A Worried Man

Song Specific Liner Notes
ALBUM	NOTES
The Kingston Trio: Their Greatest Hits and Finest Performances	A Worried Man (Guard-Glazer) An old chain-gang tune reworked by Dave Guard and Tom Glazer, "A Worried Man" showed that work songs could yield popular hits. It describes a man whose sole worry in life is about his girlfriend Sue's faithfulness while he's away on a business trip. The single reached No. 20 in the fall of 1959. Soon afterward, Sam Cooke picked up on the trend and had a No. 2 hit with "Chain Gang" a year later. © 1994 The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. © 1994 The Reader's Digest Association (Canada) Ltd. © 1994 Reader's Digest Association Far East Ltd. Philippine Copyright 1994 Reader's Digest Association Far East Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
The Capitol Years	22: A Worried Man (Dave Guard and Tom Glazer) 2:51 Master #31764 recorded June 1, 1959 Single 4371 Both Dave and Bob played banjo on "A Worried Man," the Trio's follow-up to M.T.A. It was derived by Dave Guard and Tom Glazer from the traditional "Worried Man Blues" (if Glazer's name sounds familiar it's probably because he's to blame for the 1963 Top Twenty Hit "On Top of Spaghetti," also derived from a traditional song ["On Top of Old Smokey"] and now considered a children's classic). "A Worried Man" is HERE WE GO AGAIN's Closing track.
Other Notes of Interest
Posted by David Ruiz to the Crossroads board on 8/8/2003, 6:08 pm	There was some discussion . . . about "Worried Man" . . . Some argue that if the Trio had stuck to the "original" version, they wouldn't have had a hit with it. My question is, what is the original version and how do the lyrics differ? The only other version I'm familiar with is the Carter Family's. Are there earlier versions? What did the Trio do to make it "hit" material? Instrumentation maybe?
Posted by Question to the Crossroads board Mark on 8/9/2003, 12:56 pm	Perusing various lyric sites on the web will lead, I'm sure, to many lyrical variations of Worried Man or Worried Man Blues. I think Moonplop gave as good as any explanation of what made the KT/Guard version gel so well. [I think it was the wink-wink, nudge-nudge lyrics along with a familiar and easy to sing chorus in those very repressed times, but that very cool back roll on the five string intro didn't hurt. It's an open question what closet Guard was referring to on top of two verses about the insatiable Sue, but people knew it was scandalous. Or something. Of course, the lyric field of the Trio is full of harlots and women who long to be buried in Y-shaped coffins (as Blackadder has said), as well as the men who kill them and then get hanged for it. Or not. But not all of them are featured in songs as self deprecating as this one by the Trio. It makes me cringe today, but I sure loved it once. - Moonplop ] Here's some interesting tidbits to share about Worried Man Blues from the book, "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone, the Carter Family and their Legacy in American Music" by Mark Zwonitzer & Charles Hirshberg. All excerpts are referencing the Carter Family's Worried Man Blues song. "Carter Family songs like Wildwood Flower, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man, and Worried Man Blues have been making new hits through eight decades, for stars such as Woody Guthrie, Earl Scruggs, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Lucinda Williams." (page 4) "In 'Worried Man Blues' a man goes across the river to sleep, wakes up a prisoner in chains, and has no idea what he's done wrong. That song spoke a simple unjustifiable truth. Some men were born to the poor and lonesome class in America, and despite the national promise that class was hard to escape. Even if somebody did, the hellhounds stayed on his trail. Having come up in Poor Valley, A.P. (Carter) had to know dep down his own good fortune could vaporize, without reason. If life in Poor Valley ahd taught him anything, it taught him that truth." (page 138) "A.P. Carter's worldly debts were cleared within ten months of his death. Sale of his livestock brought in $457.33, his household goods $45, and his lst plat of tobacco $371.35. But the biggest check that winter came from Ralph Peer's (publishing) company. The Kingston Trio had recently recorded a version of Worried Man Blues and both Columbia and RCA were re-releasing original Carter recordings as LP albums." Now, a differing question. Did A.P. Carter really write Worried Man Blues? Was he the borrower or the donor? A clue might reside in bluesman Charlie Patton's song, Down the Dirt Road Blues, from 1929, who's first verse goes, "I'm goin' away to a world unknown. I'm goin' away to a world unknown. I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long." Now, I haven't been able to pinpoint exactly when AP Carter's Worried Many Blues became the Carter Family's hit song, so I can't say which song preceded the other. But, as with AP Carter it is also with Charlie Patton. Was he really the borrower or the donor? And, if both borrowed, which is also a possibility, who exactly was the original donor of Worried Man Blues? We'll probably never know as our history of folk music is really an incomplete one as it really is our history of "recorded" folk music not of folk music itself. QM
Posted by Steve Dalton to the Crossroads board on 8/9/2003, 4:24 pm	Alan Lomax wrote the following about Worried Man in his book "American Folk Songs" published in 1964: "The most prolific and spontaneous song-maker in modern America is the hillbilly - the last American to be urbanized - the southern mountaineer who comes into town, gets a job, buys a guitar and adapts his ancient traditional heritage to songs of city standards. Today, commercial hillbilly music is heard everywhere, on records, in films, and via radio and television. The genuine hillbilly songs, such as Worried Man, Birmingham Jail, and others, have become a permanent part of the American folksong repertoire, appealing precisely because they are hybids, showing Britsh, Negro, and urban popular song influences." Lomax gives the following verses and the same chorus that the KT used: I went across the river, and I laid down to sleep (3X) When I woke up, I had shackles on my feet Twenty nine links of chain around my leg (3X) And on each link, the initials of my name I asked the judge what might be my fine (3X) Twenty one years on the R. C. Mountain line The train arrived, sixteen coaches long (3X) The girl I loved is on that train and gone If anyone asks you who composed this song (3X) Tell him 'twas I, and I sing it all night long

Nick Reynolds (vocal (solo #2), guitar), Bob Shane (vocal (solo #1), banjo), Dave Guard (vocal (solo #3), guitar), Buck Wheat (bass) 10-6-00:


					Personnel: --->>> Tom Drake, Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Frank Hamilton, Jimmy Bond (bass)
Nick Reynolds (vocal, guitar), Bob Shane (vocal, guitar), George Grove (vocal, guitar), Paul Gabrielson (bass), Ben Schubert (fiddle, tenor guitar), Tom Green (drums):

Bob Shane (vocal, guitar), George Grove (vocal, guitar), Bob Haworth (vocal, guitar), Cary Black (bass) Tom Green (percussion), Ben Schubert (viola, guitar), Frank Sanchez (drums):

Nick Reynolds (vocal, guitar), Bob Shane (vocal, guitar), George Grove (vocal, banjo), Paul Gabrielson (bass), Ben Schubert (fiddle, tenor guitar), Tom Green (drums):

Bob Shane (vocal, guitar), George Grove (vocal, guitar), Bob Haworth (vocal, guitar), Ben Schubert (bass):

Covers by other artists
Artist's Name	ALBUM	CATALOG NO.
The Gateway Singers (I Won't Be Worried Long)	". . . On the Lot" (1959)	Warner Bros. WS-1295


Last revised: April 18, 2006.