Sittin' on Top of the World

You might think I care

That you left me. Believe me,

I can't be bothered.

This is a blues chestnut from the Mississippi Sheiks, recorded for the first time in 1930. It's about a guy who can't be bothered that his girlfriend left him. Why

1. Can get a woman as quickly as she can get a man.

2. He's not the begging kind so he won't ask for her back.

3. He's not into worrying or craving in vain.

4. He has plenty of work to do anyway.

You're Gonna Quit Me, Baby

Babe, if you leave me,
I'll kill you and go to jail.
You think I'm kidding?

"You're Gonna Quit Me, Baby" is a short, violent song of what most people would consider spousal abuse. It's by Blind Arthur Blake. Dylan's version appears on the 1992 covers album "Good As I Been to You."

You're gonna quit me, baby,
Good as I been to you, Lawd, Lawd.
Good as I been to you, Lawd, Lawd.
Good as I been to you.

Give you my money, honey,
Buy you shoes and clothes, Lawd, Lawd.

You're gonna quit me, baby,
Put me outta doors, Lawd, Lawd.

Six months on the chain gang,
Believe me, it ain't no fun, Lawd, Lawd.

Day you quit me, baby,
That's the day you die, Lawd, Lawd.

Jailhouse ain't no plaything,
Believe me, ain't no lie, Lawd, Lawd.

Day you quit me, baby,
That's the day you die, Lawd, Lawd.

Tomorrow Night

You loved me tonight.
But I'm beginning to doubt
If you will later.

This is one of the greatest songs I’ve ever heard. Elvis Presley’s version is the one you know best, but the song was written in 1939 by Sam Coslow and Will Grosz. Bob Dylan’s version, which was included on the 1992 album “Good As I Been to You,” positively aches with melancholy tenderness. Despite his croak of a voice, you can hear the heat and lust and the confusion and anticipation in the loss that you know the narrator is going to feel once he discovers that last night was last night and that’s all there’s going to be, as Eve Kendall put it in “North by Northwest.” The simplicity of Dylan’s arrangement -- live, solo performance with guitar -- echoes Presley’s spare arrangement, and heightens the impact of the words.

Tomorrow night
Will you remember what you said tonight?
Tomorrow night
Will all thrills be gone?

Tomorrow night
Will it be just another memory
Or just another lovely song
That's in my full heart to linger on?

Your lips are so tender
Your heart is beatin' fast
And you're willin' to surrender
Tell me darlin', will it last?

Step It Up and Go

She used to love him,
But she stepped it up and went.
That's what he does too.

Originally called "Bottle Up and Go" and "Step It Up and Go." It's an old blues song frmo the 1930s. The version that most people seem to refer to online is Blind Boy Fuller's, though I see that John Lee Hooker has done it too. Bob Dylan's version appears on the 1992 album "Good As I Been to You."

Got a little girl, little and low,
She used to love me but she don't no more.
She gotta step it up and go-Yeah, go.
Can't stand pat, swear you gotta step it up and go.

Got a little girl, she stays upstairs,
Make a livin' by puttin' on airs.
Gotta step it up and go-Yeah, man.
Can't stand pat, swear you gotta step it up and go.

Front door shut, back door too,
Blinds pulled down, what' cha gonna do?
Gotta step it up and go-Yeah, go.
Can't stand pat, swear you gotta step it up and go.

Got a little girl, her name is Ball,
Give a little bit, she took it all.
I said step it up and go-Yeah, man.
Can't stand pat, swear you gotta step it up and go.

Me an' my baby walkin' down the street,
Tellin' everybody 'bout the chief of police.
Gotta step it up and go-Yeah, go.
Can't stand pat, swear you gotta step it up and go.

Tell my woman I'll see her at home,
Ain't no lovin' since she been gone.
Gotta step it up and go-Yeah, go.
Can't stand pat, swear you gotta step it up and go.

Well, I'll sing this verse, ain't gonna sing no more,
Hear my gal call me and I got to go.
Step it up and go-Yeah, man.
Can't stand pat, swear you gotta step it up and go.

Little Maggie

Gun-toting Maggie
Dropped me for another man.
I left, she's drinking.

I don't know much about "Little Maggie," but found a blog run by someone named Richard Matteson who says that it's a "white blues" song from the isolated mountains and hollows of rural Virginia. Judging by the lyrics, she's a catch for men who enjoy hard-drinking women who shoot guns. Bob Dylan recorded this song for the 1992 album "Good As I Been to You."

