Thanks for preparing and posting the Sonny Jones cuts, Blues Vintage. He's a musician who has been under-represented on YouTube, and I was able to add those videos to the appropriate songs in the "Sonny Jones Lyrics" thread.

Hi all,
Guitar Shorty's "Workin' Hard" comes from his Trix album, "Alone In His Field", and he accompanied it in EAEGBE tuning as he did all of his songs. The song is pretty clearly improvised both instrumentally and lyrically, and he changes the form as he goes to suit the arrival of his ideas. I'd appreciate help with the bent bracketed passages and anything else I have wrong. Shorty was clearly aggrieved here and was seeking justice, musically at least. I suspect the scenario he outlines in the song was not at all uncommon. Here is "Workin' Hard":



I been working hard, just working hard
Working hard, I been working hard, for that
Man, gonna let me down

I been working hard, gonna let me down, sure gonna let me
Down, when I work, I
Can't get my pay, 'til I want it

I done worked all night, for my pay
Ain't this a crime, she left enough
I worked, though, and I'll work 'til the day I die

I work, I'm a working, working man
I'm a wor-, I'm a working, working man
When I started to workin' for the man, he don't want to give my pay
I gotta run that man down for to get my money

I gotta run that man down for to get my money
I gotta run, run that man, get my money
When I find that man, he's somewhere that's hidin' inn the bushes to hide from me
You better stop it, better stop it, your hiding from me

Look: One man told me last night, "Shorty, don't you need to worry,
You gonna have some money." As
Long as you live, a-don't you never, a-run and hide a man as long you live, don't you
Run, don't you run, behind that man

INTERLUDE

Don't you never, run behind man, for your money
I'm a-say, "And there's that man, I done begged him every night."
I said, "Mister, have my money, a-ready for payday."

He's gonna have my money for payday, I'm gonna stop that man as soon as I change, I done
Told that man, "Have my money, when I get there."

INTERLUDE

"Please now, mister, have my money, when I get there."

Look: I'm gon' tell you, a-what that man say,
"Shorty, you stay drunk all the time.", I said,
"You lied to me, yes you lied to me,
Lied to me, 'cause I don't stay drunk every day."

He said, "Where you get your money?", I said, "Don't you worry 'bout that!
Man, Good Lord above give me my money so I can have my strength,
That's my money! I say, that's my money!
Don't you worry 'bout that, 'cause Good Lord fixin' to get my money."

"You don't have to pay me nohow. You're gonna pay me some day.
You better watch out. Good Lord gon' pay me my money."

HUMMING (Spoken: Play it, Shorty, go on now. Yeah!)

And the Good Lord gonna take my life from me
You don't give me, don't a-pay you my money
He'll pay you my money, gon' pay my money, here's somebody goin' in the ground

I take my arm, use my arm go to work
I lift a hundred fertilize' bag, I lift it up and put in the truck
I kill myself for y'all, and y'all don't want to even pay my money
Come on, give me my money, 'fore y'all die

INTERLUDE

Don't want you give me my money, give me my money, afore I die

You can't give it to me, a-give it to my wife I love
Yes, give me my money, a-give it to my wife, I love

Y'all don't want to pay me my money, don't want to pay me my money nowhere

I'll get in the field, working just as hard as I can be
I'll get in the field, I'll work my money on out
You gon' tell me some lie, and there sure, Guitar Shorty, Good God, some lyin'

You done lie to me! You just a-lyin' to me!
You're just a-lyin' to me. You're just a-lyin' to me (Spoken: Aww, ain't that somethin', go on, boy!)
You just a-lyin' to me, Guitar Shorty ain't lyin' to nobody else.

INTERLUDE (Spoken: Yeah! Go on, boy! All right)

CODA (Spoken: Guitar Shorty)

Edited 5/8 to pick up corrections from Blues Vintage, banjochris and Johnm

All best,
Johnm 

 



 


 

 
 

Thanks Lindy, no wonder, I completely misread the post!  Lol.

It's hell to grow old.   

I had not heard these.  What a surprise!  Not that BBF and other blues musicians would do country tunes, they played to an audience, but that the quality of his voice is so different - very country.  (At least to my ears, maybe I'm hearing things)

From Wikipedia, so take it with the appropriate grain of salt. If you find more details about him, please share:


"Philip McCutchen (February 14, 1910 – October 7, 1964),[1] credited on his records as The Cedar Creek Sheik, was an American hokum and blues singer and guitarist who recorded in the 1930s.

McCutchen was born in Suttons, Williamsburg County, South Carolina, near to Cedar Creek. Little is known of his life. His only recordings, of which ten tracks were issued, were made in Charlotte, North Carolina for Bluebird Records, on June 15, 1936. Several of his recordings, including "Buy It From the Poultry Man (Cock For Sale)" and "I Believe Somebody's Ridin' My Mule", were bawdy examples of hokum music, while others mention local situations and personalities. He sang in a "high, almost expressionless" voice, sometimes employing a yodel. Though some critics have thought him to be a white rather than black performer,[2] he is recorded as of "negro" race in census records.[3][4]

McCutchen died at 7:55am on October 7, 1964.[1]"


"Buy It From the Poultry Man" might make Bo Carter blush.

L

Thanks for preparing those Cedar Creek Sheik cuts, Blues Vintage. I don't know if anybody else feels this way, but the fact that those recordings ever happened makes me happy. They always put a smile on my face.
All best,
Johnm