Versions: “Tobacco Road”

Here are a bunch of takes on the J.D. Loudermilk-penned song, “Tobacco Road.” Covering first-person songs is iffy business. Trickier still when the lyrics start…

I was born in a trunk
Mama died and my daddy got drunk

Many have tried, not all have succeeded. (Always thought it was “born in a dump” but the internet is never wrong.) “Tobacco Road” has received two distinct approaches, the fast and the slow. Me, I get impatient with the slow, and the David Lee Roth Spanish-language version is fast, which gives more weight to that team in the tug-of-war.

Some history and details about the song here and here, including:

John D. Loudermilk wrote this song and originally recorded it in 1960. He was born and raised in the old tobacco warehouse city of Durham, North Carolina, and this is a somewhat autobiographical song about the city.

For more in our versions series, here’s a place to click. Or anywhere it says “Versions.”