Sonny Boy Williamson - Help Me

First performance: 00/09/1968


Coverinfo

Bruce covered the song only once:
 
 
1968-09-00 Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ 
  
Springsteen (along with fellow Earth-band members John Graham and Michael Burke) entered Ocean County College in September 1968. Bruce ended up staying for three semesters, dropping out in December 1969 shortly after his parents moved to California. Earth is believed to have performed several times at Ocean County College during the September to December 1968 period. Springsteen even contributed a piece of poetry to Seascape, the school's Literary Yearbook. The twenty-six mentioned songs are taken from the only known Earth-era repertoire listing. The document is likely to have been created by Springsteen in September or October 1968. The amount of tracks displayed, their sequencing, plus the header and numbering notation by Bruce, all point to this as being an inventory of Earth's live repertoire of 'cover' material. For this reason it is of greater historical significance than an individual gig setlist, particularly in that no Earth audio is circulating. A few of these songs are performance hold-overs from the The Castiles-era. Since Earth was a three-piece band it's hardly surprising that material from both Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience (the era's two premier three-piece bands) are abundantly represented. 
 
 
  
photo credit Billy Smith
 

Songinfo

"Help Me" is a blues standard first recorded by Sonny Boy Williamson II in 1963.The song, a mid-tempo twelve-bar blues, is credited to Williamson, Willie Dixon, and Ralph Bass and is based on the 1962 instrumental hit "Green Onions" by Booker T. and the MGs. The song was later included on the 1966 Williamson compilation More Folk Blues. Later covered by Ten Years After, 1967.
 
 
  

Other cover versions

 
 

Bruce on the artist

Lyrics

You got to help me, now; I can't do it all by myself
You got to help me, now; I can't do it all by myself
You know if you don't help me, darling, I'll have to find myself somebody else
I my have to wash, I may have to sew, I may have to cook
I might mop the floor; but you help me baby
If you don't help me, darling, I'll have to find somebody else
When I walk, you walk with me; and when I talk, you talk with me
Oh, baby, I can't do it all by myself
Bring my nightshirt; put your mornin' gown
Bring my nightshirt; put your mornin' gown
You know if you don't help me, darling, I'll have to find myself somebody else
You're talking about your woman, I wish to God man that you could see mine
You're talking about your woman, I wish to God man that you could see mine
Every time the little girl starts to loving she bring eyesight to the blind