The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #13190   Message #2356486
Posted By: Jim Dixon
03-Jun-08 - 03:40 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Mean Talking Blues (Woody Guthrie)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mean Talking Blues (Woody Guthrie)
Getting back to the song MEAN TALKING BLUES, most of which was posted by Dani above on 23 Aug 99 - 10:53 PM – I haven't heard the whole song, but I listened to several sound samples at Allmusic.com, and I think I can make a few additions/corrections:

1. In the first verse:

"And I push folks down and I cause train wrecks"

2. These lines belong somewhere in the song, probably after the verse that begins "I'm mean in the East"

Ever'body in this world looks mean to me.
There's nothin' good on earth that I can see.
I steal the nickels off o' dead people's eyes
And I spend 'em tryin' to learn how to get a little wiser.


3. "keep you without no vote" (not "clothes")

4. There are several peculiarities in Guthrie's list of bugs. He mentions some I've never heard of, but here's my best attempt to spell them phonetically:

And the roaches,
And the ternamites*,
And the sand fleas, and the tater bugs, and the grubworms,
And the stingarees, and the vinegar-roans, the tramplers, the spiders,
Childs o' the earth, the ticks and the blowflies—

[*a dialectical or whimsical pronunciation of "termites"?]