"I know you can't see me bleeding, 

because I'm bleeding down in my

heart".

So sang the enigmatic "Funny Papa" Smith. Or was it "Funny Paper" Smith?
Full of strong poetic verse, moving guitar work and expressive vocals he
was a great yet largely unknown (even in the blues world) musician. His
signature song Howlin' Wolf Blues was known throughout the South during
the 1930's or possibly before and sung by many different blues-players
from Texan Willie Lane to Josh White from South Carolina. So who was he?

There are not a lot of details of his life. No birth certificate has been
found. Texas blues player Tom Shaw who recorded a few albums during the
1960's was a friend of Smiths and is the source of a good deal of our
information about him. He claims to have met Smith in Oklahoma in 1930.
Evidence suggests he was born in North Texas or possibly East Texas. His
playing style would bear this out. Some archivists claim he was born
anywhere between 1885 and 1890; if this were true he would certainly be a
true pioneer of the style we now call country blues. But, that's
assuming his repertoire had not changed much by the time he recorded in
1930. Of course it is just as possible he was playing in the "raggy"
fashion of fellow Texan Henry Thomas and other itinerant musicians before
and around 1900-1910 and developed his unique blues style later. We'll
never know. Fortunately he left behind a rich recording legacy.

Tom Shaw claims Smith's Howlin' Wolf Blues is what made him famous
(of course that's relative to his meaning of the word. It certainly is not
what famous means today or what it meant for a pop musician in 1930. It
was more likely a signature piece like Charley Patton's "Pony Blues" or
Blind Willie Walker's "South Carolina Rag"; these were songs people would
recognize when they played, but very few people outside their surrounding
region, be it two counties or two states, (either way it would be a fairly
small region), would recognize. The exception being Blind Lemon Jefferson
and even much more popular were the women blues singers like Ma Rainey and
Bessie Smith. These two women in particular both had semi-big draws all
over the South and to some extent up North.) Any way you look at it though
Howlin' Wolf Blues was a big enough hit to record two-two part versions
which is pretty rare especially for a solo guitar/vocal with no real
novelty to it like a male/female duet or overt sexual themes. But, it easy
to see why it made people take notice. The song is incredibly well
constructed with flowing guitar passages and intensely personal lyrics.

It fits well into the so-called "Texas Blues". While I don't feel,
personally, dividing blues by region is an absolute there is not one,
fortunately for the music's sake) I do feel it is a good rough guide to
understanding rural blues and old-timey music. Just when outside influences
such as records and radio began to infiltrate rural music is of a lot of
debate. There have always been iterant musicians however who would
influence and penetrate a certain region with his individual style. The
greatest example being Blind Lemon Jefferson traveling through
Mississippi and influencing countless musicians who had only seen him
once or twice. Decades later people still talked about hearing and seeing
him. But, as I said dividing by region is a rough guide and Funny Papa
fits well into the Texas blues style.

Texas blues guitar tends to have heavy rhythmic accenting and monotonic
bass. Smith was somewhat of an exception in that he not only used the
propulsive thump bass, but also used an alternating bass pattern. Smith's
rhythmic variation is not only unique, but an exciting part of his music.
Howlin'Wolf Part 1 for example starts with an alternating bass and then
falls into a drone. It is also in the key of A which is also favored by
Texas players because with this key a player can keep open the open A bass
string going while playing melody notes on the high strings and if it is
done right with the high notes corresponding with the bass note no
fingering is needed on the bass strings. It is also true for the keys of E
and D and open chord tunings. Smith recorded at least seven songs in the
key of A.

The lyrics of Howlin' Wolf Blues are some of his best. They are part
bravado and one part vulnerable. On one side he revels in his rounder,
lone wolf, womanizing perception and on the other side he seems trapped
by unnatural or religious forces to always be a misanthrope. Because of
lyrics and themes like that many people think his lyrics are his most
important contribution to music and it is very justified. His voice on
the song has a nice balance between his high and low registers. The melody
has a sad driving quality and then peppered with humorous overtones. It
is truly a great piece of work. As I said earlier a lot of his work is in
the style of what we call country blues. The only real deviation from that
is Honey Blues which actually very strongly resembles Mississippi John
Hurt's version of Candyman with alternating bass and overall structure.
Seven Sisters may be his best lyrically. It tells of Seven Sisters in New
Orleans who were hoodoo women. It is truly a two-part song with great
narrative. It is very chilling. He didn't use many floating verses (which
in country-blues and old-timey are verses used by many different recorded
and non-recorded musicians that can fit in many different lyrical patterns
thus making them almost universal in their appeal and use.) In Fool's
Blues he sings of being ignored and betrayed by God. The guitar has a nice
stuttering, percussive rythm to it. He plays it in the key of E. It is
one of his best. I suggest to the reader to listen to all of his material
to form your own opinion.

Funny Papa recorded 41 songs from September 1930 to April 1935 in three
separate sessions. One session 1930. One in 1931 and one in 1935.
Unfortunately, all the material from the 1935 session remains untraced and
probably unmissed at the time. Another point of speculation about the 1930
session is that Tom Shaw claims Wolf (Smith's real nickname) killed a man
in 1930, but of course record logs have him in the recording studio at
that time. The incident probably happened sometime either between 1930 and
1935 which would explain his song Life In Prison which he recorded at his
last session or after 1935 which seems more probable and would explain why
some archivists think he died in prison in 1941. Either way he left us
with some great recordings. I recommend the Yazoo and/or the complete
Documents cds or vinyl records. The sound quality might be slightly better
on the Yazoo, but the Document has all 22 released songs.

Finally, the nickname controversy. Most archivists claim that "Funny
Paper" Smith was a gaffe by Vocalion (the recording company) and his real
nickname was "Funny Papa" Smith. Evidence bears this out for the most
part. When Tom Shaw went to visit Wolf in Oklahoma he had Funny Papa
stitched on his overalls. Why did Vocalion leave it that way? We'll
probably never know. We do know that he left us with a great legacy of
music and I suggest delving into it.