BACK WATER BLUES
(Bessie Smith)

When it rained five days, and the skies turned dark as night, (x2)
Then trouble taken place in the lowlands at night.

I woke up this morning, can't even get out of my door. (x2)
That's enough trouble to make a poor girl wonder where she want to go.

Then they rowed a little boat about five miles 'cross the pond. (x2)
I packed all my clothes, throwed 'em in, and they rowed me along.

When it thunders and lightning, and the wind begin to blow, (x2)
There's thousands of people ain't got no place to go.

Then I went and stood upon some high old lonesome hill. (x2)
Then looked down on the house where I used to live.

Back-water blues done caused me to pack my things and go, (x2)
'Cause my house fell down, and I can't live there no more.

Mmmm, I can't move no more. (x2)
There ain't no place for a poor old girl to go.


This is the "female version" - Bessie's original. Oddly although Lonnie Johnson & Leadbelly, although recording 20 or so years after Bessie's original, and both claiming authorship, (at least on the records) still sing it from the female voice. I must have been wrong about the alternative title (age-related confusion, no doubt!).
This version from my own lyrics database, probably from my copy of the Bessie Smith songbook.

RtS