Motherless Child Blues

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Motherless Child Blues (1927)
by Barbecue Bob

First recorded by Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks in 1927; also known as "Motherless Chile Blues".

801202Motherless Child Blues1927Barbecue Bob

If I mistreat you gal, I sure don't mean no harm.
If I mistreat you gal, I sure don't mean no harm.
I'm a motherless child, and I don't know right from wrong.

Please tell me pretty mama, honey where you stay last night?
Tell me, pretty mama, Lord, honey where you stay last night?
You didn't come home 'til the sun was shining bright.

I have to go so far, to get my hambones boiled.
I have to go so far, gal, to get my hambones boiled.
These Atlanta women, won't let my hambones boiled.

I done done more for you, than your daddy ever done.
I did more for you gal, than you daddy ever done.
I give you my jelly, he ain't gives you none.

When you see two women, always running hand in hand.
When you see two women, always running hand in hand.
You can bet your bottom dollar, one's got the other one's man.

I'm going to the river, get me a tangled rocking chair.
I'm going to the river, get me a tangled rocking chair.
If the blues overtake me, I'm gonna rock away from there.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1931, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 92 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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