Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?

Subject: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: GUEST,Fifer
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 06:54 PM

Same Pete Seeger album. lyrics go as follows
"On a Monday, I was arrested,
on a Tuesday, they locked me up in jail,
on a Wednesday, my trial was tested,
on a Thursday, they wouldn't even give me bail

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Joybell
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:10 PM

This song is called "Almost Done" from memory. Haven't had a chance to look on Google yet. Someone will probably beat me to it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: GUEST,Fifer
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:28 PM

Thanks joybell. tried google, and got tied in knots looking, with a singular lack of sucess! But on past experience, I'm not very good at it! If someone is better than I am at sourcing this sort of thing then please help!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: dwditty
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:31 PM

This is the Ry Cooder version of this Huddie Ledbetter tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Joybell
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:42 PM

Ok I'm not too good at links yet but I just tried too. This song is part of a Leadbelly song called "Black Betty"
I remembered a hit song, of Johnny Cash's from the 60s and I just found it. He called it "I Got Stripes" and it seems to be an extended idea. On the sites I found it is credited to Johnny Cash. I wonder if Johnny Cash claimed authorship or someone else did for him. He clearly used Leadbelly's song as a starting point.
Funny how all this works.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Snuffy
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 08:01 PM

I've got this recorded by Lonnie Donegan on Donegan on Stage (EP), Pye-Nixa NEP 24075, February 1958, where the title is On A Monday, and the credit is trad, arr. Leadbetter.

The EP also has Mule Skinner Blues

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: GUEST,Fifer
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 08:12 PM

THANKS EVERYBODY! GOT IT!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 08:32 PM

See the thread: Lyrics for On a Monday. Lyrics with music & chords are in Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, eds., The Leadbelly Songbook (Oak, 1962, p. 79), as "On a Monday (Almost Done).".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: okthen
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 04:43 AM

In the above link, there's reference to the line "I aint gonna ring them yellow womens doorbell" I allways thought the line was "I aint gonna bring them yellow women no bill" as a reference to chinese women coming to the jail once a week to collect the laundry which was paid for by whoever was in jail.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: GUEST,Cookieless Nickp
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 11:16 AM

Martin Jenkins (later of Whippersnapper) used to do a great version with the early line-up of Hedgehog Pie when I was at college in NE UK in the 70's. Always wondered what he actually sang, now I know....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Joybell
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 04:41 PM

My husband tells the story about Lonnie Donigan's manager threatening Leadbelly with a law suit if he didn't stop using Donnigan's material. The material Donnigan got from Leadbelly!! Can't remember if it was just one song. Good story. Anyone else heard it? Is it a performers' myth?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 05:18 PM

Lyrics for the Cash version, "I Got Stripes," have been posted in thread 3669 (Lyrics for on a Monday): On a Monday

Also posted there the possibly misheard line "And I ain't gonna bring them yellow women no pail." Or did Ledbetter sing that in one version?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 05:47 PM

dwditty thanks for the link ! I just found five songs Ive done for the last 20 years and what the real words are. I probably will keep singing them as they are in my head but now there is hope for newer things. All the best Guy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: GUEST,Barkley
Date: 05 Oct 09 - 02:36 PM

My brother just wrote down these lyrics for me as I am gathering old songs, etc. that we remember our parents singing. The tune seems to be similar to "My Bonnie lies over the Ocean", if you are familiar with that old tune. I'm sure the lyrics have gone through my changes as it was remembered by different people over the years.

On Monday we have Bread and Gravy
On Tuesday it's Gravy and Bread.
Wednesday and Thursday it's Gravy on Toast
But that is just Gravy and Bread.
Friday, it's whole wheat and gravy,
Saturday, it's rye bread instead.
But Sunday's a treat, though we never get meat.
We get gravy without any bread,
Oh Yeah, gravy without any bread.

Best Wishes

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Oct 09 - 03:18 PM

Barkley: There have already been a couple of threads about BREAD AND GRAVY. See the list of "Related Threads" near the top of this page.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: GUEST,Uncle Fred
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 03:43 PM

The way it was given in the Sing Out reprint was like this:
On a Monday I was arrested
On a Tuesday they took me into that jail
On a Wednesday my trial was attested
On a Thursday nobody wopuldn't go my bail

And I'm almost done
And I'm almost done
And I'm almost done
And I ain't gon'
      ring them
Yaller women's do' bells. (door bells)

I got stripes, stripes around my shoulders
I got chains, chains around my legs
Well them stripes, stripes they do not worry
But them chains, them chains is
About to kill me dead

