Forums » Gillian Welch and David Rawlings "Lyrics"

• sarahct

  

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  February 16, 2012 6:43 AM PST

  Just noticing how much "Lawman" seems inspired by "Cold Rain & Snow".
• sarahct

  

  • 112 posts
   

  May 31, 2012 3:43 PM PDT

  Kelly Harrell's "My Name Is John Johannah" contains the line "I'll be looking through a telescope from home to Arkansas."
• sarahct

  

  • 112 posts
   

  November 28, 2012 6:31 AM PST

  Over at Banjohangout, someone caught the reference to Olde Joe Clark in Scarlet Town; pretty neat. Scroll down his mp3 list until you see Old Joe Clark, Scarlet Town. http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/music.asp?id=9564
• JasonK

  

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  • 135 posts
   

  November 28, 2012 11:30 AM PST

  Oh yeah, that's the tune. Huge references to Barbry Allen in the lyrics of Scarlet Town.
  
• sarahct

  

  • 112 posts
   

  December 11, 2012 6:14 PM PST

  Yes, for sure.lThat's the version of Olde Joe that I play, too; it's the one Dan Gellert taught me.

• JasonK

  

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  November 23, 2013 1:56 PM PST

  Tennessee definitely inspired by CSN&Y's Country Girl which Gill & Dave covered a few times rather well.

• ianf

  

  • 3 posts
   

  July 21, 2014 9:14 PM PDT

  sarahct said:
  On The Band's "Music From the Big Pink," they have a song "Let Me Lose," which reminds me of the chorus from the unreleased "Gambin' Man."

  I wasn't aware of The Band's version, but the Stanley Brothers recorded this song, too. I'm sure that Gillian and David are aware of both, and I'm sure you're right about this being the source for the lines from "Gamblin' Man," which is essentially a retelling of "Roving Gambler" (also recorded by the Stanleys) told from the female's perspective.

• ianf

  

  • 3 posts
   

  July 21, 2014 9:36 PM PDT

  sarahct said:

  Also in this article, they talk about the work of roots blues musician Dock Boggs, whose work is featured in Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Music."  One of his best known songs is a piece called "Country Blues"(or "Hustling Gamblers").  The version of that song that I have on "Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings) was a 78 containing the lyrics:

   

  "Give me corn bread when I'm hungry, good people;
  Corn whiskey when I'm dry;
  Pretty women a-standing around me;
  Sweet heaven when I die."

   

  -Clearly referenced in "Tennessee"

   

   

  Somewhere in between "Country Blues" and "Tennessee" is Tex Ritter's "Rye Whiskey," the second verse of which begins:

   

  "It's beefsteak when I'm hungry

  Rye whiskey when I'm dry

  A greenback when I'm hard-up

  It's heaven when I die"

   

  The next verse continues with lines used in DRM's "Bubbles In The Bourbon:"

   

  "If the ocean was whiskey

  And I was a duck

  I'd dive to the bottom

  And never come up"