EAST TEXAS TALKING BLUES
(Traditional)

Intro: Stoppin' in to some café along the road, you're liable to run into somebody with a guitar, just as well as not. Round that part of the country, pretty frequent, you'll hear something like this (plays and mumbles). You notice he ain't singin' at all, just talkin' along. They call them things the talkin' blues – the East Texas talkin' blues. Some of them goes like this:

Down in the wildwood sittin' on a log
Finger on the trigger, eye on a hog
Pulled the trigger and the gun went zip
And I caught that hog with all me grip
He got away
I didn't need him anyhow
Had a lot of fun shootin' him though

I got a gal six feet tall
Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall
Eatin' hog eyes
Spittin' out chittlins
She just loves icecream
Yeah, 'specially with gravy

I was out in the henhouse, down on my knees
And I thought I heard a chicken sneeze
It weren't nothin' but a rooster, sayin' his prayers
Thankin' his lord for the hens upstairs
Oh my, such carryings-on you never did see

Oh, the other day I took me a wife
And I got a little son who's the pride of my life
Who rubs mashed potato in my hair
Slides string beans up my nose
And says, 'You're my pa, ain't you ?
Dis-gusting!

You're liable to hear them things as long as you can hang on and keep drinkin' coffee. Hundreds of them.

Source: Jack Elliott 'Ramblin' Jack' Topic TSCD477. Originally on Jack Elliott 'Muleskinner' Topic LP 12T106.