aka "Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do" From Paul Oliver's book 'Songsters and Saints' this was collected by Howard Odum as 'T'aint Nobody's Busisness But My Own' which, to quote from 'Songsters and Saints, Songs of the Ragtime Era' was in the opinion of Howard Odum, 'represented the more reckless temperament of the wanderer'. Lyrics collected were:
I went to see my Hanner turn tricks in the manner T'aint nobodys business but my own
Don't care if I don't make a dollar Je'so I wear my shirt and collar T'aint nobodys business but my own
It is suggested that the versions recorded by Frank Stokes with Dan Sane at the end of August 1928 and the version Nobody's Dirty Business recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in February 1928 derives from this 'tradition'.
The versions recorded by Sara Martin and Anna Meyers in 1922 and by Bessie Smith, Lena Wilson and Alberta Hunter in 1923 were versions of the song published by Porter Grainger, though this published version, it is suggested, derives originally from the 'traditional' material that was being performed in the first decade of the 1900's.