Week 34: I’ll Fly Away



Pink Anderson

The Man

Pink Anderson is a fairly unknown Piedmont guitarist from South Carolina who was the major influence on the Spartanburg blues scene. A veteran of the travelling medicine shows of the 1920’s and 30’s, Pink was recorded in the 20’s and later found a little fame in the blues revival of the 1950’s and 60’s. His is most famous as the source of the “Pink” in “Pink Floyd” after Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd’s original singer and guitarist, found his and Floyd Council’s names in an anthology of Piedmont guitarists.

Pinkney Anderson was born on February 12, 1900, in Laurens, South Carolina, the home town of the legendary Rev. Gary Davis, born just 4 years before Pink. His family moved around the area – Greenville and Spartanburg (where Pink made his home) – working as itinerant farm hands. Around age 10 Pink was given a guitar and bashed away at it in open tunings.

At age 14 he joined Dr William Kerr’s ‘Indian Remedy Company’ as a buck dancer – dancing while Kerr tried to sell snake oil to the crowds. Pink loved the travelling entertainer life style, and before long he was performing as a singer and dancer in various travelling medicine shows like Kerr’s such as Leo “Chief Thundercloud” Kahdot’s medicine show.

In Spartanburg in 1917 he met a blind guitarist named Simeon Dooley but better known as Blind Simmie. Blind Simmie was a very good guitarist and despite being 20 years older than the young Pink, he took him under his wing and taught Pink all he knew. The area had a thriving blues scene with Gary Davis, Willie Walker, Sam Brooks and Josh White all regularly jamming together. Pink and Simmie were frequently seen on Spartanburg’s street corners performing as a duet when Pink wasn’t travelling with a medicine show. Simmie was a very good guitarist, rated by Gary Davis as up there with Willie Walker as the best pre-war country blues guitarist, and Pink was taught in this tradition.

On April 14, 1928, in Atlanta Georgia, the two were recorded by Columbia. They recorded 4 sides which were quite successful, especially the duet “Every Day in the Week Blues” with both singing and Pink playing rhythm to Simmie’s lead guitar. Columbia was encouraged with Pink’s singing and playing, and invited him to record further the following year. Loyal to his friend, however, Pink refused to record without Simmie and it was a further two decades before he would be recorded again.

Pink returned to the travelling medicine circuit and met a young harmonica player named Arthur ‘Sam’ Jackson and taught him the ropes of the medicine shows. A year or so after that met, Sam lost a leg after being hit by a train while hoboing, and adopted the nickname “Peg Leg Sam”. Pink and Peg Leg Sam frequently played together in the medicine shows.

Back in the Spartanburg and Greenville area, Pink was at the centre of the next generation of the blues scene. He was mentoring musicians like Peg Leg Sam and Baby Tate. In 1950, the musician and Folklorist Paul Clayton recorded Pink at the Virginia State Fair. These recordings were released as half of an Album also featuring Gary Davis titled “Rev. Gary Davis and Pink Anderson: American Street Songs” in 1961.

The blues revival was in full swing by the time the record was released, and the record produced a lot of interest in Pink’s music. Sam Charters, the musical historian and producer whose recordings introduced Lightnin’ Hopkins to the world, tracked Pink down to Spartanburg and recorded him on April 12, 1961. The recordings were released as “Pink Anderson: Vol. 1 Carolina Bluesman”.

Sam Charters returned in August and recorded another album with Pink accompanied by Baby Tate – “Pink Anderson: Carolina Medicine Show Hokum & Blues with Baby Tate”. The following two years more recordings and albums followed: “Pink Anderson: Vol. 2 Medicine Show Man” and “The Blues Of Pink Anderson: Ballad & Folksinger, Vol. 3”.

The three volumes recorded by Charters show that Pink is probably best remembered as a ‘songster’ rather than a bluesman. The blues were only part of a diverse repertoire, although the blues that Blind Simmie taught him 40 years earlier is evident in every song he played.

Pink played a few gigs and folk festivals in the early sixties, but a stroke in the mid 60’s ended his public performing. Folklorist Peter B. Lowry attempted to record Pink in 1970, but the recordings were never finished. Guitarist Roy Book Binder, who idolised Pink, met him in 1970 and organised a ‘farewell’ tour, playing when Pink was unable. In 1973, Book Binder’s first album was named “Travelling Man” in honour of Pink.

Pink Anderson died of a heart attack on October 12, 1974 and is buried in Lincoln Memorial Gardens in Spartanburg. His son, Little Pink Anderson, continued in his father’s footsteps and is a bluesman based out of South Dakota.

The Song

“I’ll Fly Away” is probably the most popular gospel song ever written. Originally written as a hymn in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932, it quickly became a standard at church services of numerous denominations. It has been recorded many times, with a few million selling versions in the 40’s, but perhaps the most famous is the recording by Gillian Welch and Allison Krause for the ‘O Brother Where Art Thou?’ soundtrack in 2000, which sold 8 million copies, topped various charts and won a Grammy Award.

Pink’s version is a simplified 8 bar blues in the key of D played in dropped D tuning (tune your low E down to a D). It is predominantly based around a standard open D chord with changes to the V chord, G, but due to the tuning you play the G with a B bass on the 2nd fret A string. Play D for 4 bars, G for 2 then back to D for the last 2, throw in some 7th chords for variation. The verses and chorus are very similar.

Pink uses two common Piedmont techniques – the alternating bass line and the ‘boom – chick rhythm with the standard blues shuffle. He alternates the bass between the two D strings, and riffs in the bass on the G chords. As stated, he drops in 7th chords occasionally. To get it to sound right, really concentrate on the boom-chick sound – either by down strumming slightly muted strings or plucking them staccato fashion on the ‘chick’ beats.



The Lyrics

D D7 Some glad morning when this worrying life is over G D I will fly away D D7 D Now, when I die, Hallelujah by and by G D I will fly away Chorus D D7 Let me tell you I will fly away G D Yes I will fly away D D7 D When I die Hallelujah by and by G D G7 I will fly away Just a few more worried days and then I will fly away Onto a happy world where joy will never end Let me tell you I will fly away Oh yes I will fly away When I die Hallelujah by and by I will fly away Just remember I will fly away Oh yes I will fly away Oh when I die Hallelujah by and by I will fly away Some glad morning when this worrying life is over I will fly away Like a bird when those prison bars is broken I will fly away Everybody now I will fly away Oh yes I will fly away When I die Hallelujah by and by I will fly away

The Intro



$5./2 $5./2 | $6.3 $4.0.$3.0.$2.0 $5.0 $3.2 $4.2.$3.2.$2.2 | $6.0.$2.3 $4.0.$3.2.$2.3 $6.3 $5.0 1 3 4 | $4.0.$2.3 $4.0.$3.0h2 $2.3 $6.0 $3.2 $4.0.$3.2.$2.3 | The intro introduces the boom -chick and alternating bass, and has a tricky little bass run. It also has the quick hammeron on the G string to D chord that is used throughout the piece.

The Progression