Lyr Add: Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotten

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotten)
From: Suffet
Date: 28 Feb 09 - 11:46 AM

You can now see that video of me performing It Ain't No Lie on You Tube. Just click here.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotten)
From: GUEST,Mark Cool
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 09:53 PM

I learned the tune from my teacher, Dana Klipp. Dana was Libba's accompanist in her last years in Syracuse, my hometown. When I was a tenen I studied with Dana. He taught me all of her tunes; Freight Train, Babe it ain't no lie, Graduation March, Honeybaby your papa cares for you, Wilson Rag, etc. I still play this stuff live, and put a version of Babe it aint't no lie on my last cd, Introducing Mark Cool and the Folk Stars. Sold Gold, the Libba material. Nothing quite like it in my book. I've been listening to Etta Baker alot lately. Interesting the parallels between her and Libba, and Mississippi John Hurt. They all have tunes that sound similar, but with different names.

Subject: RE: ADD: Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotten)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Apr 17 - 08:04 PM

Here are the lyrics we have in the Digital Tradition. Are they correct? I got a message from somebody today who thinks the chorus ends "Lord this life I'm living is very high." I can see his point. To me, it sounds like "high" after the first verse, and "hard" after the second.

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OH, BABE IT AIN'T NO LIE

One old woman, Lord, in this town
Keeps a telling lies on me.
Wish to my soul that she would die, Lord,
She's telling lies on me.

Chorus:
Oh, babe, it ain't no lie,
Oh, babe, it ain't no lie,
Oh, babe, it ain't no lie,
This life I'm living is very hard.

Been all around this whole round world,
Lord, and I just got back today.
Work all the week, honey and I give it all to you,
Honey babe, what more can I do?

Probably traditional, from the singing of Elizabeth Cotten.

filename[ AINTLIE
PT DB MK

It appears that the lyrics came from this 1997 post from Peter Timmermann (click)

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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry, which allows for both high and hard.

Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie

DESCRIPTION: Singer says that one old woman in the town is lying about her, and wishes the old woman would die. "Been all around this whole round world/I just got back today.... Oh, babe, it ain't no lie (x3), (Know) this life I'm living is very (hard/high)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Elizabeth Cotten)
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad floatingverses hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 121, "Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 184, "Oh, Babe, It Ain't No Lie" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" (on Cotten01)
NOTES: Elizabeth Cotten learned this song from country blues singers around Chapel Hill, NC. - PJS
I would note that the versions I've heard of this piece are very diverse; most seem to consist of floating lyrics (or at least themes) held together by the chorus "Oh babe, it ain't no lie." - RBW
File: CSW121

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Subject: ADD Version: Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (Cotten)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Apr 17 - 08:55 PM

The song is on Smithsonian/Folkways album SF 40009, Elizabeth Cotten: Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes. Here are the lyrics from the CD booklet (which I think is wrong about "women"):

OH BABE IT AIN'T NO LIE
An unusual blues sung around the Chapel Hill area

One old women Lord in this town
Keeps a-telling her lies on me.
Wish to my soul that old women would die
Keeps a-telling her lies on me.

CHORUS:
Oh babe it ain't no lie,
Oh babe it ain't no lie,
Oh babe it ain't no lie,
Know this life I'm living is very high.

Been all around this whole round world,
Lord I just got back today.
Work all the week, hon and I give it all to you,
Honey baby what more can I do?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GFM6B0oQ8M

Here's a live performance - you gotta see this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhQLxGmU4QA

Subject: ADD Version: Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (Cotten)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Apr 17 - 09:10 PM

OH BABE IT AIN'T NO LIE

One old woman, Lord, in this town,
Keep a-telling her lies on me.
Wish to my soul that old woman would die,
Keep a-telling her lies on me.

CHORUS:
Oh, babe, it ain't no lie,
Oh, babe, it ain't no lie,
Oh, babe, it ain't no lie,
Know this life I'm living is very high.

Been all around this whole round world,
Lord, I just got back today.
Work all the week, hon, and I give it all to you,
Honey, baby, what more can I do?


Notes: A country blues that Elizabeth Cotten learned around her home near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her "country ragtime" style and beautifully reserved manner of playing have become very popular in the cities. She plays a standard guitar left-handed.

Source: Old-Time String Band Songbook, edited by John Cohen and Mike Seeger, Musical Transcriptions by Hally Wood. Oak Publications, 1964 & 1976, page 121

Subject: RE: ADD: Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotten)
From: Jackaroodave
Date: 15 Apr 17 - 09:19 PM

On her Smithsonian Folkways album, Freight Train and Other North Carolina Songs and Tunes, she definitely sings "This life I'm living is very high." It rhymes exactly with "lie" in the line before.

The vowel ending of "high" comprises a low back vowel (roughly "ah") and a glide to a high front vowel (roughly ee). If you say ah-ee rapidly, then make it one syllable, you'll come up with something like "eye."

In some dialects of English, the glide is omitted, leaving ah. You see this often in eye-diakect dialogue: "Ah jes dunno."

As you know, some dialects drop r unless it precedes a vowel: "Pahk yuh cah in Hahvahd Yahd."

In some dialects then, "are" and "I" are both pronounced roughly "ah." The only difference, then, between "high" and "hard" is the final d in the latter.

In the song, that d is absent. The last two lines of the refrain rhyme perfectly:"lie" is pronounced "lah."

I wouldn't make such a meal of this, except it's a long-standing and respectable conflict, and it makes such a difference in the tone of the song. In one, the speaker bemoans being picked on; in the other she disdains the slander and suggests a motive.

Subject: ADD Verse: Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Apr 17 - 09:28 PM

This is such a great song, it could use another verse. Bill Staines has a nice third verse on his Old Dogs album:

Been down so long, Lord it looks like up to me,
Yet nobody seems to care;
Sittin' here thinkin' that if trouble were money,
Then I'd be a millionaire.

Don't know if Staines wrote the verse or not, but it works.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: ADD: Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (Elizabeth Cotten)
From: Mark Ross
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 09:53 AM

Miss Libba used to say that she wrote this for the woman next door who tattled on her. Libba said she took great delight in sitting on her front porch and playing and singing it as loud as she could. The mean woman next door looked over and said what a nice song that Libba was singing. Libba just smiled and thanked her.

Mark Ross