Flatt was born in Jackson County, Tennessee to Nannie Mae Haney and Isaac Columbus Flatt.[1] A singer and guitarist, he first came to prominence as a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in the 1940s. In 1948 he started a band with fellow Monroe alumnus Earl Scruggs, and for the next twenty years Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys were one of the most successful bands in bluegrass. When they parted ways in 1969, Flatt formed a new group, the Nashville Grass, hiring most of the Foggy Mountain Boys. His role as lead singer and rhythm guitar player in each of these seminal ensembles helped define the sound of traditional bluegrass music. He created a role in the Bluegrass Boys later filled by the likes of Jimmy Martin, Mac Wiseman, Peter Rowan and Del McCoury. His rich lead voice is unmistakable in hundreds of bluegrass standards. He is also always remembered for his library of compositions. The Flatt songbook looms titanic for any student of American acoustic music. He continued to record and perform with that group until his death in 1979. Flatt was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985 with Scruggs. He was posthumously made an inaugural inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1991.
Flatt and Scruggs were ranked #24 on CMT's 40 Greatest Men in Country Music in 2003.
Old Salty Dog Blues
Lester Flatt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Is a great big hole in the bottom of my shoes
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Run down stockin' and a worn out shoe
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Down in the wildwood sitting on a log
Finger on the trigger and eye on the hog
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Pulled the trigger and the gun said go
The shot fell over in Mexico
Honey, let me be you Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
The lyrics to Old Salty Dog Blues by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs tell the story of a man down on his luck, standing on a street corner and feeling the blues. He mentions the hole in the bottom of his shoes, indicating his impoverished state. He then pleads with a woman to let him be her Salty Dog, stating that if he can't be her man, he won't be any man at all. The term "Salty Dog" was likely meant as a term of endearment and a desire to be close to the woman he is singing to.
The song then shifts to the second verse where he addresses a man named "Sal," expressing that he knows him as someone with worn-out clothing and shoes. The singer then repeats his request to be the woman's Salty Dog, showing his desire to break out of his current situation and offering to be her faithful partner. The third verse paints a picture of a man sitting in the woods with his finger on the trigger, presumably hunting for food. He again asks to be his lady's Salty Dog, emphasizing that he won't be any other woman's man.
The final verse brings a new element into the story with the mention of a gunshot and Mexico. While it is unclear exactly what this refers to, it may suggest a journey or a change in fortunes for the singer. The repetition of the refrain emphasizes the importance of the singer's request to be the woman's Salty Dog, and the song ends on this note.
Line by Line Meaning
Standin' on the corner with the low down blues
Feeling down and hopeless as I stand idly on the street corner.
Is a great big hole in the bottom of my shoes
My shoes are so worn out that they have holes in them.
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Addressing my lover, asking to be their faithful and devoted companion.
Let me be your Salty Dog
Repeating my request to be my lover's loyal friend and companion.
Or I won't be your man at all
Emphasizing that I am unwilling to be with my lover if they don't accept me as their faithful companion.
Looking here Sal, I know you
Referring to my lover by name and expressing familiarity with them.
Run down stockin' and a worn out shoe
Describing my lover's appearance as tired and worn out.
Down in the wildwood sitting on a log
Painting a picture of being in a quiet forest and sitting on a tree trunk.
Finger on the trigger and eye on the hog
Ready and alert, with my finger on the gun's trigger, aiming at a wild hog in the woods.
Pulled the trigger and the gun said go
Firing the gun and hearing the sound of the shot being fired.
The shot fell over in Mexico
The animal that I shot was so wild and strong that it ran all the way to Mexico before falling.
Let me be you Salty Dog
Repeating my request to be my lover's loyal friend and companion.
Let me be your Salty Dog
Asking again to be my lover's devoted companion.
Or I won't be your man at all
Emphasizing that I am unwilling to be with my lover if they don't accept me as their loyal friend and companion.
Let me be your Salty Dog
Asking once more to be my lover's faithful and reliable companion.
