Put your arms around me like a circle round the sun,
You know I love you Mama, like your easy rider done
You don't believe I love you, look what a fool I've been
You don't believe I'm sinking, look what a hole I'm in
'Cause I'm stealin, stealin, pretty mama don't you tell on me
'Cause I'm a-stealin back to my same old used to be
The woman I'm a-lovin', she's my size and height,
She's a married woman, so you know she treats me right
You don't believe I love you, look what a fool I've been
You don't believe I'm sinking, look what a hole I'm in
'Cause I'm stealin, stealin, pretty mama don't you tell on me
'Cause I'm a-stealin back to my same old used to be
The woman I love, she's so far away,
But the woman I hate, why I see her every day
You don't believe I love you, look what a fool I've been
You don't believe I'm sinking, look what a hole I'm in
'Cause I'm stealin, stealin, pretty mama don't you tell on me
'Cause I'm a-stealin back to my same old used to be
Come a little closer honey to my breast
And tell me that I am the one you really love the best
You don't believe I love you, look what a fool I've been
You don't believe I'm sinking, look what a hole I'm in
'Cause I'm stealin, stealin, pretty mama don't you tell on me
'Cause I'm a-stealin back to my same old used to be
Gus Cannon
Notes on Stealin’
Stealin’ (or Stealin’, Stealin’) was written by Gus Cannon, who was born in 1883 in Marshall County Mississippi. His parents were share croppers – his father had been born a slave. Gus was the youngest of 10 brothers. When Gus was 12 he began work in the cotton fields but loved music and learned songs from local musicians. He made his first banjo himself from a bread tin fixed to a guitar neck. By the time he was 19 Gus (sometimes known as Banjo Joe) was working as a musician although he was earning his living as a railroad worker. He eventually formed his own band, one of the popular “jug bands” playing a mixture of early jazz, country and ragtime. The musicians would blow into jugs or whisky bottles in lieu of brass instruments, hence the name. Another staple was the “bullfiddle”, a double bass made from a dustbin, a broom handle and string.
Gus’s own band, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, never recorded Stealin’, but it was recorded in 1928 by another Memphis jug band, the Memphis Jug Stompers.
Many artists – including Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Donovan, Arloe Guthrie, Uriah Heep and the Grateful Dead – have re-recorded the song during the last eighty years and some have adapted it or added their own verses. Janis Joplin included the verse:
With good whiskey you stay drunk all the time,
Stay drunk baby 'cause it eases my mind
While the Grateful Dead added:
Well I'm going up North, gonna see my girl
Sweetest thing in the whole wide world
FSC has done its own adapting by adding:
Come a little closer honey to my breast
And tell me that I'm the one you really love the best
And you don't have to worry 'bout any of the rest
Cause everything's gonna be fine
This (or something very like it) is actually the last verse of Everything’s Fine Right Now by the Incredible String Band and doesn’t appear in any other version of Stealin’ that I was able to locate. The original goes:
Come a little closer to my breast
I'll tell you that you are the one I really love the best
And you don't have to worry 'bout any of the rest
Everything's fine right now!
You can find a huge amount of information about southern jug bands on websites devoted to The Grateful Dead, who numbered them among their influences: most of my information here is from articles by Randy Jackson on www.taco.com and Chris Smith on www.mustrad.org.uk