Slats in the Bed

What you gonna do when the liquor gives out, my honey,
What you gonna do when the liquor gives out, my honey,
What you gonna do when the liquor gives out,
Stand around a corner with your mouth in a pout?
For sometime.

What you gonna do when your shoes give out, my honey,
What you gonna do when your shoes give out, my honey?
When my shoes give out gonna quit the street,
Take a chair and put a fan at my feet,
For sometime.

What you gonna do when your chair gives out, my honey,
What you gonna do when your chair gives out, my honey?
When I got no liquor, no chair, no shoes,
I'll lay 'cross my bed, with my head in the blues,
For sometime.

Slats in the bed go blammety-blam in the morning.
Slats in the bed go blammety-blam in the evening.
Slats in the bed go blammety-blam,
But I'll keep on sleeping like I don't give a damn,
For sometime.

[Note probably written ca. 1957:

-- _Folksong USA_, modified sl. to agree with the version sung at
Putney School, ca. 1951: besides having a different tune, the book's
version has "Sweet thing" where the Putneyites (e.g. Ebbe Borregaard)
have "My honey", and "Sweet thing, sweet thing, sweet thing" instead
of "For sometime".]

Josh White sings a version on DL 8665 that is like the Putney version
& probably the source of it. It differs most prominently in having
"meat" for "liquor" and in having this concluding stanza:

What you gonna do when your man gives out, my baby?
What you gonna do when your man gives out, my honey?
First I'll grab my money, kick him off the place,
Then I'll use the other man I had around just in case,
For sometime.