The Soundboard: .32-20 Edition

As you might guess from the title, I have a soft spot for the .32-20. There’s a very nice article on the cartridge and on .32-20 revolvers generally in the 2003 Gun Digest.  

Here’s a nice-looking Smith in .32-20:    A couple of years ago I bought my S&W large-frame 1917 in .45 ACP with the sweet old long double action. About a month later, a medium-frame Smith in .32-20 with the same long action — just like the above pic, but blued — showed up in my gunsmith’s  shop, on consignment, for about $250. Stupidly, I hemmed and hawed about buying it, because nobody makes decent factory loads anymore for the .32-20, and it’s notoriously a pain to reload — and in the meantime, somebody else walked away with the gun. Would have made a nice companion to my .45 Smith. Ah, regrets. So now I just listen to the songs and think about what might have been….

Ah yes, the songs. While the Kid’s away, we’ll step away from the techno for a bit. Since this is a gun blog from time to time, let’s check out a classic American gun song: the 32-20 Blues.

This one’s a war song, and it’s got some great lines, too:

Give me a .32-20, built on a .45 frame….
And a red white and blue flag, a-wavin’ in my hand.
 
When I go down, with that red white and blue flag in my hand….
You can bet your life poor Johnny, well I sure took many men.

(The reference to a “.45 frame” is the good old Colt SAA.

Here’s a good article discussing the .32-20 versions of the Colt SAA.)

 

On the other hand, it ends up an anti-war song, with the last lines: 

Uncle Sam ain’t no woman, baby, but he sure can take your man….
And he’s got me in the service, doin’ things I just can’t understand.

That’s John Hammond singing this week’s selection, and a fine job he does of it too.

Now, I had a bit of a choice between two evils this week, because there are at least two songs by this title, and both have their flaws. The legendary Robert Johnson’s .32-20 Blues (according to one source, “inspired” by Skip James’ .25-20 Blues, which in turn was “inspired” by Roosevelt Sykes’ .44 Blues) is an entirely different song, and has some great lines expounding on the superiority of the high-velocity .32-20 over the then-staid .38 Special round (modern +Ps are a different matter). 

Got a .38 Special, boys, it do very well…. But the .32-20, it’s a burnin’ hell. 

And it probably was, too, considering that many folks seem to have loaded up their .32-20 revolvers with .32-20 rifle cartridges at much higher pressures. Big ol’ impressive fireballs, kind of like a .30 Carbine in a handgun. Blew up their guns, on occasion, too. Burnin’ hell, indeed! 

Unfortunately, Johnson’s song is also a misogynistic rant about murdering a woman just because she wouldn’t follow directions:  

I send for my baby, man, and she don’t come…
All the doctors in Hot Springs sure can’t help her none.

If she gets unruly, things she don’t wanna do…
Take my .32-20, boy, cut her half in two.

Ooo-kay! Now, that disquieting subject matter wouldn’t necessarily eliminate Johnson’s song from Soundboard consideration. It’s the blues, after all; it’s supposed to be dark! And even among blues lyrics, these are pretty damn dark.

The real problem with Johnson’s version, and the reason I posted Hammond’s instead, despite its “ironic” patriotism (snort), is that everybody (Johnson included) seems to play Johnson’s .32-20 Blues as if it were a happy jazzy party tune. That’s just musically wrong! The opening lines demand to be snarled over a mean, snapping guitar. Kind of like John Hammond does.

Anybody knows an appropriately growly rendition of Johnson’s original tune, please let me know. In the meantime, enjoy Hammond’s artistry; ignore the song’s politics.