Ain't No More Cane
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"Ain't No More Cane" is a traditional prison work song of the American south. The title refers to work assigned to prisoners sentenced to hard labor in Texas - to cut sugar cane along the banks of the Brazos River, where many of the state's prison farms were located in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
It has been recorded by Leadbelly[citation needed], the Limeliters on their album "14 14K Folksongs" (1963), Son Volt, and by The Band on the album The Basement Tapes. Bob Dylan also performed the song live in the early 1960s[1] and his version is on multiple bootleg recordings taken from The Gaslight Cafe. In 2006, Band of Heathens with their distinctive arrangement included it on their Live at Momo's album. In 2007 Lyle Lovett released two versions of the tune on his album It's Not Big, It's Large. On February 16, 2008, Lovett and John Hiatt performed the song live at the Ulster Performing Arts Center in Kingston, New York, along with The Band's Garth Hudson.
"Ain't No More Cane" is featured also in the film Festival Express, in which Rick Danko, Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and various other musicians drunkenly sing it on the train going to the next concert on the tour.
[edit] Lyrics
The lyrics to Leadbelly's version, also used by the Band, are as follows:
- Ain't no more cane on the Brazos
- It's all been ground down to molasses
- You shoulda been on the river in 1910
- They were driving the women just like they drove the men.
- Go down Old Hannah, don'cha rise no more
- Don't you rise up til Judgment Day's for sure
- Ain't no more cane on the Brazos
- It's all been ground down to molasses
- Captain don't you do me like you done poor old Shine
- Well ya drove that bully til he went stone blind
- Wake up on a lifetime, hold up your own head
- Well you may get a pardon and then you might drop dead
- Ain't no more cane on the Brazos
- It's all been ground down to molasses.
The song, as "Ain't No More Cane On The Brazos", was also covered by the singer Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame for his 1990 solo-album Naked Thunder. The Chad Mitchell Trio recorded the song on their 1963 album "Singin' our Mind". Other covers include The Black Crowes. Chris Smithers also covered "No More Cane on The Brazos" on his 1998 CD, "Happier Blue". Bill Staines recorded the song on his 1975 album "Miles." It was also covered by Lonnie Donnegan in 1958. Coved by Canadian band "Crowbar" on "Larger than Life (And Live'r than You've Ever Been)" (1971, Daffodil 2-SBA-16007) (recorded in concert at Massey Hall, Toronto)
[edit] References
- ^ Trager, Oliver (2004). Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. Billboard Books. pp. 6. ISBN 978-0-8230-7974-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=6vFnVz3IaZwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA6,M1.
[edit] External links
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