Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lyrics to the 44 Blues

The Forty Four Blues
As I remember Dad singing this song

The Forty Four Blues is a song that my dad learned from an old black man at the Cincinnati train station back some time in the late 1920’s or early 30’s. you know, back in the day. It was a song Dad enjoyed singing until the day he died back in 1994.
I will never forget people coming to our house and they would always ask Dad to sing and play his old Gibson Guitar. He always would. Somewhere along the line they would always ask Dad to play and sing the Forty Four Blues. When he did people would laugh and sometimes Dad started laughing himself until he would have to stop singing.

The lyrics of The Forty Four Blues

Well I woke up this morning and the blues all around my bed
Well I said I woke up this morning and the blues all around my bed
Never had nobody to hold my aching head
If I feel tomorrow like I feel today
I’ll pack up my suitcase and make my getaway.

Somebody done said the Forty Four blues ain’t bad
Somebody done said the Forty Four blues ain’t bad
Must not have been this forty cause Forty Four blues I done had.

They’s two kinds of people that I can’t understand
They’s two kinds of people that I can’t understand
And that’s a Dago Daddy and a Chinese man.

I had a railroad ticket and a mule to ride
Had me a railroad ticket and a mule to ride
I lost my railroad ticket and the mule done died
Had me a woman and a bulldog too.
Had me a woman and a bulldog too.
My woman don’t much like me but my bulldog sure do.
Going to buy me a forty four smokeless gun
I said I’m going to buy me a forty four smokeless gun
And if anybody asks about me you just say he’s on the run

Never did love but three people in all my life
I say I never did love but three people in all my life
My Mammy and my Pappy and the Jane that wrecked my life

Blues ain’t nothing but a good man feeling bad
I say blues ain’t nothing but a good man feeling bad
It’s the worst old feeling I done ever had
If I feel tomorrow like I feel today
I say if I feel tomorrow like I feel today
I’ll pack up my suitcase and make my getaway.

The 44 Blues