This folk song was collected by Howard Odum by 1908 and published by him as "Knife-Song":

"... 'Fo' long, honey, 'fo' long, honey,
'Fo' long, honey, 'fo' long, honey,
L-a-w-d, la-w-d, la-w-d!

... I hate to hear my honey call my name,
Call me so lonesome an' so sad.
L-a-w-d, l-a-w-d, l-a-w-d!

I got de blues an' can't be satisfied,
Brown-skin woman cause of it all.
L-a-w-d, l-a-w-d, l-a-w-d!

That woman will be the death o' me,
Some girl will be the death o' me.
L-a-w-d, l-a-w-d, l-a-w-d! ..."

Odum also collected a song with related, AAAB lyrics by 1908:

"So she laid in jail back to de wall
So she laid in jail back to de wall
So she laid in jail back to de wall
Dis brown-skin man cause of it all."

Independently, a Mr. Aldrich collected these folk lines in 1909:

"I laid in jail, back to the wall
Brown skin gal cause of it all
I've got the blues; I'm too damn mean to talk
A brown skin woman make a bull-dog break his chain"

John Hurt, who was 17 years old in 1909, recorded a "Got The Blues, Can't Be Satisfied."

Franklin Seals included "I got the blues, can't be satisfied today" in his "Baby Seals Blues," published in August, 1912 -- before Handy published his first blues.

Another popular subject in the earliest known blues lyrics, paralleling not being satisfied, was crying. Butler May was quoted as singing these lyrics as of early 1914: "I got the blues but I ain't going to cry." The earliest published blues song had been two years before that, "The Blues (But I'm Too Blamed Mean To Cry)" by Smith and Brymn. Years before that, Odum had collected "I got the blues but too damn mean to cry."