The Best Songs: Fixin’ To Die Blues by Bukka White aka Booker T Washington

“Fixin’ to Die” is song by American blues musician Bukka White. It is performed in the Delta blues style with White’s vocal and guitar accompanied by washboard rhythm. White recorded it in Chicago on May 8, 1940, for record producer Lester Melrose. The song was written just days before, along with eleven others, at Melrose’s urging.

White was resuming his recording career, which had been interrupted by his incarceration for two and one-half years at the infamous Parchman Farm prison in Mississippi. While there, White witnessed the death of a friend and “got to wondering how a man feels when he dies”. His lyrics reflect his thoughts about his children and wife:

I’m looking funny in my eyes, an’ I b’lieve I’m fixin’ to die (2×)
I know I was born to die, but I hate to leave my children cryin’ …
So many nights at the fireside, how my children’s mother would cry (2×)
‘Cause I ain’t told their mother I had to say good-bye

Fixin To Die blues by Bukka White (1940 version):

White provides the vocal and acoustic slide guitar (which was borrowed from Big Bill Broonzy) with backing by Washboard Sam. Despite the somber lyrics, “the music throbs with a restless energy” with White’s “bottleneck guitar crying in urgent counterpoint to his imagery”. Music historian Ted Gioia notes that these recordings of White “come as close to art song as traditional blues has ever dared to go, but without losing any of the essential qualities of the Delta heritage”.

However, as with his other songs from the session, “Fixin’ to Die Blues” did not capture the record buying public’s interest. As a result, White largely retired from performing music, until a resurgence of interest in the early 1960s and theAmerican folk music revival.

Fixin To Die blues by Bukka White (1963 version):

Bukka White – Fixin’ To Die Blues Lyrics:

I’m lookin’ funny in my eyes and I believe I’m fixin’ to die, believe I’m fixin’ to die
I’m lookin’ funny in my eyes and I believe I’m fixin’ to die
I know I was born to die but I hate to leave my children cryin’

Just as sho’ as we livin’, just as sho’ we born to die, sho’ we born to die
Just as sho’ as we livin’, sho’ we born to die
I know I was born to die but I hate to leave my children cryin’

Your mother treated me children like I was her baby child, was her baby child
Your mother treated me like I was her baby child
That’s why’s I find it so hard to come back home to die

So many nights at the fireside, how my children’s mother would cry, how my children’s mother would cry
So many nights at the fireside, how my children’s mother would cry
Cause I told the mother I had to say goodbye

Look over yonder, on the burying ground, on the burying ground
Look over yonder, on the burying ground
Yon’ stand ten thousand, standin’ still to let me down

Mother take my children back, before they let me down, before they let me down
Mother take my children back, ‘fore they let me down
I don’t need for them to screamin’ and cryin’ on the graveyard ground

Bob Dylan Fixin’ To Die:

In 1961, Bob Dylan recorded “Fixin’ to Die” for his debut album, released the following year. The album liner notes indicate that it “was learned from an old recording by Bukka White”. However, Dylan’s arrangement uses a different melody line and some new lyrics. It is one of three blues songs on the album that deal with the theme of death.

Fixin’ To Die: lyrics with Bob Dylan’s alterations:

Feeling funny in my mind, Lord, I believe I’m fixing to die
Feeling funny in my mind, Lord, I believe I’m fixing to die

Well, I don’t mind dying
But I hate to leave my children crying

Well, I look over yonder to that burying ground
Look over yonder to that burying ground (x2)
Sure seems lonesome, Lord
When the sun goes down

Feeling funny in my eyes, Lord, I believe I’m fixing to die, fixing to die
Feeling funny in my eyes, Lord, I believe I’m fixing to die

Well, I don’t mind dying but
I hate to leave my children crying

Well there’s a black smoke rising, Lord
It’s rising up above my head, up above my head
Well there’s a black smoke rising, Lord
It’s rising up above my head
And tell Jesus make up my dying bed

I’m walking kind of funny, Lord
I believe I’m fixing to die, fixing to die
Yes I’m walking kind of funny, Lord
I believe I’m fixing to die, fixing to die, fixing to die

Well, I don’t mind dying
But I hate to leave my children crying

 

Another Bob Dylan version (twice as long almost!) with even more changes to the lyrics.
Bob Dylan Folksinger’s Choice – Fixin’ To Die & Conversation:

– That’s a great song, how much of it is yours?
Dylan:  it’s a… I don’t know I can’t remember. My hands are cold, it’s a cold studio
– It’s the coldest studio
Dylan: I wasn’t sure I could do this (plays a bit of the song on guitar)

Other good versions:

Dave Van Ronk – Fixin To Die:

G. Love – Fixin’ to die:

Spidergawd – Fixin’ to die blues:

Robert Plant – Fixin To Die Blues(Lollapalooza São Paulo Brasil – 2015):

Clutch – Fixin’ To Die (Acoustic @ Bonnaroo 2010):

– Hallgeir