Thursday I was tried,
Friday wid chain gang band,
Saturday pick an’ shovel,
Sunday I took my rest,
Monday wanta do my best.
Perhaps the most common concept found in the chain gang and road songs and appearing here and there in all manner of song is the concept of a letter from home, the inability to go home without “ready money,” the attempt to borrow from the captain, or to get a parole.
Every, every mail day,
I gits letter from my mother,
Cryin’, “Son, come home,
Lawdy, son, come home.”