Lyrics: Elizabeth Cotten
Music: Elizabeth Cotten
Played by Jerry Garcia in acoustic sets with the Grateful Dead,
and also with the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band and in sets with John Kahn.
Jerry dedicated his performance with JGAB on 6 December 1987 to the memory of Elizabeth Cotten, who had died earlier in the year
(thanks to Dan for pointing this out).
Robett Hunter played a fragment in 1997 as part of an Elizabeth Cotten medley.
This is the version played by the Grateful Dead on "Reckoning":
Been all around this whole round world(a) For years, I had this as "... I get home to you" but Mike Scroggins spotted the error and pointed it out to me
And I just got back today
I work all the week, honey, and I give it all to you (note a)
Honey baby what more can I do
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
You know this life I'm living is mighty high
One old woman, Lord, in this town
Keep a-telling her lies on me
Wish to my soul that old woman would die
Keep a-telling her lies on me
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
You know this life I'm living is very high
Been all around this whole round world
And I just got back today
Work all week, honey, and I get home to you
Honey baby what more can I do
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
You know this life I'm living is very high
Keep a-telling her lies all week
You know this lie I'm living is flying by
Grateful Dead Recordings | |||||
Date | Album | ||||
30 Sep 1980 | Reckoning (note 1) | ||||
9 Oct 1980 | The Warfield, San Francisco, CA 10/9/80 & 10/10/80 | ||||
23 Oct 1980 | Reckoning (note 2) | ||||
25 Apr 1981 | Sing Out! Bear's Sonic Journals | ||||
Jerry Garcia Recordings | |||||
Date | Album | Recorded By | |||
studio 1976 | Reflections | Jerry Garcia (note 3) | |||
27 Jan 1986 | GarciaLive Volume 14 | Jerry Garcia/John Kahn | |||
28 Feb 1986 | Pure Jerry: Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium | Jerry Garcia/John Kahn | |||
29 Aug 1987 | Electric On The Eel (bonus disc) | Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band | |||
28 Oct 1987 | On Broadway: Act One | Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band | |||
31 Oct 1987 | Pure Jerry 2: Lunt-Fontanne | Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band | |||
6 Dec 1987 | Almost Acoustic | Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band |
One old woman, Lord, in this townMike Seeger's liner notes say "An unusual blues sung around the Chapel Hill area." In his notes to the song in the "Old-Time String Band Songbook" he similarly says: "A country blues that Elizabeth Cotten learned around her home near Chapel Hill, North Carolina."
Keeps a-telling her lies on me
Wish to my soul that old woman would die
Keep a-telling her lies on me
Chorus
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
Oh babe, it ain't no lie
You know this life I'm living is very high
Been all around this whole round world
Lord I just got back today
Work all week hon and I give it to you
Honey baby what more can I do
[chorus]
"They asked me to do 'Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie'. That's the song I wrote about a lady who lived next door to us. My mother had to go to work and this lady would teach children. She told my mother something: made my mother punish me. They hurt me all the day. 'Cause I know what she told my mum was not true.
"That song's 'bout me getting punished. My feelings got hurt, 'cause I did not do what Miss Mary said I did. And I used cry in a bed, and a little verse came to me, a pretty tune came to me, and I made a little song, a little tune I love.
"I used sit on this long porch we had at home. She lived here [Cotten gestures to her left]. I said, 'Glad to see you like to see' so she could hear me.
I was sitting and sing this song, as loud as I want to. And it was about her, and I get playing, and she said to me, 'Sis, that's a pretty song you sang!' You know what I want to say, don't you? 'It's about you!' But I wasn't daresay to let her know. I just say, 'Thank you.' I wasn't daresay to let her know. I didn't let my mother know this little verse was about her, cause mama would punish me sur 'nuff I guess.
And now, they both dead, and they don't know. And don't hear--I don't reckon they do? (laugh) You think they do? Anyway, I feel free to explain and sing it!"