Perkins wrote this from bits of various different songs from the turn of the century, some of them made popular in the Jug Band age. The “Will a matchbox hold my clothes” (btw hold not hole) is from a song about being piss poor and on the road, a topic much of the blues of that time talked about. “I'm an old poor boy/and I'm a long way from home/I've never been happy/cause everything I ever did was wrong” is IIRC from the same original. The bits about the woman are from a different song, which was about a woman who was a tease but then played hard.
Perkins wrote this from bits of various different songs from the turn of the century, some of them made popular in the Jug Band age. The “Will a matchbox hold my clothes” (btw hold not hole) is from a song about being piss poor and on the road, a topic much of the blues of that time talked about. “I'm an old poor boy/and I'm a long way from home/I've never been happy/cause everything I ever did was wrong” is IIRC from the same original. The bits about the woman are from a different song, which was about a woman who was a tease but then played hard.