The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #8925   Message #516309
Posted By: GUEST,john kidder (kidder@telus.net)
27-Jul-01 - 05:23 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: East Texas Red (Woody Guthrie)
Subject: RE: East Texas Red
I have been singing this song for years, along the lines of the version given by Art Thieme, from a distantly remembered version of Cisco Houston doing it at the Newport Folk Festival in the late 50s.

My version is a little different from Art's - I think the sixth verse goes like this [inserts in square brackets]

Then on one cold and foggy day they caught them a gulfbound train, They shivered and shook with [the dough in their clothes] to the scrub-oak flats again, [In their warm suits of clothes and their overcoats, they walked into a store, And they paid that man for some meat and stuff, just to boil that stew once more.]

This eliminates the repeated last lines in Art's verses six and seven. In addition, I have always felt that there was something missing from even this version - I had a chance to ask Mark Ross at the Vancouver Folk Festival last month, and he recited the other lyrics - I did not have a chance to write them down, but will get them from Mark and post to this thread when I can