Hard, Ain't It Hard: Lyrics

Woody Guthrie

• CD Best Of The Vanguard Years
• CD Songs Of Woody Guthrie
• CD Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie (With Woody)

   Chorus:
   It's hard and it's hard ain't it hard
   To love one that never did love you
   It's hard and it's hard, ain't it hard, great God
   To love one that never will be true

The first time I seen my darlin' true love,
He was a-walkin' by my door,
The next time I saw his false-hearted smile,
He was dead on his cooling board.

   Chorus:

There is a house in this old town,
That's where my true love lays around.
And takes other women right down on his knee,
And tells them a tale he won't tell me.

   Chorus:

Don't you go to drinking and gambling,
Don't go there your sorrows to drown.
That hard liquor place is a low-down disgrace,
The meanest damn place in this town.

   Chorus:

Of note:

Though likely to cause conflict, this is among my least favorite Cisco performances. The lyrics make no sense "the next time I saw him he was dead." How is that a true love? Worse than Romeo and Juliet, this "love" is apparently based upon one look and no words. If the singing were good, I'd forgive that. Sure do it on plenty of other songs. But this one is strained, ugly and boring.

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