Put your dollar down
by kvennarad
I bet you, you bet me,
Apple don’t grow on a cottonwood tree.
Put your dollar down,
Put your dollar down,
Come on buddy, come and put your dollar down.
I had a girl, back in Alabam’,
Said she won’t marry no gamblin’ man.
Put your dollar down,
Put your dollar down,
Come on honey, come and put your dollar down.
See her dance, hear her sing,
I gone and sold her diamond ring
To put a dollar down,
To put a dollar down,
Come on honey, come and put your dollar down.
Sunday morning, bell’s been rung,
Preacher preachin’, hymns bein’ sung,
Put that dollar down,
Put that dollar down,
Come on buddy, come and put your dollar down.
Preacher told me gamblin’s a sin,
Told me once, won’t tell me agin,
To put that dollar down,
Put that dollar down,
Come on sinner, come and put that dollar down.
Life can be good, life can be hard,
Life can be all on a black jack card,
Put your dollar down,
Put your dollar down,
Come on buddy, come and put your dollar down.
Life can be bitter, life can be nice,
Easy ten on a pair of dice,
Put your dollar down,
Put your dollar down,
Come on buddy, come and put your dollar down.
I bet you, you bet me,
Cherry don’t grow on a live oak tree,
Put your dollar down,
Put your dollar down,
Come on buddy, come and put your dollar down.
__________
These words came to me while I was asleep. In my dream I was picking guitar (which I can’t) and singing (which I can’t) like Mississippi John Hurt (which I’m not)! So someone else had better pick and sing for me. Words by MM, image by Robert Crumb, tune by you.
Now if I could only find Aunt Bea’s dream book! 🙂
Yeah, but think what she’d say if she found you reading it!
Great inspiration is to be found in dream time.
Great blues-now, if you could come up with a tune to accompany it. 🙂
And there you have the problem in a nutshell. Not the first set of lyrics I’ve come up with either!
I recently wrote some lyrics for a friend who is in a local band. But I’ve left him to try and marry it to the music he has-musicianship is his gift. I’m strictly a clumsy layman 🙂
Hope you get your tune and share it with us. Fine lyrics.
If one turns up, I’ll let you know.
I like the apple/cherry fruits that often respresnt something sweet, pleasure, a gift to a lover, (esp. cherries, on slot machines, fortune), and the realities of the cottonwoods and live oaks, two magnificent trees that grow in the American South
Ray, that’s exactly why I chose those fruits and those trees. 🙂
This would make a great song. But singing and picking guitar is not one of my talents either.
I’m sure you have many others.
This makes me want to get out my bass guitar and strum along! Another gem courtesy of the Sandman and innate talent.
If I find a singer for this, you can dub yourself in. 🙂
Millie, I love monkeying about with folk forms. I love Appalachia and the American South, and also Scottish and English folk material. I’ve adapted several ‘Child’ ballads. As soon as woke up I had to assemble this, add words, and polish it.
When I write stuff like this, the hardest trick is emulation – not imitation, if I imitate I end up with parody.
Love it! Smacks of Woody Guthrie and my dad, how could I not love it. The things you dream in your sleep are amazing, wish gold like this touched my dreams.
Woody Guthrie and your dad – now that’s a compliment. I wish I had known your dad, the handsome all-Canadian guy.
Wish I was actually musical, cause I can hear it:)
Y’know… I can hear it too. I had the music in my head as I wrote it. I can almost feel the wangle-dangles on the ol’ guitar.
Did you see this? Robert Plant tribute to Mississippi blues. Start listening at 1:15: https://youtu.be/ogjksX115qI
I know the song, and I know it’s a Bukka White song too. I first heard it when I was a small kid – difficult to remember the circumstances, but I’m sure I was being ‘tolerated’ by a room full of teenagers who were playing the first Bob Dylan album, and were sitting round ‘being cool’.
Now your link didn’t work, but I found it here:
Slightly different recording, but yes.
Aye, some sleep you have
I enjoy this
Feels like some oldie
Newly found 🙂 🍸
Aye, an oldie but a goodie, eh?