Salty Dog (song)

"Salty Dog Blues" is a folk song. It has been performed by Roger McGuinn, Kentucky Faith, Flatt and Scruggs, Ross Nickerson, Jelly Roll Morton, Mississippi John Hurt, The Morris Brothers, Blind Willie McTell, Reverend Gary Davis, Johnny Cash and Cat Power. The chorus of the song goes: "Let me be your salty dog/ Or I won't be your man at all/ Honey let me be your salty dog." While the song has a number of standard verses, it has also lent itself to some invented verses that are meant to be humorous, such as "I like sugar, I like grits/ I like girls with great big eyes" and "Two old maids just a-laying on the sand/ Each one wishin' that the other was a man".

"Salty Dog" is also an Irish rebel folksong.

Lyrics:

Standing on the corner with the lowdown blues

A great big hole in the bottom of my shoes

Honey let me be your salty dog

Let me be your salty dog

Or I won't be your man at all

Honey let me be your salty dog

Look it here Sal, I know you

Run down stocking and a wore out shoe

Honey let me be your salty dog

Let me be your salty dog

Or I won't be your man at all

Honey let me be your salty dog

Down in the wildwood sitting on a log

Finger on the trigger and an eye on the hog

Honey let me be your salty dog

Let me be your salty dog

Or I won't be your man at all

Honey let me be your salty dog

Well I Pulled the trigger and the gun set go

The shot gun over in Mexico

Honey let me be your salty dog

Let me be your salty dog

Or I won't be your man at all

Honey let me be your salty dog

Salty down now

Let me be your salty dog

Or I won't be your man at all

Honey let me be your salty dog

Let me be your salty dog

Or I won't be your man at all

Honey let me be your salty dog"

Trivia:

Salty Dog is also part of the soundtrack of Take This Hammer (http://www.take-this-hammer.com), a movie about the building of dry stack stone walls.