You can hear this recording by Bessie Smith at The Red Hot Jazz Archive:


BACK WATER BLUES
Bessie Smith, Columbia 14195-D, 2-17-1927.

1. When it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night, (2x)
Then trouble taken place in the lowlands at night.

2. I woke up this mornin', can't even get out of my do'. (2x)
There's enough trouble to make a poor girl wonder where she want to go.

3. Then they rowed a little boat about five miles 'cross the pond. (2x)
I packed all my clo'es, throwed 'em in, an' they rowed me along.

4. When it thunders and lightnin' an' the wind begin to blow, (2x)
There's thousands of poor people ain't got no place to go.

5. Then I went and stood upon some high old lonesome hill, (2x)
Then looked down on the house where I used to live.

6. That's why the blues done caused me to pack my things and go, (2x)
'Cause my house fell down an' I can't live there no mo'.

7. Mm-mm, I can't move no mo'. (2x)
There ain't no place for a poor old girl to go.