About The Song
“Long Gone Lonesome Blues” is a 1950 song by Hank Williams. It was Williams’ second number-one single on the Country & Western chart. “Long Gone Lonesome Blues” stayed on the charts for weeks, with five weeks at the top.
“Long Gone Lonesome Blues” is quite similar in form and style to Williams’ previous number-one hit “Lovesick Blues”. Biographer Colin Escott speculates that Hank deliberately utilized the similar title, tempo, and yodels because, although he had scored five top-5 hits since “Lovesick Blues” had topped the charts, he had not had another number one.[4] Williams had been carrying the title around in his head for a while but it was not until he went on a fishing trip with songwriter Vic McAlpin that the inspiration to write the song took hold:
“They left early to drive out to the Tennessee River where it broadens into Kentucky Lake, but Hank had been unable to sleep on the trip, and was noodling around with the title all the way. As McAlpin told journalist Roger Williams, he and Hank were already out on the lake when McAlpin became frustrated with Hank’s preoccupation. ‘You come here to fish or watch the fish swim by?’ he said, and suddenly Hank had the key that unlocked the song for him. ‘Hey!’ he said. ‘That’s the first line!’
Williams bought out McAlpin’s meager share in the song and took sole credit. The tune was recorded in Nashville at Castle Studio with Fred Rose producing on January 9, 1950 and featured Jerry Rivers (fiddle), Don Helms (steel guitar), Bob McNett (lead guitar), Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), and Ernie Newton (bass). The song’s bluesy guitar intro, high falsettos, and Hank’s suicidal yet irresistibly catchy lyrics, sent it soaring to the top of the country charts on March 25, 1950.
The song became one of Williams’s best known songs. Three decades later, another American troubadour, Bruce Springsteen, would gain the inspiration to write one of his best known songs, “The River,” from the opening lines of “Long Gone Lonesome Blues.”
Video
Lyrics
Long Gone Lonesome Blues
I went down to the river to watch the fish swim by
But I got to the river so lonesome I wanted to die, oh Lord
And then I jumped in the river, but the doggone river was dry
She’s long gone and now I’m lonesome blue
Well, I had me a woman who couldn’t be true
She made me for my money and she made me blue
A man needs a woman that he can lean on
But my leaning post is done left and gone
She’s long gone and now I’m lonesome blue
I’m gonna find me a river, one that’s cold as ice
And when I find me that river, Lord, I’m gonna pay the price, oh Lord
I’m going down in it three times, but Lord I’m only coming up twice
She’s long gone and now I’m lonesome blue
Oh well, she told me on Sunday, she was checkin’ me out
Long about Monday she was nowhere about
And here it is Tuesday, I ain’t had no news
I got them gone but not forgotten blues
She’s long gone, and now I’m lonesome blue
That’s a good one, man
