> Peter Bellamy > Songs > Devil Got Your Man

Devil Got Your Man

[Chris Smither]

Chris Smither recorded his own song Devil Got Your Man in 1970 for his album I’m a Stranger Too!. He also sang it on his 2014 album Still on the Levee.

Peter Bellamy sang Devil Got Your Man in 1985 on his EFDSS album Second Wind. He noted:

How did I get into all this? Motherless Child holds the clue; loosely based on a set of floating verses recorded by Barbecue Bob in the late 1920s, this is the sort of music that I was desperately trying to find and emulate in my mid-teens, and this particular song is one of the first I ever learned. Country Blues has continued to be one of my ruling passions ever since, though I long-since ceased to be too purist about it; these days blues-based compositions, be they by Mick Jagger or Chris Smither, are likely to find their way into my less public repertoire. Chris, originally from New Orleans, now living in Massachusetts, composed Devil Got Your Man (not, I think, altogether uninfluenced by Skip James at the time). I first worked with him in 1967, and have sung this song—usually in private—ever since. My abilities as a guitarist reached a not-very-prominent plateau about the same time too; however careful strategic placing of these tracks on the record gives you total control!

Lyrics

Peter Bellamy sings Devil Got Your Man

I’m feelin’ sad babe don’t get mad
Cause some devil’s got your man
Some devil has got your man
My own sweet mama she don’t give a damn
My own sweet mama she don’t give a damn

Night time is falling babe
Hear me calling, can’t you roll on home
Can’t you roll on home, oh, roll on home
Can’t take this devil mama sitting all alone
Can’t take this devil mama sitting all alone

Loving is a feeling babe that the devil’s been stealing
He’s been stealing all I have
He’s been stealing all I have
Don’t ask for loving babe when I’m feelin’ so bad
Don’t ask for loving babe when I’m feelin’ so bad

(repeat first verse)