[1][2] As with most traditional blues songs, there is great variation in the melody and lyrical content as performed by different artists.
However, there is often a core verse containing some variation of the line "I'm a poor boy a long way from home."
Strangely enough, "Poor Boy", after decades of being a standard refrain, especially in country music, resurfaced among postwar bluesmen.
Gus Cannon recalled hearing a slide guitarist named Alec or Alex Lee in Coahoma County around 1900, playing a version of the song.
[3] Chess Records issued it as a single, with another traditional song, "Sitting on Top of the World" as the second side.