Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance

Commentary

Todd Harvey points out that Dylan’s performance of Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance sounds much like his cover of Jesse Fuller’s “You’re No Good” on the first album. Dylan biographer Robert Shelton also mentions the similarity.

Dylan probably was influenced by a version done by Henry Thomas that was included on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, a highly influential collection not only for Dylan but for the entire folk community in the sixties. (Dylan downplays its significance in an interview he did with Rolling Stone in November 2001.)

Henry “Ragtime” Thomas was born in 1874 in Texas. His parents were ex-slaves. His career pre-dates the blues and, according to Paul Oliver in The New Blackwell Guide to the Blues, some of his songs, including Honey, came from the old minstrel/ medicine shows. Oliver writes that Thomas is the first African-American singer to be recorded.

Thomas was a songster, meaning he was capable of playing many musical forms, including county tunes, spirituals, popular standards, reels, dance songs, and others. He took up the blues – quite successfully – when that form became popular.

Interesting trivia: Thomas’s Bull Doze Blues was borrowed by Canned Heat for their hit Going Up the Country.

Bluegrass greats Flatt and Scruggs covered Honey.

Scruggs was one of the few country/bluegrass musicians who joined the protests against the Vietnam War.


Lyrics

Honey, just allow me one more chance
To get along with you.
Honey, just allow me one more chance,
Ah’ll do anything with you.
Well, I’m a-walkin’ down the road
With my head in my hand,
I’m lookin’ for a woman
Needs a worried man.
Just-a one kind favor I ask you,
‘Low me just-a one more chance.

Honey, just allow me one more chance
To ride your aeroplane.
Honey, just allow me one more chance
To ride your passenger train.
Well, I’ve been lookin’ all over
For a gal like you,
I can’t find nobody
So you’ll have to do.
Just-a one kind favor I ask you,
‘Low me just-a one more chance.

Honey, just allow me one more chance
To get along with you.
Honey, just allow me one more chance,
Ah’ll do anything with you.
Well, lookin’ for a woman
That ain’t got no man,
Is just lookin’ for a needle
That is lost in the sand.
Just-a one kind favor I ask you,
‘Low me just-a one more chance.

1 thought on “Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance”

  1. Henry Thomas’ Henry Won’t You Allow Me One More Chance’ was NOT included on Harry Smith’s Anthology, only his ‘Fishing Blues’. See Heylin: Revolution In The Air.

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