The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #41010   Message #590094
Posted By: masato sakurai
10-Nov-01 - 11:08 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Motherless Child Sees a Hard Time
Subject: Lyr Add: MOTHERLESS CHILDREN (Carter Family)
"Motherless Children" is in the DT (CLICK HERE), but the Carter Family version is:

MOTHERLESS CHILDREN

Motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead
Motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead
They are driven out in the cold, God knows where to go
Motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead

[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]

Orphan children sees a hard time in this world
Orphan children sees a hard time in this world
Sister does the best she can, but she really don't understand
Orphan children sees a hard time in this world

Brother won't treat you like mother will when your mother is dead
Brother won't treat you like mother will when your mother is dead
You may ask for a piece of bread, you are told to go to bed
Motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead

[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]

Orphan children sees a hard time in this world
Orphan children sees a hard time in this world
Sister does the best she can, but she really don't understand
Orphan children sees a hard time in this world

[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]

Friends won't treat you like mother will when your mother is dead
Friends won't treat you like mother will when your mother is dead
They will tell you what to do, but they'll turn their back on you
Motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead

[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]

Orphan children sees a hard time in this world
Orphan children sees a hard time in this world
Sister does the best she can, but she really don't understand
Orphan children sees a hard time in this world

SOURCE: Song texts of the original Carter Family

Charles Wolfe says in notes to The Carter Family: In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain (Bear Family): "Motherless Childen was a gospel song the family learned from Leslie Riddle. It appears to date from 1904, when it was copyrighted by S.C. Brown (words) and Charles Driscoll (music). The powerful, rough-voiced Blind Willie Johnson had recorded it for Columbia a couple of years before the Carters did theirs. Their recording emerged as one of their strongest."

~Masato