Origins: 'Hard To Love ' Lyrics-- cryptic meaning

Subject: Origins: 'Hard To Love ' Lyrics-- cryptic meaning
From: GUEST,buskerjoe
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 03:17 AM

can anyone help me decipher the cryptic meaning of some of the lyrics to "Hard To Love?" I've got a recording of Alan Block singing it. Some of the words say:

I thought i heard sam robertson say
Slave in the White Oak Mountains
   You've been a 'damned fool all of your life
Now drink right from this fountain.


and

I wish i'd never been a co-op
   or worked for T.H. Wilson

and later....

billy drives a wagon
and sometimes rides a mule
and he ain't got time to fool with you
he's busy in that pool.

sound like a work-specific story. lumbering? mining, quarrying? where are the white oak mountains? i called the man i' learned it from, but he's no longer able to remember, or cognate, or i caught him on a bad day.

if you can help, pls send me a shout, i'm a streetsinger, & it's a good enough song even with only the syllables and much of the meaning missing. but if i know the back-story, how much better!!

[e-mail]

gracias, amigos!

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Hard To Love ' Lyrics-- cryptic meaning
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 05:25 PM

I went looking for a song called HARD TO LOVE and I found this one but I doubt that it's the right one. It doesn't contain anything like what you have quoted. What are the other verses like?

Allmusic.com lists around 51 recordings of various songs called HARD TO LOVE. A few of them are denoted "folk" or "traditional."

There was an Alan Block who wrote several country songs, notably "Walkin' after Midnight," which Patsy Cline recorded in 1957. But I can't find any recordings that he made, so I doubt he is the right person. Can you tell us any more about your Alan Block? Are you sure you have the spelling right? Could it be Allan or Allen or Bloch? Spelling is crucial when using a search engine.

What else can you tell us about the song? Like, was it ever recorded? On what album? How long ago?

There are many places called White Oak Mountain.