![]() The tango-like rhythm is notated as a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth note and two quarter notes, with no slurs or ties. The form is unusual in that the verses are the now-familiar standard twelve-bar blues in common time with three lines of lyrics, the first two lines repeated, but it also has a 16-bar bridge written in the habanera rhythm, popularly called the " Spanish tinge" and characterized by Handy as tango. The original published sheet music is available online from the United States Library of Congress in a searchable database of African-American music from Brown University. At the time of his death in 1958, Handy was earning royalties of upwards of US$25,000 annually for the song (equivalent to about $200,000 in 2016). ![]() The song was a massive and enduring success. Louis in 1892: "It had numerous one-line verses and they would sing it all night." Handy's autobiography recounts his hearing the tune in St. Louis distraught over her husband's absence, who lamented, "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea", a key line of the song. Handy said he had been inspired by a chance meeting with a woman on the streets of St. ![]()
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