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  1. Proverbial Rag

From the recording Singles

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Proverbial Rag

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This song's got a 40-year history so far. Charlottesville's great blues guitarist Doug Day taught me Mississippi John Hurt's "Candyman" about 1981, and I would sit on the porch messing with that piedmont fingerpicking style for hours. Soon I'd put together this rag, but it was 20 years before I added the words and recorded it. And now 20 years after that I've remastered it to give it a little more clarity.

Listening to it for the first time in years, I'm kinda surprised about a couple of things. I used to play fiddle? And the microphone caught a few passable phrases of it? Also, why wasn't I swinging the guitar part more? Probably nervous. And what's with all the reverb? Oh, well, if your old recordings make you cringe a little, maybe it means you've grown as an artist.

Lyrics

They say you can't go home, but I never went away
And if I ever got on the road, I wouldn't last a day
Well I'm late to bed and late to rise, I'm sick and poor and, money-wise,
I'm another day older and deeper in debt, and I got bills to pay

I leapt before I looked, didn't stitch in time
Hesitated and lost; now I popped all nine
Well I wanted cause I wasted, wasted cause I hasted, started from scratch when I shoulda cut and pasted
As the saying said I made my bed, now I won't lie

You can't make a silk purse from the ear of a sow no matter how you try
So don't throw them precious pearls in front of the swine
You get irked if you try to teach a pig to sing. It annoys the critter, and it don't learn a thing
And you might as well jump out of the pan and right into the fire

I couldn't even boil water cause I watched the pot
Finally put my idle hands to work in the devil's workshop
Well it's worse to be sorry than to be safe but I cut off my nose despite my face
And it looks like I spoiled the child when I spared the rod

You can lead a horse to the water trough, but don't look it in the mouth
Like shutting the barn door after the horse gets out
They say that pride goeth before a fall
But it feels so good when you finally stop banging you head on the wall

I woke a sleeping old dog, tried to teach it new tricks
More than one way to fall off a log, and oil and water don't mix
Well I counted my chicks before they hatched, put all them eggs in one little basket
Shoulda left well enough alone; if it ain't broke, don't fix it