"Workin' on a Building"
SONG OF THE WEEK!
SONG OF THE WEEK! “Workin’ on a Building”
…For years this gospel song has been a staple of my live set, played with equal fervor in churches, dive bars, concert halls, wherever. It’s believed it came from a 19th Century calypso work song sung by slaves in the Caribbean, and that crossed into the lexicon of Negro spirituals. In the 1920s it became popular and is now a blues-gospel standard, famously played by BB King, Bill Monroe, Elvis Presley, The 77s, Swan Silvertones, and other notables. I learned it from the Blue Ridge Rangers/John Fogerty version, which he drew from the touchstone 1934 Carter Family record—Oddly, A.P. Carter copyrighted it and added his writing credit even though it was already credited to Lillian Bowles and Winifred O. Hoyle (with slightly different lyrics).
Meanwhile, you don’t have to be a carpenter to get the floor plan of this song…
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