Wade in the Water

Should kids be wading
If God troubles the waters?
Songwriter says yes.

Here's a spiritual-style song that was recorded in 1961 and released on a live performance compilation in 2001.

Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water

Well, who are these children all dressed in red?
God's a-gonna trouble the water
Must-a-be the children that Moses led
God's a-gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water

Well out of the mountain come fire an' smoke
God's a-gonna trouble the water
Jehovah nobody but he could've spoke
God's a-gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water

Well, I'm walkin' down the highway an' the water's gettin' low
God's a-gonna trouble the water
Walkin' down the highway, nowhere to go
God's a-gonna trouble the water

But it's wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water
God's a-gonna trouble the water

This Land Is Your Land

This land is our land,
Never mind what the records
At City Hall say.

This is one of Woody Guthrie's most famous folk songs. Bob Dylan's version appears in volume seven of the Bootleg Series, which is the soundtrack for the Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan, "No Direction Home." In this recording, he does not sing the two lines about Guthrie's disdain for private property and his line of doubt about the USA being for everyone when he sees people waiting in bread lines.

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island; 
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters 
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway, 
I saw above me that endless skyway: 
I saw below me that golden valley: 
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps 
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts; 
And all around me a voice was sounding: 
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling, 
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, 
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: 
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there 
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." 
But on the other side it didn't say nothing, 
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, 
By the relief office I seen my people; 
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking 
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me, 
As I go walking that freedom highway; 
Nobody living can ever make me turn back 
This land was made for you and me.

Man on the Street

Man dies in the street.
A cop kicks his corpse one time.
Tough city, New York.

I understand from Eyolf Ostrem on the Dylanchords.info website that the music to this song came from a song called "Young man who wouldn't hoe corn." The lyrics come straight from the heart of New York City. The song appeared in 1991, 30 years after its recording, on the first edition of the Bootleg Series.

Well I'll sing you a song, ain't very long,
'Bout an old man who never done wrong.
How he died nobody can say,
They found him dead in the street one day.
Well, the crowd, they gathered one fine morn,
At the man whose clothes 'n' shoes were torn.
There on the sidewalk he did lay,
They stopped 'n' stared and they went their way.
Well, the p'liceman come and he looked around,
"Get up, old man, or I'm a-takin' you down."
He jabbed him once with his bully club,
the old man then rolled off the curb.
Well, he jabbed him again and loudly said:
"Call the wagon; this man is dead."
The wagon come, they loaded him in,
I never saw the man again.
I've sung you my song, it ain't very long,
'Bout an old man who never done wrong.
How he died no body could say,
They found him dead in the street one day.

I Was Young When I Left Home

He rambled while young.
While boozing, he hears Mom died,
But he can't go home.

Bob Dylan recorded this song on the famous and widely bootlegged "Minnesota Hotel Tape" on December 22, 1961, in Minneapolis. It made its first commercial appearance in volume 7 of the Bootleg Series, the soundtrack album to Martin Scorsese's 2005 documentary on Dylan, "No Direction Home." It's a story about just what you think. 

- Guy leaves home, never writes to his parents.
- Collects his pay, runs into a guy who tells him his mother's dead and his sister's "all gone wrong," and dad needs him home immediately.
- He doesn't have enough money, clothes and, apparently, reputation to do this.
- You can gauge how far he is from home by the sound of the train whistle.
- He needs to pay his debt to the commissary, pawn his watch and chain, and go home.
- He misses his mother. He doesn't like being out in the windy plains, even though he thought he would before he went out roaming.

House Carpenter

Woman leaves family,
Misses kids. Demon lover
Takes her straight to hell.

"House Carpenter" isn't so different from a million other spooky songs from the British Isles, but I've always thought this one was pretty frightening. The original title of this Scottish ballad is "The Daemon Lover," and is also known as "James Harris" or "James Herries."

Naturally, it is a cautionary tale for married women who might be considering their options. As the original title page went from the 17th century: A Warning for Married Women, being an example of Mrs Jane Reynolds (a West-country woman), born near Plymouth, who, having plighted her troth to a Seaman, was afterwards married to a Carpenter, and at last carried away by a Spirit, the manner how shall be presently recited.

The story: A man returns to his former lover. She's married to a carpenter and has one or more babies. He convinces her to run off with him to Italy. They board a ship and sail out to sea. She misses her children and regrets her action. Then she spies two coasts. One is bright and beautiful. The other is dark and frightening. She asks which coasts they are and her lover tells her. He lets her know that they're bound for the worse of the two options. At that point, she discovers that he is a demon or the devil or some other malevolent supernatural force. He destroys the ship and she dies, sunk at the bottom of the sea.

Here are the lyrics that Dylan used. His recording from 1961 appears on the first volume of the Bootleg Series, which was released in 1991. He recorded another version nearly a decade later during his sessions for the Self Portrait album. That one appears on Volume 10 of the Bootleg Series, called "Another Self Portrait."

