The Army Blues
The Army Blues 3:47
(David Edwards, published by Earwig Music Company) BMI
David Honeyboy Edwards - vocal, guitar, rack harmonica
Recorded at a Rosenwald School on the outskirts of Clarksdale, MS July 20 and July 22, 1942 by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Songs
In his autobiography The World Don't Owe Me Nothing, Honeyboy recounted a story about being called up for the military draft during World War II. He did not want to go to war, so he swallowed little pills made of soap, to make his heart beat faster. At the time of his Army physical, he had a dent in his forehead from being hit by a coca cola bottle thrown at someone just as Honeyboy was entering a cafe in Coahoma, Mississippi. The bottle gashed his head and he had to hop a train to Greenville about 60 miles away to get his head stitched up. The Army doctor commented on the scar and asked Honeyboy if his head hurt, so Honeyboy embellished the story "I get spells sometime." He was told to stay in the county until he got his draft card. A few weeks later it arrived 4F, so Honeyboy hit the road again.
An archivist at the Library of Congress in 2012 found a one minute color silent film identified as being Henry Edwards in 1942 in Coahoma County, Mississippi. Honeyboy's Manager Michael Frank was asked to view a screen shot and see if the film was of Honeyboy Edwards.
Michael confirmed that it was, based on the dent in Honeyboy's forehead, his face, his guitar and harmonica and his playing style in the film. Michael asked Honeyboy's step daughter Dolly Robinson to look at it, and she said "That's my daddy." She would have been 2 years old at the time the film was made. Michael also showed it to various musicians who had played with Honeyboy in recent years, while they listened to the Lomax recordings on which Honeyboy played rack harmonica. Michael and the other musicians concluded that Honeyboy was playing The Army Blues.
Michael got Honeyboy's daughter to license the film and audio to the producers of American Epic documentary. They had their engineer synchronize the Lomax recording to the silent film You can watch it on YouTube.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtHGGQNPcMU