West Texas

Going to Texas,
Looking for adventure, and
I’m not coming home.

I'm goin' down to West Texas
Behind the Louisiana line
I'm goin' down to West Texas
Behind the Louisiana line
Get me a fortune tellin' woman
One that's gonna read my mind

If you ever go to Dallas
Take the right hand road
If you ever go to Dallas
Take the right hand road
Those western Dallas streets, boys
They' bound ta kill ya fo' sho'

I'm goin' down to Jack Rabbit's
Past the west Texas line
I'm goin' down to Jack Rabbit's
Behind the Texas line
Eh they's stars up above
Lord it's my a-leavin' m' sign

Well you never miss your water
'till the well runs dry
An' you never miss your water
'Till the well runs dry
An' you never miss your man
'till he says "Good-bye"

You can write an' tell m' Mama
I won't be comin' home tonight
You can write an' tell my Mother
I won't be home tonight

Motherless Children

Mom dies, kids get by.
Dad will try, sister will fly.
On Jesus don't rely.

From what little I know about music, it seems like Eric Clapton's version of this song, the opener on "461 Ocean Boulevard," is the one that most people know. It was first performed by (and written by?) Blind Willie Johnson in 1927 or so. The original was called "Mother's Children Have a Hard Time." 

The original:
Well, well, well, ah
A motherless children have a hard time
Motherless children have a hard time, mother's dead
They'll not have anywhere to go, wanderin' around from door to door
Have a hard time Nobody on earth can take a mother's place when, when mother is dead, Lord
Nobody on earth takes mother's place when, mother's dead
Nobody on earth takes mother's place, when you were startin', paved the way
Nobody treats you like mother will when Your wife or husband may be good to you, when mother is dead, Lord
They'll be good to you, mother's dead
A wife or a husband may be good to you, but, better than nothing has proved untrue
Nobody treats you like mother will when, when mother is dead, Lord Lord, Lord, Lord
Yeah, well, ah
Well, some people say that sister will do, when mother is dead
That sister will do when mother's dead
Some people say that sister will do, but, as soon as she's married, she turn her back on you
Nobody treats you like mother will And father will do the best he can, when mother is dead, Lord
Well, the best he can when mother is dead
Father will do the best he can, so many things a father can't understand
Nobody treats you like mother will A motherless children have a hard time, when mother is dead, Lord
Motherless children have a hard time, mother's dead
They'll not have anywhere to go, Wanderin' around from door to door
Have a hard time

Dylan's version, as performed in 1962 at the Gaslight Cafe, and available on the album of the concert that was released in 2005. 

Motherless children run a hard road when your mother is dead
Motherless children run a hard road when your mother is dead
Motherless children run a hard road, a hard road, a hard road
Motherless children run a hard road when your mother is dead

Your father will do the best he can when your mother is dead
Your father will do the best he can when your mother is dead
Your father will do the best he can, but he just does not understand
Motherless children run a hard road when your mother is dead

Now, there's some people say your sister might do when your mother is dead
Now, there's some people say your sister might do when your mother is dead
Some people say your sister will do; soon as she married, turn her back on you
Motherless children run a hard road when your mother is dead

You can dig my grave with a bloody spade when I'm dead
You can dig my grave with a bloody spade when I'm dead
You can dig my grave with a bloody spade; see that my digger gets well paid
Motherless children run a hard road when your mother is dead

Jesus won't be no mother to you when your mother is dead
Jesus won't be no mother to you when your mother is dead
Jesus won't be no mother to you; his trials and tribulations won't see you through
Motherless children run a hard road when your mother is dead

John Brown

John Brown goes to war
And gets himself blown to bits.
How proud is Mom now?

"John Brown" is a grim tale penned by Dylan in 1963 about a boy who makes his mama proud by enlisting and going to war. She doesn't know quite what to do when he comes home disfigured by injury, but clutching all those medals that she was hoping that he would win. The song appeared at the time under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt on a Broadside Ballads release. Its first appearance on a Dylan album was on 1995's "MTV Unplugged." Further versions have surfaced on commercial releases since then.

1. John Brown goes to war in his nice new uniform.
2. Mom says, go win lots of medals.
3. Mom tells everyone her son's going to be a war hero.
4. She gets letters from the front.
5. Letters stop.
6. She get a letter saying Johnny's coming home. She goes to the train station.
7. She can't find him because she doesn't recognize him.
8. Face shot up, hand blown off, metal brace on his waist. He can't talk properly.
9. What have they done to you?
10. You didn't see what I saw.
11. What am I doing in this war? I tried to kill my enemy, but he looked just like me.
12. As soon as I realized that this was bullshit, I was hit by a cannonball and went blind.
13. He gives his medals to his mother and walks away.

