Lyr Req: Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby (Carter)

Subject: Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 07:55 PM

I never really listened to folk/coutry/roots/whatever you want to call it music until I saw the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou." I got the soundtrack and I really like it, but I'm trying to find the origional lyrics to "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby." If anybody could help me out I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

Laura

Subject: Didn't Leave Nobody But the baby-Carter
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 08:37 PM

Would like lyrics to song coll. Lomax, Mrs. Sidney Carter. It is on Southern Journey, vol. 3, 61 Hwy, Mississippi. (Not the words from "O Brother...")

Subject: Lyr Add: DIDN'T LEAVE NOBODY BUT THE BABY
From: masato sakurai
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 08:59 PM

DIDN'T LEAVE NOBODY BUT THE BABY

Go to sleep you little baby (2x)
Your mama gone away and your daddy gonna stay.
Didn't leave nobody but the baby.

(The same words repeated several times, unlike the "O Brother" version)

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Didn't Leave Nobody But the baby-Carter
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 09:26 PM

Thanks, Masato. I thought it was simpler than the OBWAT version, which has material that wouldn't be associated in a lullaby. Shouldn't the second line be-... "and your daddy's gone to stay?" Then the last line, "Didn't leave nobody but the baby" makes sense.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Didn't Leave Nobody But the baby-Carter
From: masato sakurai
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 09:38 PM

Dicho, the above was copied from the notes. I listened again. To my ear too, "Your mama gone away and your daddy gonna stay."

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Didn't Leave Nobody But the baby-Carter
From: masato sakurai
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 09:45 PM

Sound clips from Southern Journey V. 3: 61 Highway Mississippi -- Delta Country Blues, Spirituals, Work Songs & Dance Music are HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Didn't Leave Nobody But the baby-Carter
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 10:12 PM

Yes, you are right. The second time around, she sings ,,, an' my daddy gonna stay. I should get it and listen to the entire cut.
Where is áine? Put your memory cap on and see if you can remember any of the song as sung by your grandmother.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Didn't Leave Nobody But the baby-Carter
From: masato sakurai
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 11:03 PM

Four versions of "Go to Sleep(y), Little Baby" are recorded in Dorothy Scarborough's, On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs (1925; Folklore Associates, 1963, pp. 146-147; texts only), but none has the line "Didn't leave nobody but the baby." "Go to Sleepy" in Ruth Crawford Seeger's American Folk Songs for Children (p. 176) is a different lullaby.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby (Carter)
From: GUEST,michelle
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 09:50 AM

thanks for the lyrics does anyone know the chords?

Thanks michelle