Ain't Going To Work Tomorrow: A Song History
The Carter Family recorded "I Ain't Goin' to Work Tomorrow" in Camden, New Jersey, on May 10, 1928, with Sara Carter playing autoharp and Maybelle Carter on guitar.[1] Victor released it that year on Victor 21517, paired with "Chewing Gum" from the same session.[2] The same take was also issued on Montgomery Ward M-7019, and Victor's ledgers name A. P. Carter as the song's composer.[1] Sources differ on authorship: Mainly Norfolk describes it as one of A. P. Carter's songs yet also tags it as traditional, under Roud number 16534.[3]
Winslow Homer, The Nooning, wood engraving, 1873. Shown for its subject, a midday rest; it has no connection to the song.
The sources consulted here say little about where the song came from before 1928; in his notes to his 2018 album Late Cut, the singer Steve Turner gave his view that it is a form of an American folk song he named as "Going to Leave This Country."[3] Maybelle Carter returned to it 24 years later, when the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle recorded it in Nashville for Columbia in 1952.[4] Across the Atlantic, the Scots-Danish folk group Kontraband sang it on their 1983 album North Star, crediting it to A. P. Carter.[3]
Jim Miller includes it in 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1, a collection of 15 solo mountain dulcimer arrangements with tablature, lyrics and chord symbols, published by Fingers Of Steel.[5]
Sources
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-45025. I ain't goin' to work tomorrow / Carter Family".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor 21517".
- Mainly Norfolk: "Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix CO48557. I ain't gonna work tomorrow / The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Jim Miller, 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1".
- Image: Winslow Homer, The Nooning, wood engraving, 1873. The Cleveland Museum of Art.