Handsome Molly

When Molly leaves you,
You'll be sorry, just like the
Next fellow will be.

Fiddler Gilliam Banmon Grayson and guitarist Henry Whitter brought us the song "Handsome Molly," which was the b-side to their hit single "Train 45." I don't know if they wrote it. The song appeared in 1927 or 1928. Grayson died at the age of 43 in a car accident rural southwestern Virginia in 1930. "Omie Wise" and "Little Maggie" are two other songs that Grayson recorded that found their way into Dylan's repertory.

The lyrics are pretty simple:

- I wish I were a sailor, and while I sail, I'd think of Molly.
- Molly left me after accepting my offer of marriage.
- My heart's broken, she should go with whom she pleases
- She has a roving eye now. I saw it when I went to church last Sunday.
- I go out at night when everyone's asleep and cry for Molly at the riverbank.

Dylan performed the song at the Gaslight Cafe in 1962. The album of this performance came out in 2005.

Well, I wish I was in london,
Or some other seaport town
I'd put my foot on a steamboat
I'd sail the ocean 'round.

While sailing 'round the ocean,
While sailing 'round the sea
I'd think of handsome molly
Wherever she might be.

Don't you remember, molly
You gave me your right hand?
You said whenever you'd marry
I would be the man.

But you broke your promise
Go with whom you please
My poor heart is aching
You are at your ease.

I went to church last sunday
Molly came ridin' by
I could tell her mind was changin'
By the rovin' of her eye.

I go down to the river
Though everyone's asleep
I think of handsome molly
An' I begin to weep.

So I wish I was in london,
Or some other seaport town
I'd put my foot on a steamboat
I'd sail the ocean 'round.

The Cuckoo Is a Pretty Bird

Gambler builds a house

To watch his girl and cuckoo

As they go riding.

Versions of the Cuckoo song have come and gone for a few hundred years, from what I can tell. I wouldn't be surprised if that 1,000-year old song "Sumer Is Icumen In" didn't provide a root for the song, what with its verse to the cuckoo singing in the summer:

Svmer is icumen in.
Lhude sing cuccu.
Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ the wde nu.
Sing cuccu.

Awe bleteþ after lomb,
lhouþ after calue cu.
Bulluc sterteþ,
bucke uerteþ,

murie sing cuccu.
Cuccu cuccu.
Wel singes þu cuccu
ne swik þu naver nu.


Or in modern English:


Spring has arrived
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
The seed is growing
And the meadow is blooming,
And the wood is coming into leaf now,
Sing, cuckoo!

The ewe is bleating after her lamb,
The cow is lowing after her calf;
The bullock is prancing,
The billy-goat farting,

Sing merrily, cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo,
You sing well, cuckoo,

Never stop now.

Bob Dylan's version, commercially released on his Gaslight Cafe live album, contains more references to the "newer" older versions of the song. The essence appears to be that the cuckoo fulfills its usual purpose of being a harbinger of summer. And MEANWHILE, a man wants to gamble his way into some winnings, then use that money to build a house so he can get his girl (as she goes riding by), because he doesn't have the poetic gift to woo her with his words alone.



Oh, the cuckoo is a pretty bird
That wobbles as she flies
But she never says coo-coo
Till the fourth day of july.

I've gambled in England
I've gambled in Spain
An' i bet you ten dollars
That i'll beat you next game.

I build me a cabin
On a mountain so high
So i can see Nelly
As she goes ridin' by.

I wish i was a poet
An' could write a fine hand
I'd write my love a letter

Lord, she would understand.

Here's Richard Thompson doing "Sumer Is Icumen In."

Barbara Allen

Young boy is dying.

Barbara spurns him, then dies too.

He's the rose, she, thorn.

The Wikipedia entry for this old song contains a priceless reference to the 1690 broadside edition, which titles the song as "Barbara Allen's cruelty: or, the young-man's tragedy. With Barbara Allen's lamentation for her unkindness to her lover, and her self". And that's the essence right there: Barbara Allen spurns the love of a man, or a boy, as there are many versions of the song out there since its first known reference by Samuel Pepys (again, according to Wikipedia) in 1666. The guy dies of heartbreak, whereupon Barbara regrets her decision to deny a man life through her lack of love. At this late juncture, she falls in love with him, and of course, she dies too. From his grave comes a rose, her's the briar, and through their intertwining they at last discover fidelity and love. Too late, if you ask me.

Here's a Dylan performance from some time between 1988 and 1991.

And here's the version that Dylan recorded in 1962 at the Gaslight Cafe in 1962, which was where this song was commercially released a few years ago.