Song Lyric Sunday – Baby Please Don’t Go

Jim Adams has prompted us with Did, Didn’t, Do, Don’t, Does and Doesn’t for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. I started looking and came up with at least 20 songs in the first 10 minutes so I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with today.

I have chosen an old song, “Baby Please Don’t Go”, that several bands have recorded over the years but my personal favorite was by the 60’s band Them with the great Van Morrison. I hope you enjoy this old video. Look how young Van was!!

“Baby Please Don’t Go” was one of the earliest songs recorded by Them, fronted by a 19-year-old Van Morrison. Their rendition of the song was derived from a version recorded by John Lee Hooker in 1949 as “Don’t Go Baby”. Hooker’s song later appeared on a 1959 album, Highway of Blues, which Van Morrison heard and felt was “something really unique and different” with “more soul” than he had previously heard. 

Them recorded “Baby, Please Don’t Go” for Decca Records in October 1964. Besides Morrison, there is conflicting information about who participated in the session. In addition to the group’s original members (guitarist Billy Harrison, bassist Alan Henderson, drummer Ronnie Millings, and keyboard player Eric Wrixon), others have been suggested: Pat McAuley on keyboards, Bobby Graham on a second drum kit, Jimmy Page on second guitar, and Peter Bardens on keyboards. As Page biographer George Case notes, “There is a dispute over whether it is Page’s piercing blues line that defines the song, if he only played a run Harrison had already devised, or if Page only backed up Harrison himself”.  Morrison has acknowledged Page’s participation in the early sessions: “He played rhythm guitar on one thing and doubled a bass riff on the other” and Morrison biographer Johnny Rogan notes that Page “doubled the distinctive riff already worked out by Billy Harrison”.

“Baby, Please Don’t Go” was released as Them’s second single on November 6, 1964. With the B-side, “Gloria”, it became their first hit, reaching number ten on the UK Singles Chart in February 1965. The single was released in the US in 1965, but only “Gloria” became a hit the following year. The song was not included on Them’s original British or American albums (The Angry Young Them and Them Again), however, it has appeared on several compilation albums, such as The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison and The Best of Van Morrison. When it was reissued in 1991 as a single in the UK, it reached number 65 in the chart. Van Morrison also accompanied John Lee Hooker during a 1992 performance, where Hooker sings and plays “Baby, Please Don’t Go” on guitar while sitting on a dock, with harmonica backing by Morrison; it was released on the 2004 Come See About Me Hooker DVD.

Lyrics
Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go down to New Orleans
You know I love you, so, baby, please don't go

Baby, your mind done gone
Well, your mind done gone
Well, your mind done gone, left the county farm
You had the shackles on; baby, please don't go

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog to get you way down here
I'll make you walk alone; baby, please don't go, hey

Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go down to New Orleans
You know I love you, so, baby, please don't go

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog to get you way down here
Make you walk alone; baby, please don't go

Know how I feel right now?
My baby leavin' on that midnight train, and I'm cryin'
Baby, please don't go
Oh, baby, please don't go

Baby, please don't go down to New Orleans
You know I love you, so, baby, please don't go yeah
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog

Before I be your dog to get you way down here
I make you walk alone; baby, please don't go, yeah
All right

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Joe Williams