John D Loudermilk - Tobacco Road

First performance: 20/01/1991

Coverinfo

Bruce covered the song 2 times
 
 
1994-06-27 House Of Blues, West Hollywood, CA
Bruce performs the song only once as he was guesting the House Of Blues Band, the generic name for the house bands at the venues in the House of Blues ( chain of live music concert halls and restaurants ) in 1994. Springsteen made a guest appearance with the West Hollywood branch version of the band, which at the time included Danny Federici.
 
 
Bruce joins Max Weinberg, Tim McLoone, and others onstage at a benefit for singer Jim Faulkner. First known Springsteen performance of "Tobacco Road".
 

Songinfo

"Tobacco Road" is a blues song written and first recorded by John D. Loudermilk in 1960 .Originally framed as a folk song, "Tobacco Road" was a semi-autobiographical tale of growing up in Durham, North Carolina. Released on Columbia Records, it was not a hit for Loudermilk, achieving only minor chart success in Australia. 
 
 
 

Bruce on the artist

Lyrics

I was born in a trunk
Mama died and my daddy got drunk
Let me hear two dying crows
In the middle of tobacco road
Grew up in a rusty shack
All I owned was hanging on my back
Only lord knows how I loved tobacco road
But it's hard, hard the only life I've ever known
But the lord knows how I loved
Tobacco road
Gonna leave, get a job
With the help of the tree some God
Save my money, get rich enough
Bring it back to tobacco road
Bring dynamite and a crane
Blow it up and start all over again
Build a town be proud to show
Give the name tobacco road
'Cause it's hard, hard the only life I've ever known
I despise you 'cause you're filthy
But I love you 'cause you're home
Bring dynamite and a crane
Blow it up start all over again
Build a town be proud to know
This place called tobacco road
'Cause it's hard, hard the only life I've ever known
But the lord knows how I love
Tobacco road