Or I won't be your man at all
Reiterating my unwillingness to be with my lover if they refuse to accept me as their loyal companion.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: WILEY A. MORRIS, ZEKE MORRIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
tim a
Standin' on the corner with the low down blues
Is a great big hole in the bottom of my shoes
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Looking here Sal, I know you
Run down stockin' and a worn out shoe
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Down in the wildwood sitting on a log
Finger on the trigger and eye on the hog
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Pulled the trigger and the gun said go
The shot fell over in Mexico
Honey, let me be you Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Let me be your Salty Dog
Or I won't be your man at all
Honey, let me be your Salty Dog
Steve2Work
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May 2nd, 2021
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Good Sunday Late Afternoon,
May the Spirit of the Gospel and the Holy Word be Always in our Minds, on our Lips, and in our Hearts.
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Index Number 858:
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I don't think I can listen to this song without thinking of my biological grandfather, Joe Hancock, Senior, who passed before I discovered .. or could deal with .. I was a bastard, lied to and about for most my life, he was my biological grandfather, that my mothers first husband was my biological father.
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He lived close to the farm I worked at with one of their (Joe and Penny's) sons, my biological father Dan, and I could have known him much better – should have anyway, a man that could have been significant in my life ..
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.. 'Salty Joe' who ran for New Jersey State Congress 'back in the day' in support of Southern Jersey farmers, his oldest son – still alive last I knew – was crazy good at sports at George School, and hear-tell he use to get in fights with much larger men on the fields, and became a University level Agricultural Researcher and Academic in California.
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“Flatt & Scruggs - Old Salty Dog Blues”
by/under bentleyks63
https://youtu.be/lixoQEE6oek
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This is reason enough to spend too much time wondering if my mother had had virtue enough to stay with my biological father, how I could have been raised with a grandfather who was a arguably one of the better man - then almost any born in this #GreatSatan Female-Evil Zionist-Witch Poisoned - since.
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My father was a great man in his humble way, small town mayor always the first the neighbors would call when in trouble and needed help, many evenings he would send us and self out to do something that need a tractor or some strong backs and arms .. his oldest brother was still formidable as a retired older man, last I saw him, he in early 60's, I would guess.
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I could tell even as a young man that under that intellectual academic mask the man was someone you would need a serious reason to go against, and good chance you'd come out worse for it.
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Dan was the one who showed me the proper response to those 'trunk calls' they use to do with land-line phones, call everyone on a subsection of the network and the first 20 or so would have a sales people ready, and the rest would go to phone and no one there, a nice general FU to us ..
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(“may whoever in State Gov that allowed such have their testicles crushed and then eaten by rats” .. one who wasn't a Christian and didn't have Fear of God might suggest - but not me!)
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Anyway, we would be in middle of dinner, sometimes seemed too tired to stand after 12 hours on the field or in barn in South Jersey Summer sun, phone would ring and by the time we would get there and answer it, silence.
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The first time Dan managed to get it, I watch him lift up the phone and say 'hello?' and then a slow smile, and he put the phone back .. “who was it?” No one. It's so nice not to have to spend tonight not helping someone, .. or similar was his answer.
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It gave me a different perspective,
.. now every time I find an empty mail box, I think 'Praise God!'
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Anyway, I wonder how being raised near 'Salty Joe' as my functional grandfather, Joe my Uncle, Dan as my father would have changed me.
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My favorite brother Tommy who helped and was close – I followed him around and he showed me the only Love children care about, attention, he would not have died of food poisoning - at least not the way it happened - and he would have been the Bridge between me and my older brother, 'little Dan', dead after the horror-life of being dragged away from his father, lied to as we all were from crib by psycho-cnt mom, raised in a home of a man that was struggling with my retarded tyrant mother – hyper-empowered by pre #NoFaultDivorce court gynocentralism,
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( .. you F-ers aren't Human, child-taking and supporting cnts, so sorry you are so evil, that your Goneness will universally make a better world!, you F-ing horrors!!
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She didn't need to be so vile and twisted, destroying all our lives before we left the house, being away from her was always a pleasure.
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Would it had been best if she passed before that twisted Poison destroyed so many lives?!)
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No doubt - or very likely - there exists that Multiverse Paths and I'll bet those me are better situated on Jacob's Ladder.
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Let's see what evil such howling-vile cnt horrors that were growing in number back then - raised to Curse us all with their Being ..
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“We now have the technology to develop vaccines that spread themselves”
19 August 2020
By Scott Nuismer and James Bull
https://www.newscientist.com/.../mg24732960-100-we-now...
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'Prevention is better than cure, so we should start using genetic techniques to stop dangerous animal diseases jumping to humans, say Scott Nuismer and James Bull' – article
(See Images for the short article, highlighted paragraph 2nd page.)
