It’s Friday the 13th and I’m hoping for a little luck. “On Friday, October 13, 1307, the French rounded up thousands of Knights Templars and tortured them as heretics. Some believe the date of this massacre sparked our modern-day association of Friday the 13th with bad luck.” I’ve learned all about the Knights Templars from the History Channel series, Curse of Oak Island. The Lagina brothers haven’t had much luck in their quest to find the supposed treasure buried on the island. Nine seasons have now passed with preparations for Season Ten. In the meantime, shows like Lost Gold of the Aztecs and Skinwalker Ranch try to capture my attention without much luck. 

“If it wasn’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have no luck at all” is the key lyric behind the song “Born Under A Bad Sign.” The words were written by Stax Records rhythm and blues singer William Bell with music by Stax bandleader Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. & the M.G.’s). Bell recalled, “We needed a blues song for Albert King … I had this idea in the back of my mind that I was gonna do myself. Astrology and all that stuff was pretty big then. I got this idea that [it] might work.” The lyrics describe “hard luck and trouble” tempered by “wine and women”, with wordplay in the chorus in the turnaround:

Born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl
If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all

Lightnin’ Slim’s 1954 swamp blues song “Bad Luck Blues” contains some similar lyrics:

Lord, if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all (2×)
You know bad luck has been followin’ poor Lightnin’, ever since I began to crawl

“Born Under a Bad Sign” reached number 49 on Billboard magazine’s Top Selling R&B singles chart. It was later included on his first album for Stax, also titled Born Under a Bad Sign. The album’s cover depicts images of “bad luck signs” or common superstitions, including a black cat, a Friday the 13th calendar page, skull and crossbones, ace of spades, and snake eyes. 

British rock group Cream recorded “Born Under a Bad Sign” for their third album, Wheels of Fire (1968). The group’s record company, which also distributed Stax records, requested that they record it, according to guitarist Eric Clapton. Cream’s rendition follows Albert King’s, except for bassist and singer Jack Bruce combining two verses into “I’ve been down ever since I was ten” and an extended guitar solo by Clapton. Musicologist Robert Palmer described Clapton’s playing as “practically Albert King parodies”.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – have a Lucky Friday!