Talk:I'm So Glad

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This was actually originally recorded by Ida Cox, but nobody seems to have noticed.—Chowbok ☠ 00:45, 21 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It's not unusual for blues songs to have similar or identical titles, although they are different songs (or at least as different as the blues can get!). As mentioned in the article, "Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft notes 'This spiritual probably dates back to the beginning of the blues'[1]", but does not mention any specific predecessors. In his James biography, Calt writes about several earlier pop-style (for the time) songs that inspired James, but nothing about Cox. He goes on to call James' song "an ambitious rearrangement ... which comes across as neither a pop nor blues song, but something completely unique." [p. 322] Both Cox's and Lonnie Johnson's songs follow the typical 12-bar I–IV–V blues structure, while Calt identifies James' song as 8-bars, although he seems to drop/add beats here and there. Do you have any reliable sources that make a connection between James' and Cox's songs? —Ojorojo (talk) 17:08, 21 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It's not just the title (Harlem Hamfats also recorded a song called "I'm So Glad", which is clearly a different song). It's the structure and the lyrics, which are extremely close. I have a pretty large collection of acoustic blues recordings and I've not heard anything else that's really close to this. And in answer to your question, no, I don't have a reliable source for this claim, which is why I didn't put it in the article. This definitely qualifies as original research, but I figured that was okay for the talk page, at least.—Chowbok ☠ 03:08, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Many may not agree that they are "extremely close": 8-bar structure ≠ 12-bar and only the opening lines are similar. Also, Cox sings about getting her lover back ("I got my daddy back and all my cryin' days are through", etc.), which is why she's glad. James doesn't say why, but repeats "I'm so tired of moanin', tired of groanin', tired of moanin' for you" several times, which is missing in Cox's song. But as you say, it's all original research, so it's definitely not for the article. —Ojorojo (talk) 14:49, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]