Artist: Ashley & Foster
Author: traditional
Label: Vocalion
Year: 1933
Both (o) and (c)'s borrow the melody of East Virginia (see there).
Covers:
Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans [as New Greenback Dollar]
Woody Guthrie [for the L.o.C.]
Almanac Singers [with Pete Seeger, Alan & Bess Lomax, Woody Guthrie and Lee Hays as All I Want, the oldest version with the Jim Garland lyrics (I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister)]
Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group [with Nancy Whiskey]
Pete Seeger [as I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister]
Tom Rush [idem]
Jim Garland [idem (author); at Newport]
Peter Yarrow [idem]
Barbara Dane [idem]
David Byrne [with Richard Thompson]
Van Morrison [on Moving On Skiffle, following both Chas McDevitt's as Gene Vincent's]
Many of these Greenback Dollars begin with the line: I was born in East Virginia. Lyrics of I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister were written by Jim Garland, miner and union man from East Kentucky, who was inspired by coalmine strikes in Harlan County in the 1930s. He was the brother of Aunt Molly Jackson (see: I Am A Union Woman) and half-brother of Sarah Ogan Gunning (see: Come All You Coal Miners).
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)