in the blood". It was then revealed that the narrator was fighting in a war: "no use in screaming and crying...in Vietnam".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Well I was standing in water, way up above my knees / Well I prayed to the good lord, won't you help me if you please / Every man want to live, but sometimes I feel like dying / Well I'm walking in the blood, running down the street like wine... / There no use in worrying, no use in screaming and crying / Well keep on fighting here in Vietnam, while the blood runs down the street like wine
About the artist
American blues singer-guitarist, born 26 April 1915 in Frayser (Memphis), Tennessee; died 20 April 1992 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. [Source: Wikipedia]