# Nagging brain itch: need 3 singer IDs from song lyrics

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nagging-brain-itch-need-3-singer-ids-from-song-lyrics/589423>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 18, 2011, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nagging-brain-itch-need-3-singer-ids-from-song-lyrics/589423 "2011-07-18T10:18:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nagging-brain-itch-need-3-singer-ids-from-song-lyrics/589423/1 "2011-07-18T10:18:56Z")

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If this sounds familiar, I posted this in 2008. The response? ::cue crickets::

Perhaps this time…  
OK, I have three songs that I taped off the radio years ago, that weren’t back- or front-announced, so I don’t know who performed them. They’re very good, IMHO, and of the country or alt-country persuasion.

I haven’t been able to find them from a lyrics search. In order to be cool with copyright, I’m only going to include the first line or two and coupe from the chorus

Help me, Straight Dope; you’re my only hope.

1. A group, along the Poco/Flying Burrito Brothers/Pure Prairie League vein

What put me on the road to alcohol;  
What put me on the road to cocaine…  
[snip]  
…they get you where they want you  
With a silver bullet in the heart

1. Single guy, country edging-toward-bluegrass timbre, about a lady who has not treated him well

I only try to do some good, and the faces turned toward me begin to cry…  
[snip]  
I guessed I would, I knew I would  
Around the corner lies another life

1. Another single guy, with a strong high country voice, complaining about the state of modern country music. No real chorus, but the last bit is the key thought

You took the yodel away from Jimmie Rogers.  
You took the fiddle away from a Texan named Bob Wills  
[snip]  
Won’t you please give us back country music  
It helps us make it through the working day  
Thanks for looking  
Hometownboy

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**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nagging-brain-itch-need-3-singer-ids-from-song-lyrics/589423/2 "2011-07-18T10:39:42Z")

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> [@Hometownboy](#):
>
> 1. Another single guy, with a strong high country voice, complaining about the state of modern country music. No real chorus, but the last bit is the key thought
> 
> You took the yodel away from Jimmie Rogers.  
> You took the fiddle away from a Texan named Bob Wills  
> [snip]  
> Won’t you please give us back country music  
> It helps us make it through the working day

[Home - Alexander Street, part of Clarivate](http://lfs.alexanderstreet.com/liner/c22bfe5d1249533539ea8cf16ab4e7fc/FW31071.pdf) (first song, first lyrics)

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**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nagging-brain-itch-need-3-singer-ids-from-song-lyrics/589423/3 "2011-07-18T10:49:01Z")

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Yowza! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

You nailed it in one - I LOVE this board.

Hometownboy