"Crosscut Saw", or "Cross Cut Saw Blues" as it was first called, is a bawdy blues song "that must have belonged to the general repertoire of the Delta blues". The song was first released in 1941 by Mississippi bluesman Tommy McClennan

Tommy McClennan

Tommy McClennan was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist.-Life and career:McClennan was born on a farm near Yazoo City, Mississippi, United States, and grew up in the town...

 and has since been interpreted by many blues artists. "Crosscut Saw" became an early R&B chart hit for Albert King

Albert King

Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...

, "who made it one of the necessary pieces of modern blues".

Original song

Tommy McClennan's "Cross Cut Saw Blues" is a Delta-style blues, which McClennan sings and plays acoustic guitar with an unknown player providing imitation bass accompaniment. The lyrics are ripe with double-entendre:

Now, I'm a cross cut saw, drag me 'cross yo' log

I'm a cross cut saw, and drag me across yo' log

Babe, I'll cut yo' wood so easy, you can't help say "hot dog"

The song follows the classic twelve-bar blues progression, contrary to Big Bill Broonzy

Big Bill Broonzy

Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...

's characterization of McClennan's timing as "change from E to A to B when you feel like changing. Any time will do. Just close your eyes."

Tony Hollins version

Tony Hollins, a Mississippi bluesman and contemporary of Tommy McClennan, recorded a version of "Cross Cut Saw Blues" with similar lyrics on June 3, 1941, three months before McClennan. The song was not released at the time, but eventually appeared in 1992. In an interview, John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...

, who knew Tony Hollins, was asked "Well, did Tony Hollins or Tommy McClennan do it first? They both recorded it around the same time". Hooker responded "I think Tommy McClennan did it first". In the earlier days of the blues, it was not unusual for an unrecorded or unpublished song to be in the repertoire of several blues singers. In the folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 tradition, such songs were passed around and developed over an extended period of time without regards to ownership.

Albert King version

In 1966, Albert King

Albert King

Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...

 recorded his version calling it "Crosscut Saw". The same lyrics as McClennan's "Cross Cut Saw Blues" were used, except for two verses which were replaced by guitar solos. However, King uses a different arrangement based on an Afro-Cuban

Afro-Cuban

The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...

 rhythm pattern, similar to that of his 1962 song "I Get Evil". Backing King is the Stax Records

Stax Records

Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...

' house band, Booker T. & the MG's. The song was a success, reaching #34 in the Billboard R&B chart. It was included on King's Born Under a Bad Sign

Born Under a Bad Sign

-Album reissues:In 1998 Sundazed Records reissued the album with two additional bonus tracks, namely the rare mono single sides "Funk-Shun" and "Overall Junction", both written by Albert King...

album, which "became one of the most popular and influential blues albums of the late '60s". The song remained in his repertoire throughout his career and several live versions were issued.

In 1964, R. G. Ford, a Memphis attorney, produced a single of "Cross Cut Saw" by a local group, the Binghamton Blues Boys, on his own East Side Records. The single was only distributed in Memphis. Although the single credits the song to "Group", it is Ford's (who died in the late '60s) name (and sometimes the group members' names) that appear on Albert King's (and some other) releases.

Other versions

A variety of blues and other musicians have recorded "Crosscut Saw", including Johnny Young (1966 from the album Johnny Young and his Chicago Blues Band); Earl Hooker

Earl Hooker

Earl Hooker was an American Chicago blues guitarist, perhaps best known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", Hooker performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker as well as fronting his own bands...

 (1970 Sweet Black Angel); Sam Chatmon

Sam Chatmon

Sam Chatmon was a Delta blues guitarist and singer. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks and may have been Charlie Patton's half brother.-Life and career:...

 (1970 Mississippi Sheik); Lonnie Brooks

Lonnie Brooks

Lonnie Brooks is an American blues singer and guitarist. He was born in Dubuisson, Louisiana, United States...

 (1975 Sweet Home Chicago); Eddie Taylor

Eddie Taylor

Eddie Taylor was an American electric blues guitarist and singer.-Biography:Born Edward Taylor in Benoit, Mississippi, United States, as a boy Taylor taught himself to play the guitar. He spent his early years playing at venues around Leland, Mississippi, where he taught his friend Jimmy Reed to...

 (1975 Ready for Eddie); Otis Rush

Otis Rush

Otis Rush is a blues musician, singer and guitarist. His distinctive guitar style features a slow burning sound and long bent notes...

 (1975 So Many Roads, released 1995); Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

 (1983 Money and Cigarettes

Money and Cigarettes

Money and Cigarettes is an Eric Clapton album, released in 1983. The memorable cover depicts Clapton, cigarette in hand, standing next to a melting Fender Stratocaster guitar. Eric Clapton named the album like this "because, that's all I saw myself having left." The single "I've Got a Rock 'n' Roll...

); R. L. Burnside

R. L. Burnside

Not to be confused with R. H. Burnside, stage director.R. L. Burnside , born Robert Lee Burnside, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist who lived much of his life in and around Holly Springs, Mississippi. He played music for much of his life, but did not receive much attention...

 (1992 Bad Luck City); Gary B.B. Coleman

Gary B.B. Coleman

Gary B.B. Coleman was an American soul blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer.Originally a local-musician turned-blues promoter and session musician, Coleman recorded his debut album in 1986, which was re-released on Ichiban Records...

 (1992 Too Much Weekend); Carey Bell

Carey Bell

Carey Bell was an American blues musician, who played the harmonica in the Chicago blues style. Bell played harmonica and bass for other blues musicians during the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s before embarking on a solo career...

 (1994 Harpster); Lurrie Bell

Lurrie Bell

Lurrie Bell is an American blues guitarist and singer. His father was renowned blues harmonica player, Carey Bell.-Career:...

 (1997 Young Man's Blues); Walter Horton (1999 Harp Legends, Vol. 1); Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...

 (2000 SRV); Johnny B. Moore

Johnny B. Moore

Johnny B. Moore is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a member of Koko Taylor's backing band in the mid 1970s, but has recorded nine solo albums since 1987...

 ( 2001 Born in Clarksdale Mississippi); Jimmy Johnson

Jimmy Johnson (blues guitarist)

Jimmy Johnson is an American blues guitarist and singer.-Biography:...

 and Luther Johnson (2001 Ma Bea's Rock); Homesick James

Homesick James

Homesick James was an American blues musician. He most notably played slide guitar, and recorded covers of "Stones In My Passway" and "Homesick"...

 (2007 Shake Your Money Maker); and Johnny Diesel

Johnny Diesel

Johnny Diesel is an Australian musician, who has released material as leader of Johnny Diesel & the Injectors, under his birth name, or by the epithet Diesel...

(2011 Under The Influence).