Help: doc watson's song

19 Dec 99 - 02:34 AM (#151435)
Subject: doc watson's song
From: [e-mail]

I wish to find the lyrics of this song from the album "portrait" : George Gudger's Overalls Thanks for your help Yves

---

20 Dec 99 - 12:43 AM (#151786)
Subject: RE: Help: doc watson's song
From: Dale Rose

Somehow I have the impression that GGO is a Lawrence Hammond song, but I can't back that up at the moment as I don't have Doc's version, and my Lawrence Hammond album seems to be buried somewhere. Perhaps someone else who is knowledgeable about it will see this and respond.

---

20 Dec 99 - 01:16 AM (#151794)
Subject: RE: Help: doc watson's song
From: Stewie

Dale,

The label on the Doc Watson record does credit the song to 'L.Hammond'.

Regards, Stewie.

---

20 Dec 99 - 01:38 AM (#151801)
Subject: RE: Help: doc watson's song
From: Dale Rose

Stewie's affirmation encouraged me to go looking for it. The sleeve even has the lyrics from Lawrence Hammond, 1973. I'll scan them in directly.

---

20 Dec 99 - 02:05 AM (#151813)
Subject: Lyr Add: GEORGE GUDGER'S OVERALLS (L. Hammond)
From: Dale Rose

Thanks to Yves for bringing this up. Lawrence Hammond has been too long neglected by me ~~ don't think I've listened to the whole album in 10 or more years. I don't know how close these are to the way Doc Watson sings them, but I guarantee that they are the real thing. Since I have them in memory, I think I will add them as a lyric add, all the better for Dick to find them.

GEORGE GUDGER'S OVERALLS
Lawrence Hammond, Desert Jewel Songs BMI, 1973
as sung by Lawrence Hammond on Coyote's Dream, Takoma 1047, 1976

As I walked out this mornin'
in the Alabama chill,
I saw two old friends hangin'
from a tree on Hobie's Hill.
By their tattered legs they dangled
drippin' down along the spine.
It was old George Gudger's overalls
a-drying on the line.

George Gudger, he's an honest cuss,
hard-workin' farmer man.
I'd long admired them overalls
that I held there in my hand.
My brand new pair was stiffer
than a starched-up Sunday suit.
But his could walk 'round by themselves
and plow the corn to boot!

The knees looked almost bloody
from the red Hale County clay.
George Gudger's debts and prayers
had kept him kneelin' down all day.

Old George owes me money,
but I owe him my respect.
And if these overalls will fit me,
I'll forget about his debt.

I stepped into them big old legs
like fallin' down a mine.
Then I heard a ragged chuckle,
and there stood old George behind.
A smile of old tobacco juice
was tricklin' down his chin.
He said, "You might as well try walkin' round
in someone else's skin . . ."

"Yeah, but if you like them old friends of mine so much
I reckon I'll let 'em go
. See, I loaned 'em to my wife last year
when she was big with Little Joe.
And when she bent down in the fields one day
her big old belly split them tired old seams ...
And now she's gone and beat 'em half to death
on a rock down by the stream'

The knees looked almost bloody
from the red Hale County clay.
George Gudger's debts and prayers
they kept him kneelin' down all day.

I walked home like a drunken man,
they almost made me fall.
They kept steerin' me towards Gudger's place,
Old George's overalls!

But at home before the mirror
I seemed to be a different man,
with two tired eyes a-starin'
at a farmed out patch of land.
So I took him back his overalls
and a month's supply of chaw,
I also left my brand new pair
and walked home in the raw.

The knees looked almost bloody
from the red Hale County clay.
George Gudger's debts and prayers
they kept him kneelin' down all day.

I took him back his overalls
and a week's supply of food.
I also left my brand new pair
and sneaked home in the nude.

---