Almost Done

DESCRIPTION: "Take these stripes from, stripes from 'round my shoulder (huh!) Take these chains, chains from 'round my leg." The singer tells how a girl courted him then betrayed him. Now he is in jail with no one to go his bail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting prison trial punishment betrayal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 94, "Almost Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 386-388, "Lord, It's All, Almost Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 68, "It's Almost Done (On a Monday)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 79, "On a Monday (Almost Done)" (1 text, 1 tune)

Roud #10064
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't Talk About It" (lyrics)
NOTES [35 words]: The Silber text begins "On a Monday I was arrested, on a Tuesday locked in jail." But it admits to being adapted by the Lomaxes, so this may be an added verse. -PJS
It may be based on Lead Belly's version. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LxU094

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.