'Just exactly where we're going, I cannot say' Print

I'm going up the country Baby, don't you wanna go? I'm going up the country Baby, don't you wanna go? We gonna go somewhere Where I've never been before I'm going, I'm going Where the water tastes like wine I'm going Where the water tastes like wine So we can jump in the water Stay drunk all the time Come on now Ricky I'm gonna leave this city Got to get away I'm gonna leave this city Got to get away Well, all this fussing and fighting Man, you know I sure can't stay Now baby, pack your leaving trunk 'Cause we've got to leave today Just exactly where we're going, I cannot say We might even leave the U.S.A. 'Cause I gotta a brand new game I wanna play Come on Walter now No use of you running Or screaming and crying 'Cause you've got a home As long as I've got mine Oh, you know you do ‘Going Up the Country’ by Canned Heat Songwriter: Alan Wilson "Going Up the Country" (also Goin' Up the Country) is a song adapted and recorded by American blues rock band Canned Heat. Called a "rural hippie anthem", it became one of the band's biggest hits and best-known songs. As with their previous single, "On the Road Again", the song was adapted from a 1920s blues song and sung in a countertenor-style by Alan Wilson. Canned Heat, who were early blues enthusiasts, based "Going Up the Country" on "Bull Doze Blues", recorded in 1928 by Texas bluesman Henry Thomas. Thomas was from the songster tradition and had a unique sound, sometimes accompanying himself on quills, an early Afro-American wind instrument similar to panpipes. He recorded "Bull Doze Blues" in Chicago on June 13, 1928, for Vocalion Records. For "Going Up the Country", Canned Heat's Wilson used Thomas' melody on the quills and his basic rhythm, but arranged it for a rock setting and rewrote the lyrics. In addition to the bass and drum rhythm section, Henry Vestine supplied a "light electric rhythm guitar" and multi-instrumentalist Jim Horn reproduced Thomas' quill parts on the flute. Although linked to the counterculture of the 1960s' back-to-the-land movement, Wilson's lyrics are ambiguous, leading some to suggest they were about evading the draft during the Vietnam War by moving to Canada: Now, baby, pack your leaving trunk, you know we've got to leave today Just exactly where we're going, I cannot say, but we might even leave the U.S.A. 'Cause there's a brand new game that I don't wanna play Canned Heat is an American blues and rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The group has been noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Canned Heat Blues", a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called "canned heat", from the original 1914 product name Sterno Canned Heat, After appearances at the Monterey and Woodstock festivals at the end of the 1960s, the band acquired worldwide fame with a lineup consisting of Hite (vocals), Wilson (guitar, harmonica and vocals), Henry Vestine and later Harvey Mandel (lead guitar), Larry Taylor (bass), and Adolfo de la Parra (drums). The music and attitude of Canned Heat attracted a large following and established the band as one of the popular acts of the hippie era. Canned Heat appeared at most major musical events at the end of the 1960s, performing blues standards along with their own material and occasionally indulging in lengthy 'psychedelic' solos. Two of their songs — "Going Up the Country" and "On the Road Again" — became international hits. "Going Up the Country" was a remake of the Henry Thomas song "Bull Doze Blues", recorded in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1927. "On the Road Again" was a remake of the 1953 Floyd Jones song of the same name, which is reportedly based on the Tommy Johnson song "Big Road Blues", recorded in 1928. Since the early 1970s, numerous personnel changes have occurred. For much of the 1990s and 2000s and following Larry Taylor's death in 2019, de la Parra has been the only member from the band's 1960s lineup. He wrote a book about the band's career, titled Living the Blues. Mandel, Walter Trout and Junior Watson are among the guitarists who gained fame for playing in later editions of the band. Source: Wikipedia