"Crosscut Saw", or "Cross Cut Saw Blues" as it was first called, is a

hokum Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music—a song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make humorous, sexual innuendos. This trope goes back to early dirty blues recordings, enjoyed huge commercial success in ...

-style song "that must have belonged to the general repertoire of the Delta blues". Mississippi bluesman

Tommy McClennan Tommy McClennan (January 4, 1905 – May 9, 1961) was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist. Life and career McClennan was born in Durant, Mississippi, and grew up in the town. He played and sang blues in a rough, energetic style. ...

's recording of the song was released in 1941 and has since been interpreted by many blues artists. "Crosscut Saw" became an early R&B chart hit for

Albert King Albert King ( Nelson; April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps best known for his popular and ...

, "who made it one of the necessary pieces of modern blues".

Original song

Tommy McClennan's "Cross Cut Saw Blues" is a

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

, that follows the

style of the time. McClennan, who sings and plays acoustic guitar, and an unknown bass player, recorded the song at the RCA Studio A in Chicago on September 15, 1941. The lyrics make use of double-entendre: The song follows the classic

twelve-bar blues The twelve-bar blues (or blues changes) is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly ba ...

progression, contrary to

Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1893 or 1903August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African-American audiences. In the 19 ...

's characterization of McClennan's timing as erratic.

Tony Hollins version

Tony Hollins, a Mississippi bluesman and contemporary of Tommy McClennan, recorded a version of "Cross Cut Saw Blues" with similar lyrics on June 3, 1941, three months before McClennan. The song was not released at the time, but eventually appeared in 1992. In an interview,

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...

, who knew Tony Hollins, was asked "Well, did Tony Hollins or Tommy McClennan do it first? They both recorded it around the same time". Hooker responded "I think Tommy McClennan did it first". In

David "Honeyboy" Edwards David "Honeyboy" Edwards (June 28, 1915 – August 29, 2011) was an American delta blues guitarist and singer from Mississippi. Biography Edwards was born in Shaw, Mississippi.

' autobiography, ''The World Don't Owe Me Nothing'', Edwards mentioned that he played with both

Richard "Hacksaw" Harney Richard "Hacksaw" Harney (July 16, 1902 – December 25, 1973) was an American Delta blues guitarist and pianist. He first entered a recording studio with his brother Maylon in 1928, to wax guitar work backing for separate tracks by Pearl Dickso ...

and McClennan, and that McClennan got the song "Crosscut Saw" from Harney. In the earlier days of the blues, it was not unusual for an unrecorded or unpublished song to be in the repertoire of several blues singers. In the

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

tradition, such songs were passed around and developed over an extended period of time without regards to ownership.

Albert King version

In 1966,

recorded his version calling it "Crosscut Saw". The same lyrics as McClennan's "Cross Cut Saw Blues" were used, except for two verses which were replaced by guitar solos. However, King uses a different arrangement based on an

Afro-Cuban Afro-Cubans () or Black Cubans are Cubans of full or partial sub-Saharan African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba associated with this community, and the combining of native African a ...

rhythm pattern, similar to that of his 1962 song " I Get Evil". Music educator and writer James E. Perone describes the song as having one of the better examples of King's well-known string bending technique: On November 2, 1966, King recorded the song at the

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in September 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. ...

studio in Memphis, with the house band, Booker T. & the MG's. Group drummer

Al Jackson Jr. Albert J. Jackson Jr. (November 27, 1935 – October 1, 1975) was an American drummer, producer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, a group of session musicians who worked for Stax Records and produced their ...

has been identified as the one primarily responsible for bringing the song to Stax and King as well as giving it a Latin (Afro-Cuban) beat. Stax released it as a single, which reached number 34 in the

Billboard R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 po ...

. It is included on King's ''

Born Under a Bad Sign ''Born Under a Bad Sign'' is the second compilation album by American blues musician Albert King, released in August 1967 by Stax Records. It features eleven electric blues songs that were recorded from March 1966 to June 1967, throughout fiv ...

'' album, which "became one of the most popular and influential blues albums of the late '60s". The song remained in his repertoire throughout his career and several live recordings have been released on albums, such as '' Thursday Night in San Francisco'' (1990).

Songwriter credits

Bluebird Records Bluebird Records is an American record label best known for its low-cost releases, primarily of children's music, blues, jazz and swing in the 1930s and 1940s. Bluebird was founded in 1932 as a lower-priced subsidiary label of RCA Victor. Bluebi ...

listed "Tommy McClennan" as the songwriter on the 1941 original 78 record, but there is no indication that it was copyrighted. In 1964, R. G. Ford, a Memphis attorney, produced a single of "Cross Cut Saw" by a local group, the Binghamton Blues Boys, on his own East Side Records. The single was only distributed in Memphis and lists "Group" as the author. However, a copyright registration was filed by Ford, and it is his name (and sometimes the group members' names) that appears as the songwriter on Albert King's and most subsequent releases. This has led some commentators to misleadingly refer to "Crosscut Saw" as "the R. G. Ford song" and ignores the song's origins.

Recognition

In 2018, "Cross Cut Saw" was inducted into the

Blues Foundation The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs t ...

Blues Hall of Fame as a "classic of blues recording". In its announcement, the Foundation notes the song's "complicated evolution", but adds that King's version made it a popular

blues standard Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues s ...

with blues musicians. French music historian Gérard Herzhaft adds "it is Albert King (Stax 201 on 2 November 1966) who made it one of the necessary pieces of modern blues". Perone notes that King's frequent performances at rock venues also made it a

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

staple, with recordings by

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

(''

Money and Cigarettes ''Money and Cigarettes'' is the eighth solo studio album by Eric Clapton, recorded after his first rehabilitation from alcoholism. Produced by Clapton and Tom Dowd with, apart from Albert Lee, a new backing band of veteran session musicians inc ...

'', 1983) and

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...

(''SRV'', 2000).

References

{{authority control 1941 songs 1967 singles Albert King songs Eric Clapton songs Stevie Ray Vaughan songs Blues songs Delta blues songs Hokum blues songs Songs with unknown songwriters Bluebird Records singles