You need to get a recording of Leadbelly and listen for when he puts more syllables in a line and simultaneously breaks the single beats down into double beats; like in Midnight Special: I knowed her by the apron, and the dress she wore. The next line he breaks the beats in half and it's: Umba-rella on her shoulder, piece o' paper in her hand.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 03:54 PM

What I heard from Leadelly's singing was:
And I ain't gonna study round them yeller women no more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: dwditty
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 04:13 PM

ON A MONDAY
(Huddie Ledbetter)
(D) - (A) - (C) - (E)

(D) On a Monday, I was ar (A) rested
On a Tuesday, I was locked up in (D) jail
On a Wednesday, my trial was at (A) tested
On a Thursday, nobody would go my (D) bail
(D) Al (C) most (A) done, I'm almost (E) done, (D) al (C) most (A) done
And I ain't gonna bring them yellow women no (D) pail

Take these stripes, stripes from around my shoulder
Take these chains, these chains from around my legs
Lord, these stripes, it sure don't worry me
But these chains, these chain's gonna kill me dead

Yes, I'm almost done, almost done, almost done
And I ain't gonna bring them yellow women no pail

On Friday, my baby went a-walking
On a Saturday, she locked me outa the door
On a Sunday, we were sitting down a-talking
On a Monday, she pawned all of my clothes

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Richie
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 05:09 PM

The early minstrel song is known as Gray Goose,

Richie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 05:33 PM

The version I remember (possibly incorrectly, because it was 30+ years ago) from the Dead Sea Surfers, was
On a Monday I was arrested
On a Tuesday I was in the County jail
On a Wednesday they went and told my sweetheart
On a Thursday she wouldn't go my bail

And I'm almost done
Yes I'm almost done
I'm almost done
And I ain't going to ring them yellow womens' doorbells.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On a Monday, I was arrested?
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 06:25 PM

With regard to joybell's query of 6 Dec 03, above, about Lonnie Donegan's manager threatening Leadbelly with a lawsuit, chronology seems to rule this out. I doubt Donegan had a manager until several years after Leadbelly's decease. Possibly Lonegan's manager threatened Leadbelly's estate, or possibly it's just a good story and we're not meant to let facts get in the way.

Subject: Lyr Add: LORD, IT'S ALL, ALMOST DONE (from Lomaxes
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 02:02 PM

From Our Singing Country collected and compiled by John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941), page 386:


LORD, IT'S ALL, ALMOST DONE
d. No. 225. Negro convict, Wetumka, Ala., 1934. See Od. N, p. 258; BB, p. 26.

1. Take these stripes from, stripes from around my shoulder. Huh!
Take these chains, chains from 'round my leg. Huh!
Say, these stripes, stripes they sure don't worry me, Huh!
But these chains, chains gonna kill me dead. Huh!

CHORUS: Lord, it's all, almost done. Huh!
Lord, it's all, almost done. Huh!
Lord, it's all, almost done.
Nothin' but to bring them yallow womens over here. Huh!

2. An' if it wasn't for, wasn't for my good captain,
Lord, I would of, would of been gone down,
By he liked, liked my hard rollin',
Then he gave me little narrow round.

3. Says, she whispered, whispered to her mother,
"Mother, I can't, can't see how he stand."
Says, "He ain't, ain't but sweet sixteen,
An' they drivin' him like a man."

4. Says, she carried me, carried me to her parlor.
Lord, she cooled me, cooled me with her fan.
Says, she swore by, swore by the man who made her,
"Mother, I do, do love a railroad man."

VARIANT CHORUS: Railroad man ain't got no home. (3x)
Here today, Lord, tomorrow he'll be gone.

5. Well, she told me, told me that she loved me,
Jus' to give my, give my po' heart ease.
Just as soon as, soon as I got in trouble,
Well, she turned her, turned her back on me.

6. On Monday, Monday, I was arrested.
On Tuesday, locked up in jail.
On Wednesday, my trial was attested.
On Thursday, nobody wouldn't go my bail.

7. On Friday, me an' my baby was a-walkin'.
On Saturday, she throwed me out of doors.
On Sunday, me an' my baby was a-talkin'.
On Monday, she pawned all my clothes.

8. Needn't to come here, come here buckin' an' jumpin'.*
Lawd, you sho, sho can't stand.
Lawd, it's ol', ol' buckin' an' jumpin'
Have been the death of, death of many a good man.

* " 'Buckin' an' jumpin' ' or 'buck-jumpin' ' means to do field work the easy, shoddy way and to conceal this fact from your boss or your driver."