I didn’t have no,
No ready-made money,
I couldn’t go home,
Lawd, couldn’t go home.
A constant source of song is the conflict between actual conditions and desirable ends, between life as it is and ideals of wishful dreaming. “I want to go home,” says the workman, but “I don’t want no trouble wid de walker.” The resulting product is absence from home, absence of trouble with the captain or walker, and abundance of song.
I don’t want no trouble,
I don’t want no trouble,
I don’t want no trouble wid de walker.
Lawd, Lawd, I wanta go home.
Me an’ my buddy jes’ come,