Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad (Ian Tyson

Subject: Lyr Add: MAKES A LONG TIME MAN FEEL BAD (Ian&Sylvi
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Aug 19 - 01:47 PM

MAKES A LONG TIME MAN FEEL BAD
As recorded by Ian and Sylvia on “Ian and Sylvia” (1962)

Makes a long-time man feel bad.
Makes a long-time man feel bad.
Can’t get no letters; can’t hear from home.
Makes a long-time man feel bad.

Well, surely my mother must be gone.
Well, surely my mother must be gone.
Well, surely my mother must be gone, O Lord.
Makes a long-time man feel bad.

O Alberta, let your hair grow long.
Alberta, let your hair grow long.
Let it grow so long till it drags the ground.
Alberta, let your hair grow long.

Well, I had five years one time.
I had five years one time.
I had five years one time, O Lord,
But I rode it till I rolled it down.

Makes a long-time man feel bad.
Makes a long-time man feel bad.
Can’t get no letter, can’t hear from home.
Makes a long-time man feel bad.
Makes a long-time man feel bad.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad (Ian Tyson
From: GUEST,"rode" or "rolled"
Date: 25 Jul 19 - 08:54 AM

"Rolling" was working in common prisoner parlance.

Hah. I was looking for lyrics today and who do I find but Barry. Barry Finn was an acquaintence and a real folk scholar of many genres and a good guy. RIP.

Paul Harty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 02:17 AM

Sorry, double axe songs = crosscutting songs.

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 01:40 AM

I should've mentioned that that the "Long Timer's" get to feeling more removed from the outside world the longer their time gets. Not hearing 1st from their girlfriends who no longer are writting them never mind visiting, then news about home, friends & family becomes scarcer & scarcer, until the only news comes from the newer cons & eventually the newer cons become way younger & no longer do they know about anyone you once knew. Lastly your world has become confined to the prison of the farm & never getting a letter from home & those letters are the last connection that goes. "You alone in this world".

Barry

Subject: Lyr Add: I HAD FIVE LONG YEARS (prison work song)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 01:33 AM

"I Had Five Long Years" sung by James Russell (Lead) & gang. From Prison Worksongs-Recorded at Angola (La.) on Arhoolie 1959 by Dr Harry Oster (originally issued as Folklyric). It's been reissued as a CD by Arhoolie Productions.
Just looking at both the CD & the LP, the CD has 5 extra cuts not originally on the LP.

I Had Five Long Years

Oh I had five long years, one time (2x)
But I wrote, oh Lord, my five years down.

Chorus: Make a long time man feel bad (2x)
When he can't get a letter home, oh, get a letter from home.

Oh there must, oh, be a wreck on the road (2x)
'Cause I can't, oh, get a letter from home

Chorus

Roberta, oh let yo' hair hang low (2x)
Just as long buddy as my right arm.

Chorus

Oster has this as "a slow-drag work song, used for hoeing (no not whoring) or cane cutting". He goes on to say it's a variant of "Makes A Longe Time Man Feel Bad".

I just listened to the above version ("I Had Five Long Years") & then 2 other versions of "Makes A Longe Time Man Feel Bad". The 1st song here "I Had Five Long Years" is a slow song compared to the others & sounds by the beat, pace & rhythm to be used here as a cane-cutting song. Russell sings it almost as a field holler which would be in the cane-cutting style rather than hoeing. The 2 versions of "Makes A Longe Time Man Feel Bad" is at a much quicker tempo not at all like a field holler, these are both used as axe songs, much crisper & cleaner (& you hear the axes working). One version is from the Library of Congress-Archive of Folk Culture, "Negro Work Songs & Calls" reissued on Rounder. This version is the quicker of the 2 & is used as a double-cut axe song.
This is sung by Kelly Pace (Lead) & gang at Cummins State Farm, Gould, Ark, 1934. The 2nd version is from the Lomax collection Prison Songs vol. 1 Murderous Home sung by "22" (Lead) & axe group at Mississippi State, Parchman Farm 1947-48 (located on the Yazoo Delta). This is also used as a double axe song though a bit slower than the former. In the sleeve notes Lomax says that this is an old Railroad song by its references to the 'Gulf & Ship Island R.R. which was built in 1887 & absorbed by the Illinois Central System in 1925.

The difference between an axe song & a double axe song is the way the men are grouped around a standing tree (logging would be cutting a felled tree). Let's use a compass, one man stands at N, S, E & West they all swing the axe into the tree from the same direction, all cutting into the tree like using a bat at the same time. On the double-axe songs there are 8 men standing at the same 4 points of the compass. At each point of the compass, the now 2 men standing there stand back to back still facing the tree. Let's say that the original 4 men are swinging their axes into the tree from the right, they all swing in at the same time, & to the song, while the 4 new men are bringing their axes back & will swing again in from the left when the other 4 are bringing their axes back. This is a faster cutting method & more recent method than the other way but it's far more dangerous & a newbie wouldn't be allowed to cut with a gang of this type right away. The danger comes while the axe swings back, if the timing's off the axe may hit the partners neck, hands, shoulder, etc. 5 yrs. of this kind of traumatic bonding might make one really watch their buddy's back.

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Sep 06 - 11:10 PM

"Rode" makes more sense than "rolled", at least to me. Thanks for the comment.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
From: pdq
Date: 21 Sep 06 - 10:41 PM

I have always heard it as '"til I rode it down".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
From: GUEST,SouthernCelt
Date: 21 Sep 06 - 10:36 PM

Thanks, that more or less fits what I can hear clearly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Sep 06 - 09:37 PM

I had five years one time.
And I had five years one time.
And I had five years one time, oh, Lord.
But I rolled till I rolled it down.

That is ALL I could find with a google )in quotation marks) of "I had five years one time."

Subject: Lyr Req: Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
From: GUEST,SouthernCelt
Date: 21 Sep 06 - 01:44 PM

Does anyone know the last line of the 4th verse of "Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad" in the rendition done by Ian Tyson on one of the early Ian & Sylvia albums? Here's all I can make out from the audio and Tyson's version isn't on any databases that I can find:

I had five years one time
I had five years one time
I had five years one time
But I won't ?word? ?word? 'til I can ?word? it ?down?, oh Lord

Thanks for any help.