when the levee breaks

I'd guess most people, if they know this song at all, know it as a Led Zeppelin song. But that version is actually a cover of a song recorded by Memphis Minnie in 1929 (I only know this because one of my college roommates tracked down the blues antecedents of a bunch of classic rock songs). Reading reports of the devastation in New Orleans, I thought of this song and looked up the lyrics to both versions. The Led Zeppelin cover is musically powerful, and it will always be the one I hear in my head, but Minnie's lyrics are more contained, and without knowing her biography I suspect Minnie knew from levees, and from limited opportunity, because these days her words ring true:

If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break
If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break
And the water gonna come in, have no place to stay
Well all last night, I sat on the levee and moaned
Well all last night, I sat on the levee and moaned
Thinking 'bout my baby and my happy home

If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break
If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break
And all these people have no place to stay
Now look here mama, what am I to do?
Now look here mama, what am I to do?
I ain't got nobody to tell my troubles to

I work on the levee, mama, both night and day
I work on the levee, mama, both night and day
I ain't got nobody to keep the water away
Oh crying won't help you, praying won't do no good
Oh crying won't help you, praying won't do no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to lose

I work on the levee, mama, both night and day
I work on the levee, mama, both night and day
I work so hard, to keep the water away
It's a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan
It's a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan
Gonna leave my baby, and my happy home