Sad when you′re sick at home alone
Won't nobody comin' 'round
Sad when you're sick at home alone
Oh, Lord, no one will come around
Just look like everybody tellin' everybody else
Poor boy is sinkin' down
Thousand years my people was a slave
When I was born, they teach me this way
Thousand years my peoples was slaves
When I was born, they teach me this way
Tip your hat to the peoples
Be careful son about what you say
Didn't make no difference if it was rainin′
Do you know, man, you just had to go
Make no difference if it was rainin'
Woah, man, you just had to go
But I′m so glad, I'm so glad, I′m so glad
It ain't slavery time no more
Grandma told Grandpa one mornin'
I′m tired at livin′, I just assume to die
Why these peoples treatin' us this way?
I just can't see the reason why
Grandpa told grandma, "Don't worry
We'll be alright at awhile"
Grandpa told Grandma if we get called back
Just twenty years ago
Everybody wanna get called back old lady
I'm talkin' 'bout twenty years ago
Yes, I would get my shotgun and
I wouldn't be a slave no more
Won't nobody comin' 'round
Sad when you're sick at home alone
Oh, Lord, no one will come around
Just look like everybody tellin' everybody else
Poor boy is sinkin' down
Thousand years my people was a slave
When I was born, they teach me this way
Thousand years my peoples was slaves
When I was born, they teach me this way
Tip your hat to the peoples
Be careful son about what you say
Didn't make no difference if it was rainin′
Do you know, man, you just had to go
Make no difference if it was rainin'
Woah, man, you just had to go
But I′m so glad, I'm so glad, I′m so glad
It ain't slavery time no more
Grandma told Grandpa one mornin'
I′m tired at livin′, I just assume to die
Why these peoples treatin' us this way?
I just can't see the reason why
Grandpa told grandma, "Don't worry
We'll be alright at awhile"
Grandpa told Grandma if we get called back
Just twenty years ago
Everybody wanna get called back old lady
I'm talkin' 'bout twenty years ago
Yes, I would get my shotgun and
I wouldn't be a slave no more
Contributed by Marcello Tagliabue - 2025/11/3 - 21:10
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Questa registrazione è presente nel grande album "Texas Blues" di Hopkins. Robert Santelli, nel suo libro The Best of the Blues: The 101 Essential Albums, descrive la canzone come "una rappresentazione toccante scritta sull'epoca dell'oppressione e sulla ricerca della libertà dei neri".
Hopkins registrò "Slavery Time" il 18 dicembre 1967 insieme ad altre due canzoni di protesta: "Tom Moore Blues" e "Bud Russell Blues". Hopkins era uno dei più grandi improvvisatori del blues e, secondo le note di copertina dell'album "Texas Blues", compose "Slavery Time" subito dopo aver cantato di Tom Moore e Bud Russell.
A un certo punto, Hopkins canta "Sono così contento che non sia più tempo di schiavitù". Ma quel verso era quasi certamente pronunciato con sarcasmo, poiché il verso precedente fa riferimento alla semi-schiavitù della mezzadria e il verso ancora prima descrive come gli era stato insegnato a comportarsi con i bianchi per evitare problemi. Piuttosto che parlare dei giorni della schiavitù, la canzone parlava in realtà di quanto poco fosse cambiato dai tempi della schiavitù.
(Steve Hoffman music forum – Social (racial9 protest in the blues)