Photo by Lonnie Dockery
Well hush up honey
Little darling don’t you cry
Things have got to get better
In the by and by
There ain’t a thing for a poor man in this world
Well I worked through the winter
On into the Spring
Planted corn and taters
But then it wouldn’t rain
There ain’t a thing for a poor man in this world
So I got down on my knees
For rain I thought I’d pray
Along came a great big flood
And washed everything away
There ain’t a thing for a poor man in this world
Work through the summer
On into the fall
All I got for Christmas
Is a pair of overalls
There ain’t a thing for a poor man in this world
Got down on my knees
Looked up to the sky
All that I could think of was to
Ask the Good Lord why
There ain’t a thing for a poor man in this world
Hush up honey
Baby don’t get down
You know that I love you
Every which way around
There ain’t a thing for a poor man in this world
—”Poor Man” written by Frank Proffitt
After our long awaited rain blew down some of our corn I was reminded of the old Frank Profftt song. It’s one of my favorites for several reasons.
- I love the earnestness of the lyrics.
- The faith of talking to the Good Lord when in trouble.
- The hopefulness of him telling his honey not to worry warms my heart.
- My upbringing identifies with the hard luck nature of the song.
- The phrase every which way around reminds me of the way my people talk.
- The tune of the song is one that will stay with you as you go about your day and it’s fun to play on the bass too.
Frank Proffitt is most famous for giving the world “Tom Dooley.”
Paul watched a video that said Proffitt was inspired to write “Poor Man” due to some bitter times he endured. One year folks had cajoled their crops through an extremely dry growing season praying all the while for rain. As the plants neared harvest, along came a great big flood and washed everything away.
Hope you enjoyed the old song as much as I do!
Tipper
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Love Paul’s, Paps & your music. Paul’s talent shines thru as the lead guitarist plus lead singer! Tipper, I know you love hearing Paps voice & miss him greatly. My Mother would be 100 years old & Dad would be 101; I still miss them.
I love that old Frank Profitt song too,
Tipper. Paul & Pap did a very fine job or as my Mother would say “an extree fine job”.
we hadn’t had rain and now all of a sudden we’re getting rain like crazy.
I know it was a BIG disappointment to you all to see that corn laying on the ground but at least some was still standing,hopefully the deer won’t get at it.
Enjoyed the music,that was some good guitar picking.
Regarding songs mentioned in above comments …Merle Haggard”s…If We Make Through December and fellow Kentuckian Tom T. Hall’s …Old Men and Children and Watermelon Wine…they were on my favorites list too.
I remember singing Merle’s while trying get us through the rough Decembers myself.
I remember an old saying…when trouble comes it in threes.
Love it ! You and your family make such beautiful music together! Thank you so much for sharing it with us all !
Great song! They play and sing it so well. It’s a toe-tapper.
One old country song usually reminds me of another. Today, it was two: Walter Brennan’s recitations about “The Farmer and the Lord” and how “Life Gets Tee-jus, Don’t It.” Hadn’t thought of them in a coon’s age. They fit right in with Proffitt’s lyrics. Brennan had one of the most recognizable speaking voices in the entire entertainment industry, past and present.
Loved the lyrics & Pap & Paul’s video. I can relate to how sometimes life goes this way.
Tipper, you are right about that song staying with me all day. I can’t get enough of Pap and Paul’s music.
I am reminded of what happened when Moses first went back to Egypt. Things were bad for his people. He brought them news of hope. Then things got worse. Seems we go our lifelong refining our ideas of good, bad and worse. Guess that’s where the folk saying comes from, “It coulda been worse.” Like this year, we could have had no rain at all. We are forevermore needful one way or another. Thanks for the song and the reminder that we “are born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward”.
I didn’t know Frank Proffitt but I knew his son Gerald. I knew Gerald’s wife Joyce too, and their daughter. The daughter worked for me and now hers is the name I can’t remember. I have an excellent memory but only for the things I don’t desperately need to recall.
I remembered! Her name was Iris!
Dee mention an old post of Old Men, Children and Watermelon Wine. I saw another post of Pap and Paul singing On The Jericho Road, I have been wearing that one out this morning playing it over and over.
Love hearing that beautiful harmony of Paul and Pap. Hoping and praying you get beneficial rain and not a flood that washes everything away. A lesson from this song might be to be careful how you pray.
Happy Sunday! I’ve never heard this song till today, but it sure does speak truth. It seems like sometimes when things seem bad we pray and they seem to get worse, but in reality it’s God teaching us a lesson in how to be content. His crops were doing ok with all the work to keep them growing almost ready to harvest, but like all us humans do we just aren’t satisfied with having to actually work at things, so we pray to get out of the work asking God to do the work for us. Then he answers, but not the way we want him too, so we pucker up and cry about it. I’ve learned this hard lesson many times throughout my life. I have finally learned how to be content in all things. Now that’s not to say from time to time I start to get out of wack, but the Holy Spirit reminds me of struggles from days gone by. Then with those thoughts in mind I’m at peace knowing God is in control and God knows best the outcome of all things in life. I’ve learned to pray as Jesus taught us, “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, meaning whatever your will is Father God is what I want too, because it’s best. The hard part for us all is accepting God’s will and learning to be content with it. It helps us who have a personal relationship with God through his only son Jesus to remember that this world is not our actual home, heaven is. As the song says “ There ain’t a thing for a poor man in this world”. We are all poor in spirit, who needs our Savior to get us through this time on earth so we can one day live in glory.
Paul you did a wonderful job on that song. Your voice is just beautiful!!! Another clip came up titled Old Dogs and Children and watermelon wine and since I love that old song I listened to it also. You did a wonderful job on that one too; well, you do great on them all.
Tipper and Paul, if you look back to July 10, 2009, you will see Miss Cindy’s comment to you both. She was a cheerleader for ya all:) God Bless and have a great week!!
Great read Tipper…thanks….Prayers for Granny and you guys.
A lot of truth in the words of that song. Anyone remember Merl Haggard ‘s song, If We Make It Through December, seems to me it was also about having hard times. My parents didn’t have much in the way of money or wants, but did manage to have our necessities though out their life.They never lost their faith in trusting God. I was showing my son yesterday where some sharecropper homes were on a large tract of land that was planted in cotton when I was a kid. The homes are now gone and the land was planted in pine trees that were recently cut. I told him, a sharecropper only made enough to survive. I have heard it said that no one has more faith than a farmer.
In the last two weeks we have had a little over 1 inch of rain by my rain gauge. One more good chance of rain tonight and tomorrow before going back to the mid to upper 90’s.