Lyrical themes The lyrics of the Kokomo Arnold record combine the threads of: • Blues on awakening – :Good morning, Blues Blues how do you do? :Do mighty well this morning, can't get along with you. • The loss of a dairy cow – :Says, I woke up this a-morning and I looked outdoors :Says, I knowed my mamlish milk cow pretty mama, Lord, by the way she lowed :Lord, if you see my milk cow, buddy, I said, please drive her home :Says, I ain't had no milk and butter, mama, Lord, since a-my cow been gone • A breakup with his lover – :How can I do right, baby when you won't do right yourself? :Lord, if my good gal quits me well, I don't want nobody else • A warning that she will have regrets – :Now you can read out your hymnbook, preach out your Bible :Fall down on your knees and pray, the good Lord to help you :Because you going to need you going to need my help some day :Mama if you can't quit your sinning please quit your lowdown ways. These four themes are found in the lyrics of later versions of the song. The metaphor of a milk cow for a female lover was already established in recordings with the same title (see below). It is also found in "Mean Tight Mama" by
Sara Martin in 1928: :Now my hair is nappy and I don’t wear no clothes of silk :But the cow that’s black and ugly has often got the sweetest milk and in "My Black Mama Part 1" by
Son House in 1930, also in a four-line verse, but one formed by repetition: :Well, you see my milk cow tell her to hurry home :I ain’t had no milk since that cow been gone :If you see my milk cow tell her to hurry home :Yeah, I ain’t had no milk since that cow been gone
Melody Arnold uses basically two melodic structures, according to the number of lines in a verse. For three-line verses such as the following, he sings a melody interspersed by guitar in the first two lines: :All in good morning, I said, “Blues, how do you do?” :All in good morning, I said, “Blues, how do you do?” :You’re mighty rare this mornin’, can’t get along with you. For four line verses such as the following, he sings the first two lines to a melody uninterrupted by guitar: :Takes a rockin’ chair to rock, mommy, a rubber ball to roll, :Takes a tall cheesin’ black, pretty mommy, to pacify my soul. :Lord, I don’t feel welcome, please, no place I go, :Oh that woman that I love, mommy, have done drove me from her door. In the section described by
Elijah Wald as a 'bridge", he modifies this four-line melody, most notable with
falsetto leaps on the words "need" and "please": :Now you can read out your hymnbook, preach out your Bible, :Fall on your knees and pray, the good Lord will help you. :Cause you gonna need, gonna need my help someday. :Mama, if you can’t quit your sinnin’, please quit your lowdown ways. These three melodies, and the device of a falsetto leap were used in the following versions of the song. ==Other songs with the same title==