2:48
single, 1940
Written by Bukka White
This song is a prime example of prewar Chicago blues. I know the version from Bob Dylan's first album, which has many of the same lyrics but is as transformed as Led Zeppelin's reinventions of blues standards. This one is just an insistent bottleneck guitar riff with backing from Washboard Slim, a counterpoint to White's worn but forceful vocal. The lyrics circle familiar blues themes of death and loss, but without delving into melancholy. It's bleak but realistic, all motion, rhythm, and the stubborn insistence on going with dignity ("Mother take my children back, 'fore they let me down / I don't need for them to be screamin' and cryin' on the graveyard ground").
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