#98 – Ballad Of Spider John
#98 – Ballad Of Spider John
-by Stacy Garwood-
Some songs just catch you at the right moment or at a special time, and become a part of your story, and then there are just some songs that will catch you no matter what is going on, regardless of time or place or space. Ballad Of Spider John is one of those songs. It has a soulful lyrical quality, a melody that hums right through you and has hints of great mystery, of love and then loss and the loneliness that can follow while we carry forward in life.
“’Spider John’ is my name, friend, I’m in between freights and I sure would be obliged, If you’d share your company…”
Ballad Of Spider John was a song that Jimmy recorded on his 1974 album Living And Dying in ¾ Time, the second of what has become known as Jimmy’s “Key West phase” albums, produced by Don Gant through the Dunhill label. It was actually the first of two albums that Jimmy recorded and released that year, quite a prolific year in his career, with the other album being the fan favorite and critically acclaimed A1A.
The majority of the songs on Living And Dying in ¾ Time are written or co-written by Jimmy, and that includes the first hit of his career, Come Monday, which he received recognition for on several musical charts. That single also helped the album Living And Dying In ¾ Time become Jimmy’s first album to breach the Billboard 200 album chart, peaking at #176. And while Jimmy’s songwriting shines throughout the album, it also contains two songs that are covers of others’ work, one of which is Ballad Of Spider John, written by Willis Alan Ramsey.
“I know this may sound strange to you, But if you wait ‘til the song is sung and the story is told, You might come to understand, Oh I’m old and bent and Devil sent, runnin’ out of time, When I long ago held a Royal Flush in my hand…”
I am not sure how Jimmy came to decide to record this song, but I suspect that he heard it and loved it. He had a keen ear for great songs, especially songs that tell stories, and Ballad Of Spider John certainly has a story to tell, which trickle out in shadowy lyrics. Jimmy also was a songwriter at heart, and I think he both admired other songwriters and wanted to help support them. And he was definitely connected to the Texas music scene at this time, especially through friends like Jerry Jeff Walker and the “Outlaw country” music that was coming out of Austin in the early seventies. For whatever reason, Jimmy Buffett recorded a lovely version of this song.
Willis Alan Ramsey is considered a cult legend in the music industry, known for the one stunning album that he recorded at the start of his career. That is correct, a cult legend, still touring on the work of one critically claimed album and the songs on it. That album is self-titled Willis Alan Ramsey and was released in 1972 on Shelter Records. The album was a little country, a little rock, a little folk and a little “outlaw” all rolled into a package that got people’s attention, especially in the Texas music scene that Ramsey had developed through.
“Oh, I was a supermarket fool, I was a motor bank stool-pigeon, Robbin’ my hometown, I thought I’d lost the blues, yes I thought I paid my dues, I though I’d found a life to suit my style…”
“But here I sit old Spider John the robber-man, Long, tall, and handsome, yes, old Spider John with a loaded hand, takin’ ransom…”
Willis Alan Ramsey was born in Birmingham, Alabama but when he was around ten years old, his family relocated to Texas, and Ramsey has said in interviews that he believes he would never have become a musician if it wasn’t for Texas and the strong and diverse musical industry, sound and influence of Texas music in his life.
Shelter Records was a label that was founded by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell. The released albums from Shelter were distributed initially by Blue Thumb Records and later by Capital Records. It 1976, Leon Russell left Shelter Records and distribution changed hands again, this time to MCA than later ABC Records, and finally Arista before the labels demise. Willis Alan Ramsey gives great credit to founder Leon Russell for helping him develop his own sound and songs, giving him a studio to experiment in and the free reign to create his own deeply personal sound. Leon Russell went on to found Paradise Records and was also known for being the owner and operator of The Church Studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a converted church that has produced so much music it has become known as the heart of “the Tulsa sound”.
The solo album that Willis Alan Ramsey recorded with Shelter is still widely considered “captivating” and has given its musician a cult following in the music industry that has lasted for over half a century now. After his first album, Ramsey had creative differences with Shelter, around the time that his friend Leon Russell was parting ways with his own record label and setting up a new shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Some other notable musicians who signed with the label were JJ Cale, Pheobe Snow, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Unable to buy his way out of his contract with Shelter like Tom Petty was able to do, Ramsey decided to wait out his contract, which ended after eight years in 1980.
“Then one day I met Diamond Lill, She was the sweetest thing, I declare, That the summer breeze had ever blown my way, But Lilly she had no idea, of my illustrious occupation, She thought I was a saint, not a sinner, gone astray, yeah…”
“But you see that word got around and Lilly left town, Never saw her again, Tossin’ and turnin’, ‘Causin’ my heart to grieve…”
But by that time, Ramsey says he felt like the music industry and sound had changed so much that he did not feel a part of it anymore. He took a hiatus from music for decades, but music called him back. He has been working on a second album which is eagerly awaited by fans and critics, although some of his mystic certainly involves the amazing run of his career based on one released album more than fifty years ago. His songs have been recorded not only by Jimmy Buffett, but by America, Captain & Tennille, Waylon Jennings, Shawn Colvin, Jerry Jeff Walker, Eric Clapton and Lyle Lovett. Those are some pretty strong names to record his music, especially considering the majority of those covers came from one album in 1972 that consisted of eleven songs.
