I've Been All Around This World
First recording and first release by "Grandpa" Jones (1944 / February 1946)
- Written by
- [Traditional]
- Publication date
- 1940
- Language
- English
- Comments
-
“I’ve Been All Around This World” has been collected under such titles as "Diggin' on the New Railroad", “The Gambler, ” “My Father Was a Gambler,” “The New Railroad,” “The Hobo’s Lament,” “The Hobo’s Blues” and "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me". In 1930, George Milburn published a book entitled the Hobo’s Hornbook that included a version of “I’ve Been All Round this World”. It was also found in Henry Marvin Belden's "Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society". The book was printed in 1940 but the song was "secured by Miss Frances Barbour in 1917 from the singing of Minnie Doyle of Arlington, Phelps County [MO]".
Working on the new railroad with mud up to my knees (x2)
Working for big John Henry and he’s so hard to please,
I’ve been all around this world.
Hang me, oh hang me and I’ll be dead and gone (x2)e,
It’s not the hanging that I mind it’s layin’ in the jail so long,
I’ve been all around this world.
Up on the Blue Ridge Mountains it’s there I’ll take my stand (x2),
With a rifle on my shoulder, six shooter in my hand,
I’ve been all around this world.
Lulu, oh lulu come and open up the door (x2)
Before I have to open it with my old .44,
I’ve been all around this world.
When you go a fishing, take a hook and line (x2)
When you go a courting don’t never look behind,
I’ve been all around this world. - Licensing
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