…or left protest songs (the lyric was by a NYC schoolteacher who was a close friend of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg).
Another vote for “Death Letter” and “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues”. Those were the first two I thought of.
For me, the blues-iest of the blue, the saddest of the sad, the knife-in-the-heart, just-caught-the-wife-cheatin’, lost-your-job, kid-died-in-the-gears-of-a-combine, Neighbor-kicked-your-dog-so-hard-he-now-has-to-shit-sideways, so blue 'til it’s black song ever is Little Wing, the version covered by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
And all of that torrential hurt and beautiful misery without a single damned lyric.
Click the link (then minimize it–because someone decided to make it some kind of half-assed tribute, and the effect is better just listening) and prepare to be miserable for the rest of the day.
God, I love that song.
I agree this is a great blues song. You can feel the emotion in that song.
O Death - Ralph Stanley
From the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack.