Lyr Req: Old Man Willis (Tony Joe White)

Subject: Lyr Req: Old Man Willis
From:
Date: 21 May 03 - 10:02 PM

looking for lyrics for Old Man Willis by Tony Joe White. Please help!
thanx.
jm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Willis
From: GUEST,Sorcha
Date: 21 May 03 - 10:29 PM

No luck at at all with lyrics, tab or chords.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Willis (Tony Joe White)
From: Gene
Date: 22 May 03 - 12:25 AM

ELUSIVE...only a slight mention of it on the TJW website..   

The first hit single
Tony Joe's first single was 'Ten More Miles To Louisiana' / 'Georgia Pines'. It was recorded in December 1966 and produced by Ray Stevens.

The title song sounded like a mixture between the Beatles and Herman's Hermits - it was lightyears away from the famous swamp-rock sound of later years.

It took almost two more years until the second single ('Watching The Trains Go By' and 'Old Man Willis') was recorded in October 1968, but it also failed.

It is interesting to note that actually 'Polk Salad Annie' was the successor of 'Old Man Willis' - and not the other way round as one could guess from the popularity of 'Polk Salad Annie' and also from the order in which the two songs appear on long-play albums

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Willis (Tony Joe White)
From: Stewie
Date: 22 May 03 - 09:24 AM

A noisome little ditty about a drunk who carves his wife and children up with a hunting knife. I have it on CD in the Warner Archives series: 'The Best of Tony Joe White'. It seems it is still available: Click Here

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Willis (Tony Joe White)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 May 03 - 10:06 AM

Transcribed from a sound sample at Yahoo! Music:

... He had four coons, a cat, and a hound-dog
That stayed in the same house with him.
They ate from his dinner table, drank from his water bucket,
Slept in the same bed with him.
Old man Willis, where do y'all come from?
He used to chase his young'uns and his wife
With his double-bladed sharp knife. ...

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD MAN WILLIS (Tony Joe White)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 01:38 PM

The tune is so much like POLK SALAD ANNIE that, if he hadn't written both songs himself, he'd 'a' been sued for plagiarism!


OLD MAN WILLIS
As sung by Tony Joe White on "The Best of Tony Joe White" (1993)

Down in West Carroll Parish,
About twenty miles from Arkansas,
Lived a man and his wife and four-five chilluns,
The weirdest people I ever saw.

Old man Willis, where do y'all come from?
He used to chase his young'uns and his wife
With his Jim Bowie huntin' knife.

He had four coons, a cat, and a hound-dog
That stayed in the same house with him.
They ate from his dinner table, drank from his water bucket,
Slept in the same bed with him.

Old man Willis, where do y'all come from?
He used to chase his young'uns an' his wife
With his double-bladed sharp knife.

Lord, my mama said she thought the man was crazy.
Daddy said he's just a drunk.
Lord, an' some people said that he made his livin'
Makin whiskey in the Boeuf River swamps.

Ol' man Willis, where do ya get your bread?
He used to chase his young'uns and his wife
With his double-bladed huntin' knife.

Lord, ya'd see him a-comin' down a big road
In his forty-nine Pontiac,
And mama would holler, "Y'all get under the house
For Mister Willis drive like a maniac."

Ol' man Willis, why do ya drive so bad?
He fin'lly caught his young'uns and his wife
An' slayed 'em with his huntin' knife.

Lord, ha' mercy!

Willis!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Willis (Tony Joe White)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 04:27 PM

http://www.leocort.nl/tjwp8b.html

The site above is Yony Joe White's. The lyrics are there, too. FWIW

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Willis (Tony Joe White)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 04:27 PM

Uh, let's call him Tony instead . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Willis (Tony Joe White)
From: GUEST,Larry Saidman
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 04:14 AM

Interestingly, this song was more closely associated with country singer Nat Stuckey (although Tony Joe White wrote it), who had a minor country hit with it (and was also the title of an album) in 1970.    Not a great recording....but at least when Nat did it, it didn't sound so much like Polk Salad Annie.