Greetings:

Here are the lyrics I recorded on my Now the Wheel Has Turned CD:

IT AIN'T NO LIE
Based on traditional song as sung by Elizabeth Cotten
Third verse by Steve Suffet ©2005

There's a woman who lives in this town,
She tells all those dirty lies on me.
I wish to God that old woman she would die,
She'd stop telling those nasty lies on me.

I said: Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
It's Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
It's Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
Oh, this life I lead is too damn high.

I've been all around this whole wide world,
I just got back home today.
Been working really hard in the rich folks' yard,
And I'm sending you all my pay.

Oh, it's Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
It's Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
It's Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
Oh, this life I lead is too damn high.

Now, one of these days, and it won't be very long.
I'm going back home to Baltimore,
And when I get there, gonna sit in my easy chair,
I won't hear her damned lies no more.

Oh, it's Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
It's Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
It's Babe, oh, Babe, it ain't no lie,
Oh, this life I lead is too damn high.


The version I do in the video is only slightly different. For example, I sing "white folks' yard" instead of "rich folks' yard." And in the final verse, the one I added, I sing "her dirty lies" instead of "her damned lies."

So please take your pick. You are welcome to sing that third verse the way I first wrote it around 1980, or the way I recorded it in 2005, or the way I sang it in Israel in 2007. Of the three versions, I like the one from 2005 the best. That's the version on the CD and transcribed into this message.

--- Steve