Week 60: If You Don’t Want Me Baby



Mississippi John Hurt

The Song

“If You Don’t Want Me Baby” is an original song by John Hurt first released on his 1966 album ‘Today’. The song was reportedly written in a difficult time in his marriage.

It is played in the key of D in open D tuning. Tune your guitar, low to high, to D A D F# A D. The song, like nearly all of MJH’s tunes, features an alternating bassline jumping between the two bass D strings. It is a haunting and lonesome piece, it’s relative straightforward to play but very difficult to give it the same feel that John puts into it.

There are two chords in the song – the root D and the 5th A played as a 7th. The switch between the root and 5th chord creates the lonesome feeling with the only chord change being to a big tension chord. Over the top of this John plays a melody that mixes major and minor tones.

The main riff is established in the intro and continues throughout the piece. It takes a bit of getting used to – although it is relatively simple the timing of it is quite difficult, especially at the brisk tempo John uses. The entire song is played in a quick shuffle, but it seems the off beat notes are delayed a micro second. Each bar starts with the open low D, then the chord really kicks in on the 2nd beat of the bar. This also can take a bit of time to get used to.

The D sections start with a slide up to the major 3rd on 2 strings before returning to the main riff. It feels like this part should go for 2 bars instead of the one bar that John plays. The change to A7 feels the same – it just feels more natural to play it for twice as long as John does and to add a few melody notes to it.

That’s the beauty of this piece – relatively simple once you get used to the speed and get the alternating thumb working the bass, and very nice to improvise over and make your own. A great song to spend some time with if haven’t played around with open D tuning.

The Lyrics

D If you don't want me, baby, got to have me anyhow A7 D If you don't want me, baby, got to have me anyhow It was late last night when everything was still Well, me and your baby eased out on the hill I tried my best to do my father's will I tried my best to do my father's will Don't want me, baby, got to have me anyhow Don't want me, baby, got to have me anyhow The sun go down, ain't this a lonesome place? The sun goin' down and ain't this a lonesome place? So lonesome here, can't see in my baby's face It's so lonesome here, I can't see in my baby's face You don't want me, baby, got to have me anyhow Don't want me, baby, got to have me anyhow

The Intro



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The Progression



Verse 1

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$6.0 $4./4.$1./4 4 $6.0 $2.0 $4.0.$1.0 2 | $6.0 $4.0.$1.0 $2.2 $6.0.$1.0 $2.2 $4.3 $3.0 | $6.0.$2.0 $4.0.$1.0 $2.2 $6.0.$1.0 $2.2 $4.3 $3.0 | $6.0 $4.2.$1.2.$2.0 $1.2.$2.0 $6.0 $3.1 $4.2.$1.2.$2.0 $1.2.$2.0 | $6.0 $4.0.$1.0 $2.2 $6.0.$1.0 $2.2 $4.3 $3.0 | $6.0 $4.0.$1.0 $2.2 $6.0.$1.0 $2.2 $4.3 $3.0 | $6.0 $4.0.$3.0.$2.0 $1.0 $6.0 $4.0.$3.0.$2.0 | Similar to the intro with an extra bar or two (sometimes an extra half bar) behind the singing, with each ‘verse’ followed by an interval that is pretty much identical to the intro. John walks the bass down every now and then, as seen in bar 5. Here’s the first two verses and interludes, the rest of the song follows this structure with subtle variations.Verse 1InterludeVerse 2Interlude

The Outro



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