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So, this might be the insight into why women who are near vaccinated people are reporting wildly strange menstrual periods, and other similar reports.
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The DNA-Debasing evil Molecular injected machines they disguised under the lie 'vaccine' is causing vaccinated people to shed proteins in breathing, spit, sweet, tears, sex fluids, .. to infect others, us all.
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.. does that suggest the evil-Zionist Witch horrors don't care who might be hurt by such, that we are 'souless goys', their torture, abuse, murder toys, like Cattle they can experiment on – control with lead and poison in our water, etc.?
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(do I need to link the Zionist Soulless Goys Music video, as an example of how their young from crib are Poisoned into thinking of us as 'souless goys' to be used and murdered like so many modern vicious women would torture and kill a baby, or any of us – for the fun of it?)
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BlackPilled video – do you have that Vagfeelie-Belt tight?
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The article above is discussed later in his recorded stream, the first half his his BlackPilled review of 'All in the Family', ends about 1:24:00, and gets better with over-view, the Chat Q&A and more, ..
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“INSOMNIA STREAM: WOMEN'S LIB EDITION”
by Blackpilled
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Y8sStxyDvilx
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Some good points - of course - throughout.
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May God have Mercy on us all.
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PS. This Afternoon's and Morning's Posts, in that order ..
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https://www.facebook.com/Steven.Work/posts/10226344784710276
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https://www.facebook.com/Steven.Work/posts/10226343732203964
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PPS. Thanks to YouTube's practice of Blocking or Stealth removal of my legal speech comments under these linked videos – I'm unable to give these people the feedback of seeing this, them and their followers [all who worship their Academic, or other Wisdom.]
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PPPS. I still try to place these in YouTube comments so those that block them are at Risk of Judgment, to Host by Burning all the Sins that were not prevented, and the souls who may have been saved – their Damnations and Burning may fall on the souls of the major owners and controllers of YouTube, Alphabet, and all who Support and enable their evil – but by the Grace of God.
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.. you evil vile twisted cnts take children from fathers and fathers from children, murder babies,.. – Censoring those who speak of such and other issues that is needed from Love - shouldn't you be at Risk of Burning in Hell?
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clyde
This banjo work by Earl is pure velvet; it's in a class well beyond anything anyone else has ever been able to do. One time, I was told that Benny recorded this vocal in Tampa because Lester refused to go there for the session, due to forecasts for imminent tornadoes in that area. As the story goes, there was no tornado in Tampa then, but there was one near where Lester had remained. I wish now that I had thought to ask Bennie about that story on one of the several occasions when I met him.
jdcrowe82
I'm not disputing your story, but the story I've heard & the explanation that makes the most sense to me, was there was extra time on the studio session & Benny suggested the song to Lester. Lester liked it & wanted to cut it. Benny Sims knew the words & Lester didn't.
Unlike many of today's so called "bluegrass stars", Lester didn't have ego problems or narcissistic tendencies therefore, Benny's great lead vocal would go down in the panels of bluegrass history.
RMorr50912
My grandfather and great uncle wrote this song. I used to hear it on the porch all the time. They were called "The Morris Brothers". There's a documentary where Earl comes back to my grandfathers house and plays with them right where we used to set and listen to them sing.
Jacqueline Still
RMorr50912 I used to watch that video all the time trying to learn the mandolins part for this song. Must of watched that clip a thousand times ha
Angelina Jacobsen
My sister and her boyfriend play this song together all the time. It's their favorite. I have to ask.. what is a salty dog?
America First
Watched, "The River Runs Through It", and heard the music of a song that reminded me of this song.
Mike Doro
@Angelina Jacobsen It's Appalachian slang for favorite person, i.e. best friend or lover. Derived from the practice of rubbing salt on hunting dogs to keep off ticks. Since salt was commonly in limited supply, one would only do this to their favorite dog, and it became slang for favorite person.
GO440
absolutely love this song and especially the banjo. i have been listening to flatt and scruggs forever, still remember mama ironing and watching on our 1950's TV.
arieshimbo
my grandpa loved this song so much. loved bluegrass. he passed away 2 years ago. and ive decided to take up the banjo :)
Herb Pedersen
First bluegrass tune I ever heard. The old Mercury cuts are the best. Benny Simms laid in in there just right. There's never been a better band than Lester & Earl period. God bless 'em all.