Oh, where is little Maggie
Over yonder she stands,
Rifle on her shoulder,
Six-shooter in her hand.

How can I ever stand it,
Just to see them two blue eyes,
Shinin' like some diamonds,
Like some diamonds in the sky.

Rather be in some lonely hollow
Where the sun don't ever shine,
Than to see you be another man's darling,
And to know that you'll never be mine.

Well, it's march me away to the station
With my suitcase in my hand,
Yes, march me away to the station,
I'm off to some far-distant land.

Sometimes I have a nickel,
And sometimes I have a dime,
Sometimes I have ten dollars,
Just to pay for little Maggie's wine.

Pretty flowers are made for blooming,
Pretty stars are made to shine,
Pretty girls are made for boy's love,
Little Maggie was made for mine.

Well, yonder stands little Maggie
With a dram glass in her hand,
She's a drinkin' down her troubles
Over courtin' some other man.

Jim Jones

Criminal Jim Jones
Gets sent to Australia.
He plots his revenge.

Another of the great songs of the sea that Bob Dylan has performed is "Jim Jones," the tale of a convict sent to Botany Bay, Australia. It appears on the 1992 album "Good As I Been to You," and despite the grim tale, it sparkles like the sea with images of tall ships, pirates and the bushrangers and prisoners. The song was published in 1907.

Come and listen for a moment, lads,
And hear me tell my tale.
How across the sea from England
I was condemned to sail.
Now the jury found me guilty,
Then says the judge, says he,
"Oh, for life, Jim Jones, I'm sending you
Across the stormy sea.
But take a tip before you ship
To join the iron gang.
Don't get too gay in Botany Bay,
Or else you'll surely hang.
Or else you'll surely hang," says he.
"And after that, Jim Jones,
It's high above on the gallows tree
The crows will pick your bones."

And our ship was high upon the sea
Then pirates came along,
But the soldiers on our convict ship
Were full five hundred strong.
For they opened fire and somehow drove
That pirate ship away.
But I'd rather have joined that pirate ship
Tan gone to Botany Bay.
With the storms ragin' round us,
And the winds a-blowin' gale,
I'd rather have drowned in misery
Than gone to New South Wales.

Now it's day and night and the irons clang,
And like poor galley slaves
We toil and toil, and when we die
Must fill dishonored graves,
And it's by and by I'll slip my chains,
Well, into the bush I'll go
And I'll join the bravest rankers there,
Jack Donohue and co.
And some dark night, when everything
Is silent in the town
I'll shoot those tyrants one and all,
I'll gun the flogger down.
Oh, I'll give the land a little shock,
Remember what I say,
And they'll yet regret they've sent Jim Jones
In chains to Botany Bay.

Hard Times

Remember the poor
While you're rich and having fun.
They're outside your door.

The full title of this song by American parlor music composer Stephen Foster is "Hard Times Come Again No More." The song is a plea to people wealthy enough to live comfortably to remember that the poor and their troubles are never far away, and to spare a thought for people who are in the midst of hard times. The music, like most parlor songs of the 19th century, is simplistic and sappy, but Dylan gives it a tough edge on his 1992 album "Good As I Been to You."

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh! Hard times come again no more.

Chorus:
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh! Hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus

'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh! Hard times come again no more.

Foster, the "father of American music," wrote a number of other well known songs that became, and in some cases, remain well known to any beginner piano students, including "Beautiful Dreamer," "Camptown Races," "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Oh! Susanna," "Old Black Joe" and "Old Folks at Home."

Here's a live version from a performance to celebrate Willie Nelson's 60th birthday:

Froggie Went a-Courtin'

Froggie wants to wed.
He gets his mouse, snake eats her,
And a duck eats him.

"Frog Went a-Courting," also known as "A Moste Strange Weddinge of the Frogge and the Mouse," "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" and by other titles, has been around for nearly 500 years, judging by the evidence that I dug up in my research (on the, uh, Internet). I know it because I remember a music teacher making our class sing it a long time ago. Whatever we sang, it didn't end as grimly as the version that Dylan performed on his 1992 album "Good As I Been to You." The story is straight, if not succinct, and it's a murder ballad. I even wrote a haiku about it for those of you who don't have six minutes. Here are the lyrics (my favorite verse is the last one, and I can't tell you how much I enjoy his version, which closes a wistful album on a wistful note):

1. Frog went a-courtin', and he did ride, Uh-huh,
Frog went a-courtin', and he did ride, Uh-huh,
Frog went a-courtin', and he did ride.
With a sword and a pistol by his side, Uh-huh.

