Here is my transcription of Tommy Johnson's "Canned Heat Blues" as it appears on the compilation CD "My Rough and Rowdy Ways, Vol. 1," Yazoo #2039, 1998. Some of the words are very hard to understand. I have diligently compared my transcription with others I have found on the web (including the ones found here and here in the Forum), and played the CD over and over until I am satisfied that mine is better—but see the footnote.

CANNED HEAT BLUES

Crying, Canned, Canned Heat, mama, crying, sure, Lord, killing me.
Crying, Canned Heat, mama, sure, Lord, killing me.
Take Alcorub to take these Canned Heat blues.

Crying mam', mama, mama, you know, Canned Heat killing me.
Crying mama, mama, mama, crying, Canned Heat is killing me.
Canned Heat don't kill me, crying, babe, I'll never die.

I woke up, up this morning with Canned Heat on my mind.
Woke up this morning, Canned Heat was on my mind.
Woke up this morning with Canned Heat on, on my mind.

Crying, Lord, Lord, I wonder, Canned Heat, Lord, killing me.
Take Alcorub, baby, to ... my soul*
Take a brown-skinned woman to do the easy roll.

I woke up, up this morning crying, Canned Heat round my bed.
Run here, somebody. Take these Canned Heat blues.
Run here, somebody and take these Canned Heat blues

Crying mama, mama, mama, crying, Canned Heat killing me
B'lieve to my soul, Lord, it gon' kill me dead.
[Third "line" is guitar only.]

*Other web sites transcribe these words as "to satisfy my soul." That line has the advantage of making a sort of sense, so if I had to sing something in public, I'd probably sing "to satisfy my soul." However, I'm sure that's NOT what Tommy Johnson sang.

Phonetically, it sounds like "to read 'bout my soul" but that makes no sense, to me at least.

Logically, he seems to be saying, in verse 1, that he uses Alcorub [another brand name] as a hangover cure, but Canned Heat is still his "drug of choice." Therefore it seems unlikely that he would say that Alcorub "satisfies his soul."

I am open to suggestions about what he did say.