The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #101750   Message #3415909
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
07-Oct-12 - 01:27 PM
Thread Name: Chord Req: Hard, Ain't It Hard (Guthrie)
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Hard, Ain't It Hard (Guthrie)
The Almanac Singers varied the verses a bit from concert to concert. Here are two versions:

Hard, Ain't It Hard
1
Hard, aint it hard
To love one who never did love you.
Hard, ain't it hard, ain't it hard, great god
To love one that never would be true.
2
It was late last night when my true love came home
He was a-knocking on my door
I got up in a fit of jealousy and I said
True love, don't come here anymore.
3
Hard, ain't it hard
To love one who never did love you
Hard, ain't it hard, great god,
To love one that never could be true.
4
The first time I seen my true love
He was a-knocking at my door
The last time I seen his hard-hearted smile
He was lyin' dead on the floor.

Chorus

5
Don't go to drinkin' and gamblin'
Don't go there your sorrows to drown
This hard liquor place is a low-down digrace
It's the mesnest bad place in this town.

Chorus
Copyright BUG MUSIC
lyricsmode.com

Hard, Ain't It Hard
Almanac Singers (Guthrie, Lee Hays, Millard Lampell, Pete Seeger)

1
There is a house in this old town,
And that's where my true love lays around,
And he takes other women right down on his knee
And he tells them a little tale he won't tell me.
2
Hard, ain't it hard, ain't it hard
To love one that never did love you?
It's a-hard, and it's hard, ain't it hard, great god,
To love one that never will be true/
3
First time I seen my true love
He was walkin' by my door.
Last time I seen his false-hearted smile
He was dead on his coolin' board.
4
Don't go to drinkin' and gamblin',
Don't go there your sorrows to drown,
That hard-liquor place is a low-down disgrace,
It's the meanest damn place in this town.
5
Well, who's goin' to kiss your ruby lips,
And who's goin' to hold you to their breast?
And who will talk your future over
While I'm ramblin' in the west?

http://www.woodyguthrie.de/hard.html

Sod-Buster Ballads, Gen. 5019B.
Lyrics above from Bear Family Records, BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 88.

Woody Guthrie can be heard singing solo on youtube, from Asch records V. 1, 1944.