| Lyrics: | SO LONG IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YUH
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I've sung this song, but I'll sing it again,
Of the people
I've met and the places I've seen.
Of some of the troubles that bothered my mind
And a lot
of good people that I've left behind, saying:
So long, it's been good to know
yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know
yuh.
What a long time since I've been home,
And I've gotta be driftin'
along.
The sweethearts they sat in the dark and they sparked.
They hugged and they
kissed in that dusty old dark.
They sighed and they cried and they hugged and they
kissed,
But instead of marriage they talked like this: Honey,
CHORUS
Written by Woody Guthrie. Copyright 1940, 1950, 1951, 1968,
1977
by Folkways Music Publishers, Inc. The melody in the verse is
taken from "The Ballad
of Billy the Kid" and the chorus is a
variant of Huddie (Leadbelly) Ledbetter's "Goodnight
Irene." But
Woody turned and twisted both verse and chorus until they had
achieved the
rakish angle appropriate this his own jaunty lyrics.
NOTE (RG): Above is Weavers version.
Woody's (older) song goes:
I've sung this song, and I'll sing it again
Of the place
where I lived, on the wild windy plain
In a month called April, a county called Gray
Here
is what all of the people there say: (Well, it's...)
cho:
So long, it's been
good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good
to know yuh.
But this dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home
And I've gotta be
driftin' along.
Well the dust storm came, it came like thunder
It dusted us over, it
dusted us under;
It blocked all the traffic and blocked out the sun,
And straightway for
home all the people did run (singin'...)
cho:
The sweethearts sat in the dark
and they sparked,
They hugged and they kissed in that dusty old dark;
They sighed and they
cried and they hugged and they kissed
But instead of marriage, they were talkin' like this:
(Honey,...)
cho:
The telephone rang. It jumped off the wall,
That was the
preacher, a-makin' his call.
He said, "Kind friends, this may the end
You have your last
chance at salvation from sin!"
cho: (optional this time)
Well, the churches
was jammed and the churches was packed,
But that dusty old dust storm it blew so
black
That the preacher could not read a word of his text,
So he folded his specs, took up
a collection, (Sayin'...)
cho:
FURTHER NOTE: Homer and Jethro, C&W
parodists (who were once
described as "the Stone Age Smothers Brothers", produced
a
version with the verses:
I went down to the barn, as has been my rule;
Went
down to milk, had a pail and a stool.
The cow tossed her head and she swished 'round her
tail
And planted her left hind foot smack in the pail.
I said, "Listen here, Bossy, stop
pawin' the ground.
I had a hard night, I was slippin' around."
She looked at me with her
eyes big and brown
And said "You just hang on, boy, I'll jump up and down."
(I
said...)
cho:
Copyright Ludlow Music, Inc.
Recorded by Weavers
(also by Woody on Stinson, I think)
filename[ SOLONGIT
DC RG
===DOCUMENT BOUNDARY |