2. Well he rode up to Miss Mousey's door, Uh-huh,
Well he rode up to Miss Mousey's door, Uh-huh,
Well he rode up to Miss Mousey's door.
Gave three loud raps and a very big roar, Uh-huh.

3. Said, "Miss Mouse, are you within?" Uh-huh,
Said he, "Miss Mouse, are you within?" Uh-huh,
Said, "Miss Mouse, are you within?"
"Yes, kind sir, I sit and spin," Uh-huh.

4. He took Miss Mousey on his knee, Uh-huh,
Took Miss Mousey on his knee, Uh-huh,
Took Miss Mousey on his knee.
Said, "Miss Mousey, will you marry me?" Uh-huh.

5. "Without my uncle Rat's consent, Uh-huh
"Without my uncle Rat's consent, Uh-huh
"Without my uncle Rat's consent.
I wouldn't marry the president, Uh-huh

6. Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides,.
To think his niece would be a bride, Uh-huh.

7. Uncle Rat went runnin' downtown, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat went runnin' downtown, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat went runnin' downtown.
To buy his niece a wedding gown, Uh-huh

8. Where shall the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
Where shall the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
Where shall the wedding supper be?
Way down yonder in a hollow tree, Uh-huh

9. What should the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
What should the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
What should the wedding supper be?
Fried mosquito in a black-eye pea, Uh-huh.

10. Well, first to come in was a flyin' moth, Uh-huh,
First to come in was a flyin' moth, Uh-huh,
First to come in was a flyin' moth.
She laid out the table cloth, Uh-huh.

11. Next to come in was a juney bug, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a juney bug, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a juney bug.
She brought the water jug, Uh-huh.

12. Next to come in was a bumbley bee, Uh-huh
Next to come in was a bumbley bee, Uh-huh
Next to come in was a bumbley bee.
Sat mosquito on his knee, Uh-huh.

13. Next to come in was a broken black flea, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a broken black flea, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a broken black flea.
Danced a jig with the bumbley bee, Uh-huh.

14. Next to come in was Mrs. Cow, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was Mrs. Cow, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was Mrs. Cow.
She tried to dance but she didn't know how, Uh-huh.

15. Next to come in was a little black tick, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a little black tick, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a little black tick.
She ate so much she made us sick, Uh-huh.

16. Next to come in was a big black snake, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a big black snake, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a big black snake.
Ate up all of the wedding cake, Uh-huh.

17. Next to come was the old gray cat, Uh-huh,
Next to come was the old gray cat, Uh-huh,
Next to come was the old gray cat.
Swallowed the mouse and ate up the rat, Uh-huh.

18. Mr. Frog went a-hoppin' up over the brook, Uh-huh,
Mr. Frog went a-hoppin' up over the brook, Uh-huh,
Mr. Frog went a-hoppin' up over the brook.
A lily-white duck come and swallowed him up, Uh-huh.

19. A little piece of cornbread layin' on a shelf, Uh-huh,
A little piece of cornbread layin' on a shelf, Uh-huh,
A little piece of cornbread layin' on a shelf.
If you want anymore, you can sing it yourself, Uh-huh.

Frankie & Albert

Frankie kills Albert
After he cheats. She feels bad,
Goes to jail, and hangs.

Wikipedia's editors, as ever, know their way around old Americana. Here's the background on this one, courtesy of them:
1. It's been covered something like 256 times.
2. Murder: 212 Targee Street, St. Louis, MO. 2am, October 15, 1899. Accused: Frankie Baker (1876-1952), 22 years old, shoots 17-year-old Allen/Albert Britt. Albert was out with Nelly Bly, AKA Alice Pryor, at a "cakewalk." Their crime: dancing. Baker was acquitted and send to a mental institution.
2. Murder 2: Frances "Frankie" Stewart Silver. Murdered husband Charles Silver, Burke County, North Carolina, 1832. She was executed, rather like the Frankie in Bob Dylan's version of the song on the album "Good As I Been to You."

Some say the song goes back to before 1830. Others find that strange because its sheet music dates from 1925 or so. Either way, Bob's version is a timeless acoustic rendition that plays up the deadpan nature of the observer at the crime without cutting into the sadness of the sordid tale.

1. Frankie was a good girl.
Everybody knows.
Paid $100 for Albert's new suit of clothes.
He was her man but he done her wrong.

2. Albert said, "I'm leaving you.
Won't be gone for long.
Don't wait up for me.
A-worry about me when I'm gone."
He was her man but he done her wrong.

