Nope, it is a Leadbelly song. Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly were friends and Guthrie may have done the song, but Leadbelly wrote it (possibly co-written with Blind Lemon Jefferson.) The original first verse starts with 'I'm walkin' up Ellum and headin' down Main/ Tryin' to bum a nickel jus' to buy cocaine'. Ellum refers to 'Deep Ellum' - a 'corruption' of 'Elm Street' - a street in Texas (Dallas, I believe) where Leadbelly and other folk/blues musicians of his time hung out. Also, the original says 'the BLACKER the berry, the sweeter the juice/ takes a brown-skinned woman for my particular use.'
Nope, it is a Leadbelly song. Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly were friends and Guthrie may have done the song, but Leadbelly wrote it (possibly co-written with Blind Lemon Jefferson.) The original first verse starts with 'I'm walkin' up Ellum and headin' down Main/ Tryin' to bum a nickel jus' to buy cocaine'. Ellum refers to 'Deep Ellum' - a 'corruption' of 'Elm Street' - a street in Texas (Dallas, I believe) where Leadbelly and other folk/blues musicians of his time hung out. Also, the original says 'the BLACKER the berry, the sweeter the juice/ takes a brown-skinned woman for my particular use.'