See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"
Single by Blind Lemon Jefferson
B-side	"Where Shall I Be"
Released	1927
Format	10" 78 rpm record
Recorded	October 1927
Genre	Blues
Length	2:54
Label	Paramount (Cat. no. 12585)
Writer(s)	Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson singles chronology
"One Dime Blues"/ "Gone Dead on You" (1927) "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (1927) "Lonesome House Blues"/ "Sunshine Special" (1927)

"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" is a blues song recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1927 that became "one of his most famous compositions".^[1] Son House used the melody on his 1930 recording of "Mississippi County Farm Blues".^[2]

Bob Dylan recorded the song for his 1962 debut album Bob Dylan. He recorded it again with the Band, which is included on The Basement Tapes.

Other artists to cover the song include B. B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins (as "One Kind Favor"), Canned Heat (as "One Kind Favor" on Living the Blues), the Grateful Dead, Mike Bloomfield, Keiji Haino, Diamanda Galás, Meindert Talma & the Negroes, Laibach, Lou Reed, Furry Lewis, Chrome Cranks, the Dream Syndicate, Dave Van Ronk, Hobart Smith, Mavis Staples, Martin Simpson, Thelonious Monster and Widespread Panic. Staples' version of the song from her 2015 album Your Good Fortune won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance.^[3]

The British band Half Man Half Biscuit recorded a parody titled "See That My Bike's Kept Clean" on their 1997 album Voyage to the Bottom of the Road. Pat Donohue performed this song as "One Kind Favor" live on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion”. It was later released on Donohue's CD Radio Blues.

References

1. Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. p. 469. ISBN 1-55728-252-8.
2. Obrecht, Jas. Son House's Deep Mississippi Delta Blues. Jas Obrecht Music Archive. Retrieved 5-13-11
3. Mavis Staples Earns Best Roots Performance at 2016 Grammy Awards. the Boot. Retrieved 2-15-16