Well met, well met, my own true love
Well met, well met, cried she
I've just returned from the salt, salt sea
And it's all for the love of thee

I could have married a King's daughter there
She would have married me
But I have forsaken my King's daughter there
It's all for the love of thee

Well, if you could have married a King's daughter there
I'm sure you're the one to blame
For I am married to a house carpenter
And I'm sure he's a fine young man

Forsake, forsake your house carpenter
And come away with me
I'll take you where the green grass grows
On the shores of sunny Italy

So up she picked her babies three
And gave them kisses, one, two, three
Saying "take good care of your daddy while I'm gone
And keep him good company."

Well, they were sailin' about two weeks
I'm sure it was not three
When the younger of the girls, she came on deck
Sayin' she wants company

"Well, are you weepin' for your house and home?
Or are you weepin' for your babies three?"
"Well, I'm not weepin' for my house carpenter
I'm weepin' for my babies three."

Oh what are those hills yonder, my love
They look as white as snow
Those are the hill of heaven, my love
You and I'll never know

Oh what are those hills yonder, my love
They look as dark as night
Those are the hills of hell-fire my love
Where you and I will unite

Oh twice around went the gallant ship
I'm sure it was not three
When the ship all of a sudden, it sprung a leak
And it drifted to the bottom of the sea

Dink's Song (Fare Thee Well)

Man knocks up woman.
He used to want her a lot,
But not anymore.

"Dink's Song," better known as "Fare Thee Well," gained some prominence in recent years after it made an appearance in the Coen Brothers movie "Inside Llewyn Davis." It provided apt accompaniment (and echoed the plot) to the sour, depressing film, about a selfish folk singer in Manhattan in the 1960s who was good enough to hold his own, but fell short of the greatness he thought he deserved. The music is bright, but the lyrics are longing. It's about a woman whose lover leaves her when he makes her pregnant. Not only does he abandon his responsibility, he loses his interest in her when the pregnancy makes her unattractive in his eyes:


Once I wore
My apron low
Couldn’t keep you
Away from my door
Fare thee well, my honey
Fare thee well

Now my apron
Is up to my chin
You pass my door
But you never come in
Fare thee well, my honey
Fare thee well

... and then:

Fastest man
I ever saw
Skipped Missouri
On the way to Arkansas
Fare thee well, my honey
Fare thee well

You can find Dylan's version on volume 7 of the Bootleg Series.

Cocaine Blues

Cocaine's bad for you,

causes trouble, makes you sick.

Try a little more.

There must be a bottomless barrel of songs about cocaine use in the pop and blues worlds. "Cocaine Blues," which Bob Dylan performed in 1961 and 1962, and again in 1997 on the Aug. 24th show at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia (a show that I attended, so I remember this song well), is a song with endless variations too. There are more recordings out there of Dylan doing this song in concert in the late 1990's, but the 1997 recording is available commercially on volume 8 of the Bootleg Series.

The Reverend Gary Davis popularized the song, and according to the Wikipedia entry, said he learned it in 1905 from a traveling carnival musician named Porter Irving. It spread through the folk scene where plenty of musicians including Dylan learned it. Possibly the biggest-selling cover of the song would be Jackson Browne's, which he recorded for the 1977 live album "Running on Empty."

The lyrics are straightforward about the drug being a big kick and a hell of a monkey to shake off your back. There are three sets of lyrics that Dylan sang for the song. I'll paste the 1997 lyrics here because they're short and get to the point:

Everytime my baby and me go up town
police come and they knock me down
Cocaine all around my brain

Hey baby, better come here quick.
This old cocaine is making me sick.
Cocaine all around my brain.

Yonder comes by baby, she's dressed in red
She's got a shot-gun, says she's gonna kill me dead.
Cocaine all around my brain

Early one morning, half past four
cocaine came knockin' on my door.
Cocaine all around my brain

Cocaine's for horses and it's not for men
Doctor said it kill you, but he don't say when.
Cocaine all around my brain.

Ain't No More Cane

Cutting cane’s hard work

For Texas prisoners on

The Brazos River.

This is an old prison work song about sugarcane cutters on the Brazos River in Texas. Dylan performed this in 1961 and 1962, and again during the Basement Tapes sessions in Saugerties, New York, with members of The Band, in 1967. The Band released its version of the song on the 1975 album "The Basement Tapes," in a considerably jauntier version than Dylan's recording, which is available on the limited edition "The 50th Anniversary Collection."

The lyrics of the song, which has been around for more than a century, judging by what I've been able to find on the Internet, are here. The first recorded version, according to this author, is from 1933. They're from the version that the Band did:

Ain't no more cane on the Brazos
Oh, oh, oh, oh...
Its all been ground down to molasses
Oh, oh- oh, oh- oh...

You shoulda been on the river in 1910
They were driving the women just like they drove the men.

Go down old Hannah, don'cha rise no more
Don't you rise up til judgment day's for sure

Ain't no more cane on the Brazos
Its all been ground down to molasses

Captain, don't you do me like you done poor old shine
Well ya drove that bully til he went stone blind

Wake up on a lifetime, hold up your own head
Well you may get a pardon and then you might drop dead

Ain't no more cane on the Brazos

Its all been ground down to molasses.