Redo Pop Song 184 of 500 'Man of Constant Sorrow' Dick Burnett 1913

Redo Pop Song 184 of 500 'Man of Constant Sorrow' Dick Burnett 1913

My first version on yamaha digital acoustic piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksl1ZS2cVLE&t=4s

Public interest in the song was renewed after the release of the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?,

The song was first published in 1913 with the title "Farewell Song" in a six-song songbook by Dick Burnett, titled Songs Sung by R. D. Burnett—The Blind Man—Monticello, Kentucky. There exists some uncertainty as to whether Dick Burnett is the original writer. In an interview he gave toward the end of his life, he was asked about the song:

Charles Wolfe: "What about this "Farewell Song" – 'I am a man of constant sorrow' – did you write it?" Richard Burnett: "No, I think I got the ballad from somebody – I dunno. It may be my song

A number of similar songs were found in Kentucky and Virginia in the early 20th century. English folk song collector Cecil Sharp collected four versions of the song in 1917–1918 as "In Old Virginny", which were published in 1932 in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians.The lyrics were different in details from Burnett's but similar in tone. In a version from 1918 by Mrs Frances Richards, who probably learned it from her father, the first verse is nearly identical to Burnett's & Arthur's lyrics, with minor changes like Virginia substituting for Kentucky

I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my days
I'll say goodbye to Colorado
Where I was born and partly raised
Your mother says that I'm a stranger
My face you'll never see no more
But there's one promise, darling
I'll see you on God's golden shore
Through this open world, I'm about to ramble
Through ice and snow, sleet and rain
I'm about to ride that mornin' railroad
Perhaps I'll die on that train
I'm going back to Colorado
Place that I started from
If I'd knowed how bad you'd treat me
Honey, I never would have come