Lyr Req: I Laid My Mother Away (Hank Williams)

Subject: Lyr Req: I Laid my Mother Away
From: wilco
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 01:39 PM

I think this was a very minor Hank Williams sr. song. Anybody know it. Supposed to be one Hank cited as a "real" heartbreaker.

Thanks1!!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Laid my Mother Away
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 02:05 PM

I found Mother is Gone but I don't think it's the right one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Laid my Mother Away
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 01:01 AM

no reference found that HW ever recorded a song by that title...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Laid my Mother Away
From: Mr Happy
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 08:00 AM

there's a similar line in 'will the circle be unbroken'

its in dt as 'can the circle be unbroken'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Laid my Mother Away
From: masato sakurai
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 09:19 AM

"Dear Brother" ("Dear brother, Mama left us this morning / Yes, the angels took her away") isn't the one.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Laid my Mother Away
From: wilco
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 11:14 AM

Although I don't have the book here now (I returned it to the library yesterday), this song was quoted in a magazine interview (Time, I think) with Hank Sr. in the early fifties. I can't recall the exact quote, but Hank was explaining the popularity of "hillbilly" music. He said that you had to really "grow up hard" and "know them blues" to put your soul into a song. He also said that "... you had to smell a whole lot of mure manure... following a plow..." And, he mentioned "I laid my Mother Away" as the song that really tore your heart out.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Laid my Mother Away
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 07:59 AM

I found the quote you mentioned, in an article called "Influences on The Band" by Peter Viney:

Hank Williams
(Country Music) can be explained in just one word, sincerity. When a hillbilly sings a crazy song, he feels crazy. When he sings "I Laid My Mother Away" he sees her a-laying there right in the coffin. He sings more sincere than most entertainers because the hillbilly was raised rougher than most entertainers. You got to know a lot about hard work. You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly. The people who has been raised something like the hillbilly has knows what he is singing about and appreciates it.

That page says the quote comes from Rufus Jarman, "Country Music Goes to Town" (1953) quoted in "Country Music USA" by Bill C. Malone (U. of Texas, 1985).

The context makes it seem like "I Laid My Mother Away" might not be the title of a real song, but a hypothetical one, or maybe a phrase from a song.

Anyway, it's the only thing Google came up with for "I Laid My Mother Away".

Great quote, isn't it?