3. Frankie went down to the corner saloon.
Get a bucket of beer.
Said to the bartender.
"Has my lovin' man been here?"
He was her man but he done her wrong.

4. "Well, I ain't gonna tell you no stories.
I ain't gonna tell you no lies.
I saw Albert an hour ago.
With a gal named Alice Bly."
He was her man but he done her wrong.

5. Frankie went down to 12th Street.
Lookin' up through the window high.
She saw her Albert there.
Lovein' up Alice Bly.
He was her man but he done her wrong.

6. Frankie pulled out a pistol.
Pulled out a forty-four.
Gun went off a rootie-toot-toot
And Albert fell on the floor.
He was her man but he done her wrong.

7. Frankie got down upon her knees.
Took Albert into her lap.
Started to hug and kiss him.
But there was no bringin' him back.
He was her man but he done her wrong.

8. "Gimme a thousand policemen.
Throw me into a cell.
I shot my Albert dead.
And now I'm goin' to hell.
He was her man but he done me wrong."

9. Judge said to the jury.
"Plain as a thing can be.
A woman shot her lover down.
Murder in the second degree."
He was her man but he done her wrong.

10. Frankie went to the scaffold.
Calm as a girl could be.
Turned her eyes up towards the heavens.
Said, "Nearer, my God, to Thee."
He was her man but he done her wrong.

Diamond Joe (Good As I Been to You)

Joe hires cowboy
Who hates his lying, cheap ways,
But Joe has him trapped.

I'm a sucker for "Good As I Been to You" album. It's a windswept, melancholy collection of songs, mostly old songs and traditionals, done by Dylan after the failure of his album "Under the Red Sky." It was released in 1992 and is the bookend to "World Gone Wrong," a similar album that he released one year later, but with a tilt more toward blues songs than ballads. He moves from the high seas of the Indian and Atlantic oceans (doomed sailors and convicts) to the chaparral of the old west and the morbid thoughts that descend on revelers in southern parlors, sort of like The Masque of the Red Death (I'm thinking of "Hard Times" by Stephen Foster). He also covers lots of ground in between, whether performing Elvis Presley songs, Frankie and Johnny murder ballads, or scary old children's songs like "Froggie Went a-Courting."

"Diamond Joe" is a traditional song about a cowboy hired by a Texas ranch baron who finds himself exploited beyond his wildest imagining. The oldest version that I can find is by Cisco Houston, but I see that Ramblin' Jack Elliott covered it too. Bob's version is far more weary in its delivery than the other two, and is irresistible.

Here are the lyrics:

Now There's a man you'll hear about
Most anywhere you go,
And his holdings are in Texas
And his name is Diamond Joe.

And he carries all his money
In a diamond-studded jar.
He never took much trouble
With the process of the law.

I hired out to Diamond Joe, boys,
Did offer him my hand,
He gave a string of horses
So old they could not stand.

And I nearly starved to death, boys,
He did mistreat me so,
And I never saved a dollar
In the pay of Diamond Joe.

Now his bread it was corn dodger
And his meat you couldn't chaw,
Nearly drove me crazy
With the waggin' of his jaw.

And the tellin' of his story,
Mean to let you know
That there never was a rounder
That could lie like Diamond Joe.

Now, I tried three times to quit him,
But he did argue so
I'm still punchin' cattle
In the pay of Diamond Joe.

And when I'm called up yonder
And it's my time to go,
Give my blankets to my buddies
Give the fleas to Diamond Joe.

Canadee-i-o

Girl at sea, disguised.

Captain saves her from sailors,

Boyfriend much chagrined.

This is one of my favorite Bob Dylan performances. "Canadee-i-o" is his 1992 rendition of the old story of a boy who sails off to sea to Canada, and dresses his girl up as a boy sailor because they can't stand to be apart. When they're in the middle of the ocean, she is unmasked. The other sailors try to throw her overboard, but the captain intervenes and saves her life. Not only that, he marries the girl and makes her not only a happy bride, but a wealthy one once they make land. What of the boy sailor? The suggestion in Dylan's version of the song is that the boy is ready to accept her death sentence, or perhaps, as some versions of the song go, he tries to participate in her doom. Dylan's version doesn't mention his fate. There is an ambiguous line, at least to me, that suggests that the boy is no good -- that after he agrees that she should join him on the ship, they then bargains with the sailor boy all for a piece of gold, and only then does he kit her out as a mate.

