"These blues was composed in nineteen and twenty-seven on the condition of the farmers and on the shortness of their cotton. I thought it was very necessary to put out a record of these things. I composed them of the necessity of the farmers. It was very popular among everyone that heard it and became to be well known. The town merchants laughed to think of such a song being composed."
Subsequent parodies on the song have been interesting. The Almanac Singers wrote a consumer song to the tune and called it "Fifty Cent Butter and Fifty Cent Meat" (1940). That was changed to eighty cents in 1946, and has kept going up each year. I've heard singers get all out of breath trying to keep up with rising prices and sing this song at the same time."