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Talking Fishing Blues Lyrics

Artist: Woody Guthrie (Buy Woody Guthrie CDs)
Album: This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings, Volume 1

I went down to the fishing hole,
And I set down with my fishing pole;
Somethin' grabb'd my hook and it got my bait
And Jerked me out in the middle of the lake.
Huh it was some jump boy,
I got sunk, kinda baptized on credit.

Fishin' down on th' muddy bank,
Felt a pull an' give a big yank,
I drug out three old rubber boots,
A Ford radiator an' a Chevrolet coop
(Nothin' but Junk, so I handed it in
For National Defence).

Settin' in a boat with a bucket of beer,
Hadn't caught nuthin' but didn't much care,
I guess I was pretty well satisfied,
Had my little woman right by my side
(Takin' it easy, just waitin'
Worm been gone off-a that hook for a couple of hours.
I was busy).

When you go fishin', tell y' what to do,
Go set down by the grassy dew,
Take a piece of string, tie it on yo' pole,
Throw it way out in th' middle of th' hole.
Find you a good shady tree and then just set down.
(Go to sleep, forget all about it
Can't catch nuthin' here anyways.)

Well I walked out to a sandy bar,
And I caught myself a big alligator gar,
Drug him home across my back,
Tail was dragging a mile and a half,
Flippin' an' floppin'. I sold him for a quarter.
(Shot craps, got in Jall.)

Jumped in the river and went down deep,
There was a hundred pound cat-fish lying there asleep,
Well I jumped on his back and rode him all aroun'
Saddled him up and I came into town.
People came runnin', lookin', dogs a-barkin'
(Kids a-squallin').

Early one mornin' I took me a notion,
To go out fishin' in the middle of the ocean,
Well, throwed me a line, I got me a shark,
I didn't get him home till way past dark.
(Was he a man-eater, tough customer.
But he wasn't quite tough enough.)

Late last night I had me a dream,
I was out fishin' in a whiskey stream,
Baited my hook with apple-jack,
Threw out a drink, drug a gallon back.
(Done pretty good till the creek run dry.
I give the fish back to the finance company.)

Comments/Interpretations

by This is an awesome song on 5/17/2008 10:08am
Woody was an awesome storyteller. I can see my brotherin-laws == We need more of this!