Mahmoth's Music 2: "Here's a nice tune. 'Bout where you get your food."
Ry Cooder, 'How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live', from a bootleg of the man, live in Denver, May 1974
Link.
Moving on from a cover of Ry Cooder to Ry covering someone else... Originally recorded by a man named Blind Alfred Reed some time around the turn of the century, this is a song I just keep coming back to. Where the original, and even the album version of Ry's cover tend towards over-orchestration and an inappropriately upbeat tone, the lone, sliding guitar seems to fit perfectly with the lament of the words themselves. Other than the quality of the song and the cover itself (Ry is a genius of a guitarist, as the rest of the bootleg and most of his work easily prove), I love this song as the easy words and the pace lend it perfectly to singing while walking, which is an old habit of mine. Any thing like this, or songs like "Wayfaring Stranger" tend to lodge themselves in my head and give me something to do to pass the time and keep a pace while walking. More recently, the thing's been updated by Bruce Springsteen as a gospelish criticism of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which makes a good, impressive song, but, as they say, you can't march to it...