Lyr. Add: DRY WEATHER HOUSES

(Db)Dry weather houses are not (Ab7)worth a cent
And yet we have to pay so (Db)much for rent.
One (Ab7)Monday (Db)morning a landlord went,
To a (Ab7)tenant to get his rent,
But the tenant say, "Massa me no (Db)fool,
Me no pay no rent, -(Ab7)- fe no swimmin' (Db)pool."

Look at the room you rent me to live,
The whole of the roof is just like a sieve.
When rain come if I sleep too sound,
So help me king, I shure wud a' drowned.
(Cho.)

Some of the rooms they rent out, you know,
Is just like a big scorpion depot.
If you go to bed and you don't take a oath,
Middle of the night cockroach cut your throat.
(Cho.)

Some of the rooms, the way them so small,
You can't even turn inside them at all.
When you want to turn you have to go outside,
Turn your turn and go back inside.
(Cho.)

Pp. 102-103, with musical score and chords. (b) = flat.
"...Louise Bennett, who introduced the song here, is a native Jamaican and former columnist for the Kingston Daily Gleaner."

From "Jamaican Folk Songs," arranged Louise Bennett, Folkways Record 846 (See Smithsonian Folkways website for later cd).
Used by permission.
Jim Morse, Coll., 1958, Folk Songs of the Caribbean, Bantam Books.