"Worried Man Blues" is a folk song in the roots music repertoire. It is cataloged as Roud Folk Song Index No. 4753. Like many folk songs passed by oral tradition, the lyrics vary from version to version, but generally all contain the chorus "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song/It takes a worried man to sing a worried song/I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long." The verses tell the story of a man imprisoned for unknown reasons "I went across the river, and I lay down to sleep/When I woke up, had shackles on my feet", who pines for his lost love, who is "on the train and gone."
Notable recordings and performances
The Carter Family recorded this song for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1930.
The song was recorded by Woody Guthrie in 1940, and in the years that followed by his sometime singing partners Cisco Houston Burl Ives, Ramblin' Jack Elliott (with Derroll Adams), and Pete Seeger. It was included by Seeger in his 1955 "Folksinger's Guitar Guide" instruction record and booklet (Folkways CRB1) as well as his concerts throughout the 1960s. Lonnie Donegan and his band released a skiffle arrangement in 1955, with vocals by Dickie Bishop, paying homage to Guthrie and Houston in a later interview. The Kingston Trio wrote new verses and recorded it in 1959 as "A Worried Man", while Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs included it on their 1961 Foggy Mountain Boys "Songs Of The Famous Carter Family" album with Maybelle Carter. June Carter and Johnny Cash sang the song with Pete Seeger on the final episode of his Rainbow Quest television series in 1966, and performed it in concerts and on the later Johnny Cash Show TV series. The song has been performed by many bluegrass, folk and country artists, including The Stanley Brothers, Osborne Brothers, George Jones, and even by Devo, Van Morrison, Elliott Murphy, and numerous others.
Devo's song "It Takes A Worried Man", a.k.a. "Worried Man Blues", was recorded and filmed with the band playing radioactive waste garbage men in the 1982 film Human Highway.
Half Man Half Biscuit included a version on their 2001 EP Editor's Recommendation.
It features on Paolo Nutini's 2009 album, Sunny Side Up.