“Vesta and Mattie's Blues”
Description
"I've got a belly full o' whiskey an' a head full o' gin, The doctors say t'will kill me but they don't say when." Chorus: ""I'm a long line skinner an' my home's out west, Lookin' for a man to buy me a hobble dress." Verses float between blues
Notes
This looks to me like another one of those blues collections of floating verses (in addition to the first, from "Cocaine Blues" or the like, the second is from "Easy Rider": "Pretty papa, pretty papa, look what you've done: You made your mama love you, now your woman's come"). The notes in Handy, however, imply that it is an actual folk song, so here it is. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Easy Rider" (floating lyrics)
References
- Handy/Silverman-Blues, p. 60, "Vesta and Mattie's Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
- BI, Handy060