Truck Drivers Blues tab - daffan ted

Date: 10/13/96; 12:55:05 AM
From: ah827@rgfn.epcc.Edu (Gene L. Graham)
Subject: TRUCK DRIVER'S BLUES


TRUCK DRIVER'S BLUES
Words and Music by Ted Daffan

[A] Feelin' kinda weary, from my head down to my [A7] shoes
[D] Feelin' kinda weary, from my head down [D7] to my [A] shoes
I got a [E] low down feelin'
Truck [E7] Driver's [A] Blues.

Keep them wheels a-rollin', I ain't got no time to lose
Keep them wheels a-rollin', I ain't got no time to lose
Just a low down feelin'
Truck Driver's Blues.

[A] Ride, ride, ride, ride on into [A7] town
[D] Ride, ride, ride, ride on [D7] town [A]
My [E] honky tonk gal is waitin'
I got [E7] troubles to [A] drown.

I never did have nothin', I got nothin' much to lose
I never did have nothin', I got nothin' much to lose
But the low down feelin'
Truck Driver's Blues.

Note. According to the Encyclopedia of Folk, Country and Western Music
Ted Daffan's "Truck Driver's Blues" was the biggest country record
of 1939.

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Video Truck Drivers Blues

CLIFF BRUNER/MOON MULLICAN-TRUCK DRIVERS BLUES
This song was first recorded in 1939. When Ted Daffan was having coffee at a roadside cafe, he noticed that when truckers came in, many of them would stop at the jukebox and put money in it. He decided that if he wrote a song about truck drivers that he'd have a hit. He did! He wrote the song and recorded it in 1939. Cliff Bruner & the Texas Wanderers recorded it also. This particular recording came from Moon's 1958 album "I'll Sail My Ship Alone" that was published in the UK. Moon played piano and did vocals for Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers.

Ted Daffan's Texans 1942 Born To Lose - Original Versions
AN EAST TEXAS SONGWRITER Ted Daffan by Bob Bowman Remember the old country song, "Born to Lose?" The sad tale of a luckless lover, the song was introduced in 1942, but it wasn¹t until 1962, when Ray Charles recorded the song, that it soared to the top of the music charts as a million dollar hit with these words: Born to lose, I've lived my life in vain Every dream has only brought me pain All my life, I've always been so blue Born to lose and now I'm losing you The song also became a part of America¹s vocabulary -- the synonym for hard luck. Even Frank & Ernie used in a famous cartoon where St. Peter asks a newcomer to Heaven, "Is it true that in a previous life you were a French painter?" The newcomer¹s reply: "Yes, I was born Toulose." The original composer of the old standard, East Texan Ted Daffan, has been forgotten by most country music fans, but he was anything but a flash in the pan. Daffan, who lived in Lufkin, was a band leader, a musician, a singer, a recording artist and a songwriter. His career spanned more than 40 years and he continued to publish songs until his death in his eighties. Daffan played steel guitar with bands in the Houston area before starting his own band, Ted Daffan and His Texans. As a band leader, he pioneered the use of the steel guitar as a lead instrument and in solos, a departure from the traditional fiddle sounds used by most country bands. Daffan's clean, distinctive sound -- which combined blues and swing -- and his songs influenced artists for years to come. Like "Born to Lose," a number of Daffan songs were recorded by other artists. Among them were Ray Charles, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Willis, Fats Domino, Rosemary Clooney, Ringo Starr and Elton John. In 1943, Daffan's "No Letter Today" topped the charts and competed with the Mills Brothers' "Paper Doll," Frank Sinatra's "It¹s Always You," and a song by fellow East Texan Al Dexter, "Pistol Packing Momma." Other Daffan hits were "Worried Mind" in 1940, "I¹ve Got Five Dollars and It¹s Saturday Night" in 1950, and "I'm A Fool to Care" in 1954. One of Daffan's biggest hits, "Truck Drivers' Blues," was written when he stopped at a roadside diner and made a prophetic observation. While chowing down, he noticed that every time a trucker parked his rig and strolled into the cafe, the first thing he did, even before ordering a cup of coffee, was push a coin in the jukebox. It occurred to him that if he could write a song for those drivers, their nickels might make him rich and famous. He went home and wrote a song recorded by western swing artist Cliff Bruner in 1939. It sold more than 100,000 copies -- which was a smash hit in the thirties -- and went on to become a part of James Jones' best-selling novel,"From Here to Eternity." In 1949, Daffan received a rare gold record for his own recording of "Born to Lose" and a platinum disk in 1982 for Ray Charles' recording of the same song. Before his 1996 death in Houston, Daffan was honored by the Academy of Country Music Hall of Fame, the Texas Swing Music Hall of Fame, the Western Swing Society, the Texas Steel Guitar Association, the State of Louisiana, and the Nashville Songwriters Association. But one of Daffan¹s most unusual honors came in 1981 when the upper-crust Smithsonian Institute included Daffan¹s music in an anthology of 50 years of American country music. By now, Daffan¹s old forties hit, "Born to Lose," was anything but the hymn of a loser.