Early country music influencer Jimmie Rodgers set the mold for songs about hardscrabble living and the temptation of sin with "My Rough and Rowdy Ways." Rodgers wrote the song in the late 1920's with his frequent collaborator and sister-in-law, Elsie McWilliams.
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A song that's been covered less than you might suspect by folk revivalists and image-conscious country singers suited Merle Haggard like a pair of leather work gloves. More recently, it inspired another frontrunner in greatest American songwriter debates.
Haggard wasn't the first to cover "My Rough and Rowdy Ways." Gene Autry likely owns that claim, with his version arriving the same year (1930) as the Rodgers original. Lefty Frizzell (1951) and Jimmie Skinner (1962) also recorded the song ahead of The Hag.
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"My Rough and Rowdy Ways" fit Haggard's own train-loving, songtelling image on one of his finest albums with The Strangers, 1967's I'm a Lonesome Fugitive. While Rodgers' less-is-more rendition sits at the early intersection of country music and the blues, Haggard's electrified take represents how the Bakersfield Sound refreshed folk and popular music traditions.
Hank Snow, Hank Thompson and Chris Hillman have since added the song to their catalogs, as has the trio of Doc and Merle Watson and Eric Weissberg.
The title of 2020 Bob Dylan album Rough and Rowdy Ways is widely considered to be a tribute to Rodgers.
"My Rough and Rowdy Ways" Lyrics
For years and years I've rambled, drank my wine and gambled
But one day I thought I'd settle down
I met a perfect lady, she said she'd be my baby
We built a cottage in the old hometown
But somehow I can't forget my good old rambling days
The railroad trains are calling me always
I may be rough, I may be wild, I may be tough and countrified
But I can't give up my good old rough and rowdy ways
Sometimes I meet a bounder who knew me when I was a rounder
He grabs my hand and says, "Boy, have a drink"
We'd go down to the poolroom, get in the gang and then soon
The daylight comes before I'd had a wink
But somehow I can't forget my good old rambling days
The railroad trains are calling me always
I may be rough, I may be wild, I may be tough and countrified
But I can't give up my good old rough and rowdy ways
