23. HAPPY NEW YEAR by Lightnin' Hopkins
Vocal with electric guitar, bass, and drums.
New York City, July 29, 1953.

This is Happy New Year ain' gon' worry me to death
This is Happy New Year ain' gon' worry me to death
Don't think about Christmas 'cause Christmas just now left

Whoo, ain't it grand? Ain't it a merry day?
Oh, ain't it grand, we the peoples, ain't it a merry day?
Think about Christmas gone and New Year's on its way

Yes, get it boy. Don't stop for nothing now!
Wear it out, tear it up, it don't make no difference!

I got a number, man, I got it for myself
I got a number an' I got it for myself
New Year done come and Christmas just now left

Just gotta play it a while right here, boy
Don't forget it now, hear me good!

Whoo, New Year, that's the time I wanna see
Whoo, New Year, time I wanna see
I ain't got nobody, New Year to have with me

Sam Hopkins (1912-1982) retained an older style on many popular records in the 1950s, and turned a younger generation onto his East Texas blues in the 1960s. He could improvise new blues to order for records, and did so for years. Like Mary Harris, he put this on the B side of a Christmas blues.

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