As an example of the misunderstanding, deliberate twisting of the words of a phonograph blues, or lapse of memory, the following instance may be cited. In the Chain Gang Blues this stanza occurs.
Judge he gave me six months
’Cause I wouldn’t go to work.
From sunrise to sunset
I ain’t got no time to shirk.
A Southern Negro on a chain gang recently sang it thus:
Judge he give me sentence
’Cause I wouldn’t go to work.
From sunrise to sunset
I don’t have no other clean shirt.