You Better Lie Down
Captain got a way he got to stop
O’ waking me up at four o’clock.
All o’ you old, long time rounders,
You Better Lie Down.
Look mighty cloudy but it ain’t gon’ rain.
Look on the table it’s the same old thing.
All of you old, long time rounders,
You Better Lie Down.
Lay down late, but you get up soon.
Ain’t seen nothin’ but the stars and the moon.
All of you old, long time rounders,
You Better Lie Down.
Big piece o’ bacon and a little streak o’ lean;
Strong cup o’ coffee, ain’t no sugar been seen.*
All of you old, long time rounders,
You Better Lie Down.
If I’d a-known my Captain was mean,
I never would-a left St. Augustine.
All of you old, long time rounders,
You Better Lie Down.
Lay down late but you get up soon.
Ain’t seen nothin’ but the stars and the moon.
All of you old, long time rounders,
You Better Lie Down.
Might be crazy, but I ain’t no fool.
I’m goin’ back to Florida where I won’t have to plough no mule.
All of you old, long time rounders,
You Better Lie Down.
Look might cloudy but it ain’t gon’ rain.
Look on the table it’s the same old thing.
All of you old, long time rounders,
You Better Lie Down.
GUITAR:
This tune is played on the L’Arrivee, in what Murray called “Double-C Tuning”: C-G-C-G-C-E. I capoed at the second fret for the recording. Because of the alternating parallel strings (CGCGC), there is some octave use of the figures accomplished by skipping strings in the same fret, which can lend an almost twelve-string sound to the track.
From the playing of Emmett Murray (1911-198?), recorded by Dwight Devane on April 8, 1980 in Pahokee, FL and including a verse from the singing of Fred Lee Fox*, recorded in the mid-1930’s. My thanks to Dwight Rogers and Gail Gillespie for loaning me these recordings. Born in Moultrie, Georgia, Murray worked in the turpentine camps and in the cane fields in Florida before leaving the camp life and settling down to grow vegetables near Lake Okachobee. His recordings, issued by the Florida Folklife office, which may now be defunct, are well worth hunting down. Here’s to Dwight Devane and other folklorists everywhere for recording the old heads.