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Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out
White guys singing hard-core black blues has always been a dubious category for me, falling in the “stock broker guy with ponytail” category. No one ever questioned Tim Hardin’s sincerity, however, and I think his vocals here sound like a man who’s lived the arc inscribed by the lyrics. This song has a Depression-era feel, although it dates to roaring 1922. Songwriting credit goes to Jimmie Cox (1882-1925), “vaudeville’s ‘Black Charlie Chaplin.’” Tim Hardin’s version came a half century later, and it amazes me that any relic of pop culture could possibly survive the shifts in taste and style of so many decades, but it held up then, and after another 35 years on the tab it still sounds good to me. (I’m not sure of the personnel on this track, but Peter Frampton is credited with guitar on the album it comes from, “Painted Head.”)
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