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Song of the day

(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask, and I'll do a full rundown like here)

"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" Bob Dylan, 1963

"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright " was first written in 1962 and was first released in 1963. It's based on Paul Clayton's song, "Who's gonna buy you Ribbons ?(When I'm Gone)" released 1960

in Dylan: A Biography by Bob Spitz, he writes,

"Some time before the song appeared, he [bob dylan] ran into Clayton, Van Ronk, and Barry Kornfeld, another Village folksinger, at which time he said, 'Hey, man—I really dig ‘Who’s Gonna Buy Your Ribbon Saw.’ I’m gonna use that.' No one gave it a second thought. Clayton himself had copied it from an old music-hall number called 'Who’s Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I’m Gone.' The guys figured, 'Fair enough—Bob’ll probably do a nifty variation on the theme.' Unfortunately, 'Don’t Think Twice' is a dead ringer for 'Ribbon Saw'" (p.200)

and the lyrics, despite both songs being short, are very similar.

Stephen Wilson, Paul Claytons Roomate says

"[Paul Clayton] had taken two different ideas. I know this from Clayton’s own lips. He slightly changed the tune to ‘Call Me Old Black Dog.’ The words were a song he’d picked up a sheet copy of in the University of Virginia library, called ‘Who’s Gonna Buy You Chickens When I’m Gone.’ He liked the idea of it" Paul Clayton and the Folksong Revival by Bob Coltman, 2008 p. 132

Despite multiple accounts in Spitz's biography of Bob Dylan of "Who's Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I'm Gone" being a popular traditional folk song that Cynthia Gooding claimed to perform twice, there exists no recorcing or publishing of its lyrics in this Time period. The closest thing i could find was the song "Whos Goñ Bring You Chickens?" from "Eight Negro Songs (From Bedford co. Virginia)" collected and published by Francis H. Abbott in 1923

since there were no recordings available for this song, i also digitally reproduced the sheet music and recorded the song using sheetmusic reader software

here's just the vocal melody

the other song mentioned, "Call me Old black dog," is a traditional folk song with many different variations, including possibly "Salty dog." from what i could tell it was first recorded in 1929 by Dick Justice

and in 1930, by Bayless Rose

these two versions of "Black Dog Blues," the chicken version of the song, and Paul Clayton's version all remind me very very heavily of the song, "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad"

specifically this one by elizabeth cotten (1958)

and this one by Woody guthrie (1938-1940)

"Goin' Down that road feeling bad" was first recorded in 1923 by Henry Whitter as "Lonesome Road blues"

i don't know where else to put this but i also think Phil Ochs' "When I'm Gone" (1966) could have been inspired by one of these songs (in my opinion Paul Clayton's, as it sounds similar to the others to me)

Based on the biography interviews, it seems that Bob Dylan was widely criticized by other folk singers not for covering and changing a traditional folk song (that's a commonplace practice in folk music) but for copyrighting both the lyrics and the melody to this song, rather than just crediting the melody as "traditional" or just mentioning paul clayton at all. While Paul Clayton was struggling to make money, "Don't Think twice, it's Alright," made a lot. Either way, "Don't Think Twice, Its Alright" is a staple of the genre and has defined folk for a generation.