Short Life of Trouble

DESCRIPTION: "Short life of trouble, A few more words apart, A short life of trouble, dear girl, For a boy with a broken heart." The singer reminds the girl that she promised to marry him. He takes the train out of town and/or hopes the grave will be his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Burnett & Rutherford)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 127, "Pass the Drunkard By" (1 text, with a first verse in which the girl describes Mama's advice against drunkards but otherwise like the usual versions)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee, 32, pp. 58-59, "The First Thing I Owned Was a Pistol" (1 text, 1 tune, with the "short life" chorus used as the second verse and several other verses which might have floated in)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #57, "Short Life of Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune, opening with a "Moonshiner" verse but the rest is "Short Life of Trouble")
ST RcSLOT (Full)
Roud #3418
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Short Life of Trouble" (Paramount 3290, 1931)
[Clarence "Tom"] Ashley & [Clarence] Greene, "Short Life of Trouble" (Perfect 12800/Banner 32427/Romeo 5129/Oriole 8129 [all as Ashley & Green]/Conqueror 8149 [as Ashley & Greene], 1932; rec. Nov. 30, 1931; on Ashley04 as by the Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers)
Blue Sky Boys, "Short Life of Trouble" (Bluebird B-8829/Montgomery Ward M-8849, 1941; rec. 1940)
Burnett & Rutherford, "A Short Life of Trouble" (Columbia 15133-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01)
Charlie Glenn, "Short Life of Troubles" (Piotr-Archive #6, recorded 07/14/2020)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Short Life of Trouble" (Victor V-40105, 1928; on GraysonWhitter01, LostProv1)
Haywood County Ramblers (probably Clarence Ashley, Gwen Foster, Dock Walsh, ? Medford), "Short Life in Trouble" (Victor, unissued, recorded May 28, 1931)
Buell Kazee, "Short Life of Trouble" (Brunswick 214, 1928; on KMM)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers (or Wade Mainer), "Short Life and It's Trouble" (Bluebird B-6936, 1937)
Riley Puckett, "Short Life of Trouble" (Decca 5442, 1937)
Doc Watson & Arnold Watson, "A Short Life of Trouble" (on WatsonAshley01)
File: RcSLOT

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