“Oh, I was a supermarket fool, I was a motor bank stool-pigeon, Robbin’ my hometown, I thought I’d lost the blues, yes I thought I’d paid my dues…”
I though I’d found a life to suit my style, But here I sit old Spider John, the robber-man, Long, tall, and handsome, Yes, old Spider John with a loaded hand, takin’ ransom…”
In interviews Willis Alan Ramsey talks about how influenced he was by Leon Russell’s kindness and support of him as a songwriter and an artist, and he names musical and songwriting influences such as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, James Taylor and John Sebastian (from The Lovin’ Spoonful), but first and foremost he names John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He was certainly affected in his developmental years by the sounds of The Beatles and has reported his admiration of the sounds and musical breakthroughs that the Beatles were a part of. These are the some of the special artists that influenced the development of Willis Alan Ramsey, his music, and his songwriting.
And really, to give The Beatles credit, as songwriters, as harmonizers and as studio musicians who were an integral part of developing an iconic music sound, The Beatles still have no equal in record setting numbers, nor in the dynamic songs they produced. Numbers that have not been topped, half a decade later, and that may never be topped, even in the easy access industry of digital downloads. Of course, they were blessed to work with dynamic producers and state of the art equipment, which certainly helped their music thrive.
Of course, Jimmy Buffett has also listed the music of The Beatles as being instrumental in shaping his love of music as well, and being nearly the same age as Willis Alan Ramsey, with similar influences of country, folk and Texas music, it is no wonder that Jimmy found and admired Ramsey’s music, enough to record and place this song on an album of his own, when he could have continued to showcase his own songwriting talent. I think that indicates how strongly Jimmy felt about Willis Alan Ramsey’s music.
Not only did Jimmy record Ballad Of Spider John in 1974, but he also put it on his Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads collection that was released in 1992, with Ballad Of Spider John being one of the few songs that Jimmy did not write that made that four-disc collection. In the liner notes for this song, Jimmy writes, “Willis Alan Ramsey is one of the great Texas troubadours that has built a musical legacy. I think he is one of the best writers I have ever known, and I hope one day to hear that he has made another album.” It certainly seems that Jimmy both loved the song and admired the songwriter.
In an interview on The Paul Leslie Hour, when asked about the inspiration for The Ballad Of Spider John, Ramsey said that the song is a combination of several emotions and stories. It is about the feelings he had with his first real romance and his high school love interest, who he says is “Diamond Lill”, and also about his feelings about being a “loser guy” because that is about how he felt about himself, at least in regard to relationships. But another interesting influence was an experience he had while hitchhiking from Memphis to Nashville, when he was given a lift by “a real character”, who Ramsey reports was a drug runner, on his way back to New York from Mexico, where he was headed to sell his “stuff”. Ramsey wasn’t sure what the stuff was, but he describes himself and two others in the car as “scared stiff”, and that driver was his influence for Spider John in the song. He said he guessed the driver was lonely and just wanted some companionship for this illicit drive.
The song itself hints at a really interesting story, so hearing some of that backstory as inspiration gives the story even more depth. The song has always been mysterious sounding, with love followed by mistakes and then heartbreak, all wrapped up with a melody that seems to vibrate through your mind and membranes. The lyrics also paint a quite colorful and captivating picture, even if you are quite sure what is being referenced. It’s a song of regret tied to the knowledge that no matter what happened, the way is forward, even if that way is lonely and tinged with regret.
“This is all my story, It’s been these thirty years since I took to the road, To find my precious jewel one, If you see my Lilly, won’t you give her my regards? Tell her ol’ Spider got tangled in the black web that he spun…”
“You can tell her ol’ Spider got tangled in the black web that he spun…”
I think Jimmy Buffett does a beautiful job with this cover and I think he did an absolutely soulful job when recording it. And while it is not one of Jimmy’s more well-known songs, he has played it live on multiple occasions over the course of his career, even after he was filling arenas full of fans dressed like pirates and parrots and shakers of salt. Jimmy’s fans that knew his music well enough to appreciate that longevity and history from Jimmy’s early career, appreciated when he would perform this song. And a song that is tied to great characters like Spider John and Diamond Lill, which actually bring to mind some old western love story gone wrong, and even if that is not what inspired Willis Alan Ramsey to write the song, I think a song such as this, no matter who sings it, what we do know about the inspiration, still leaves quite a bit of the songs story and meaning up to the imagination of the listener because there is still so much we do not know…
And that is a great indicator of a well written song.
“’Spider John’ is my name, friend, I’m in between freights and I sure would be obliged, If you’d share your company…”
Stacy
Please enjoy Ballad Of Spider John. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
Other links of interest:
Before Margaritaville: Jimmy Buffett’s Outlaw Country Underground Years (udiscovermusic.com)
Remembering Willis Alan Ramsey’s Seminal (and Sole) Album – Texas Monthly
Lost Albums: Willis Alan Ramsey “Willis Alan Ramsey” – Americana UK (americana-uk.com)
Willis Alan Ramsey tells the saga of THE album (thomasconner.info)
“Lyle Lovett and Willis Alan Ramsey in Conversation and Song”—A Review – THE PAUL LESLIE HOUR