Here are the lyrics of Dylan's version of the song. There are other versions out there, known as "The Wearing of the Blue" and "Caledonia." Again, this is one of my favorite Dylan moments. His voice, cracked and withered, strains against its limits, soaring with emotion even as he stands back and lets the characters do their thing.

I can't paste the Dylan video in, so try this one instead. It's by Nic Jones, who is one of the greatest musicians ever to tackle these songs.

Blackjack Davey

Married woman flees

With lover Davey. Husband

Can't make her come back.

This is an old Scottish borderlands ballad of an aristocrat's wife who flees her life of leisure to live in the wilds with Blackjack Davey, her considerably sexier gypsy lover. This is one of the more popular ballads to survive the past 200 years or so, and has been covered by many singers. This song appears on "Good As I Been to You," the 1992 album of solo acoustic cover songs that Dylan recorded in his garage. Rather than shortening the lyrics to a summary, I'll include them here since I think that Dylan's lyrics are original enough to make it his own, yet are plainly sit atop the work of centuries of developers. "Blackjack Davey" is one of my favorite Dylan songs, and he conveys in here the wild country of the moors, the old-time feel of the setting and the combination of romance, lust, bewilderment and fright that must have overtaken all three characters at least at some point in the acting out of this drama. (In many of the original versions, Johnny Faa the gypsy is caught by the Earl of Cassilis, who hangs him and other gypsies from the Dool Tree, while Lady Jane Hamilton is confined essentially to purdah forever)

Black Jack Davey come a-riden' on back,
A-whistlin' loud and merry.
Made the woods around him ring,
And he charmed the heart of a lady,
Charmed the heart of a lady.

"How old are you, my pretty little miss,
How old are you, my honey"
She answered to him with a lovin' smile
"I'll be sixteen come Sunday,
Be sixteen come Sunday."

"Come and go with me, my pretty little miss,
Come and go with me, my honey,
Take you where the grass grows green,
You never will want for money
You never will want for money

"Pull off, pull off them high-heeled shoes
All made of Spanish leather.
Get behind me on my horse
And we'll ride off together,
We'll both go off together."

Well, she pulled off them high-heeled shoes
Made of Spanish leather.
Got behind him on his horse
And they rode off together.
They rode off together.

At night the boss came home
Inquiring about this lady.
The servant spoke before she thought,
"She's been with Black Jack Dave,
Rode off with Black Jack Davey."

"Well, saddle for me my coal black stud,
He's speedier than the gray.
I rode all day and I'll ride all night,
And I'll overtake my lady.
I'll bring back my lady."

Well, he rode all night till the broad daylight,
Till he came to a river ragin',
And there he spied his darlin' bride
In the arms of Black Jack Davey.
Wrapped up with Black Jack Davey.

"Pull off, pull off them long blue gloves
All made of the finest leather.
Give to me your lily-white hand
And we'll both go home together.
We'll both go home together."

Well, she pulled off them long blue gloves
All made of the finest leather.
Gave to him her lily-white hand
And said good-bye forever.
Bid farewell forever.

"Would you forsake your house and home,
Would you forsake your baby?
Would you forsake your husband, too,
To go with Black Jack Davey.
Rode off with Black Jack Davey?"

"Well, I'll forsake my house and home,
And I'll forsake my baby.
I'll forsake my husband, too,
For the love of Black Jack Davey.
Ride off with Black Jack Davey."

"Last night I slept in a feather bed
Between my husband and baby.
Tonight I lay on the river banks
In the arms of Black Jack Davey,

Love my Black Jack Davey."

Arthur McBride

Arthur and cousin

Won’t fight in France. They clobber

The draft recruiter.

This is an old Irish (or Scottish? British?) ballad, perhaps from the 17th century or later, that appears on the 1992 folk song covers album "Good As I Been to You." British recruiters approach Arthur and his cousin on the beach as they walk on Christmas morning, and tell them how wonderful life is in the military and how they should suit up and go fight in France. Arthur and cousin don't take so well to the idea, whereupon the Brits replace cajolery with threats of stabbing them to death with their swords. Arthur and cousin express their desire for pacifism by beating the Brits with their shillelaghs and throwing the little drummer boy's drum and the other soldiers' swords into the sea.

Canadee-i-o

Boy takes girl to sea.
The captain takes her over.
Girl wins, boy loses.

Blackjack Davey

Davey charms girl, and
Steals her from her family,
And she won't go home!

Arthur McBride

Arthur and cousin
Won't fight in France. They clobber
The draft recruiter.