Hank Williams - I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)

First performance: 20/09/1978

Coverinfo

Bruce soundchecked the song only once: 
 
 
1978-09-20 Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ 
 
During a fascinating soundcheck, taped from outside the venue before the show. In the middle of a three-night stand at the Capitol, Bruce works through several Hank Williams and other classics.
 
Covers Soundcheck:

Songinfo

"I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" is a song written and originally recorded by Hank Williams. According to Colin Escott's 2004 book Hank Williams: The Biography, fiddler Jerry Rivers always claimed that Hank wrote the song in the touring Sedan, and when he came up with the opening line, "Today I passed you on the street," and then asked for suggestions, steel guitarist Don Helms replied, "And I smelled your rotten feet." It was released as the B-side of "Howlin' at the Moon". Williams sang the song with Anita Carter on the Kate Smith Evening Hour on April 23, 1952. The rare television appearance is one of the few film clips of Williams in performance. 
 
 
 

Bruce on the artist

During the keynote speech at the 2012 South by Southwest music conference : 
 
"I remember sitting in my little apartment, playing "Hank Williams Greatest Hits" over and over. And I was trying to crack its code, because at first it just didn't sound good to me. It just sounded cranky and old–fashioned. But it was that hard country voice and I'm playing it, and it was an austere instrumentation. But slowly, slowly, my ears became accustomed to it, it's beautiful simplicity, and it's darkness and depth. And Hank Williams went from archival, to alive for me, before my very eyes."
 
Bruce also referes in some songs to lyrics from Williams 
 
I went down to the river to watch the fish swim by
But when I got to the river so lonesome I wanted to die, oh Lord
So that I jumped in the river, but the doggone river was dry
She's long gone, and now I'm lonesome blue
 
 
  

Lyrics

Today I passed you on the street
And my heart fell at your feet
I can't help it if I'm still in love with you
Somebody else stood by your side
And she looked so satisfied
I can't help it if I'm still in love with you
A picture from the past came slowly stealing
As I brushed your arm and stood so close to you
Suddenly I got that old time feeling
I can't help it if I'm still in love with you
It's hard to know another's lips have kissed you
And held you just the way I used to do
Heaven only knows how much I've missed you
I can't help it if I'm still in love with you
Oh, I can't help it if I'm still in love with you