“All I've Got's Gone”

Description

Singer describes hard times: People selling farms; automobiles repossessed; banks with no money to lend. Farmers should have stuck with mules, not tractors. Dandy young men now "plowin' and a-grubbin'." His partner has drunk up all the white lightning.

Long description

Singer describes hard times; people have had to sell their farms and leave; their automobiles have been repossessed. He goes to the bank for a loan; they have no money left either. He reproaches other farmers for buying tractors, saying they should have stuck with mules; young men, who had been getting all duded up, are now, "plowin' and a-grubbin'"; women likewise, for, "All they've got's gone." To cap everything, his partner has drunk up all the white lightning.

Notes

The song was originally written after a disastrous flood in 1907, but was adapted for the circumstances of the Great Depression. It should be noted that conditions on the farms had already been bad for several years before the stock market crashed in 1929.

Despite the "nonballad" keyword, there's a disjointed narrative here, so I've indexed it. - PJS

Recordings

• Uncle Dave Macon, "All I've Got's Gone" (Vocalion 14904, 1924; Vocalion 5051, c. 1926)
• Asa Martin, "All I've Got's Gone" (Champion 16539, 1932)
• Oddie McWinders, "All I've Got Is Gone" (Crown 3398, 1932)
• New Lost City Ramblers, "All I've Got's Gone" (on NLCR09)
• Ernest Stoneman, "All I've Got's Gone" (OKeh 45009, 1925; on HardTimes1); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "All I've Got's Gone" (Edison 52489, 1929; rec. 1928); Ernest Stoneman [and Eddie Stoneman], "All I Got's Gone" (Vocalion 02901, rec. 1934); "All I Got's Gone" (on Autoharp01)