Lyr. Add: When a Woman Blue
Arr. Leo Sowerby

When a woman blue, when a woman blue,
She hang her little head and cry-
When a woman blue, when a woman blue,
She hang her little head and cry-
(Hah hah hah high!)
When a man get blue
He grab a railroad train and ride.

I'm go'n lay my head, I'm go'n lay my head,
Down on dat railroad line-
I'm go'n lay my head, I'm go'n lay my head,
Down on dat railroad line-
(Lah hah hah blue!)
Let de train roll by,
And dat'll pacify my min'.

Carl Sandburg, 1927, "The American Songbag," pp. 236-237, with music.
Note with song- "This arrangement is based on the song as heard at the Wisconsin Players' House in Milwaukee, where it arrived through an Oklahoma poet named Ellis, who heard it from Negroes in the cotton fields of Texas. It is an early blues, not to be hurried in its rendition; if you feel like giving it very slow and very draggy that is the way for you to give it; it is a massive, lugubrious gargoyle of a song."

Any additional verses or versions?

This song seems to have been included in Brown, "North Carolina Folklore," vol. 3, "Oh, When a Man Get the Blues," collected 1919. Not seen.
Some have suggested that it may be a precursor of "I Know You Rider" and "Woman Blue."
Thread 40592: I Know You Rider