How Many More Years

 "How Many More Years" is a blues song written and originally recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1951. Recorded at the Memphis Recording Service – which later became the Sun Studio – it was released by Chess Records and reached No. 4 on the Billboard R&B chart. Musician and record producer T-Bone Burnett has described "How Many More Years" as "in some ways ... the first rock’n’roll song". It was a double-sided hit with "Moanin' at Midnight", which reached No. 10 on the R&B chart. 

No one has ever improved on this sound. The Wolf has been dead over forty years, and there is still nothing better.

Lyrics

How many more years?
Have I got to let you dog me around
How many more years?
Oh, I got to let you dog me around
I'd soon rather be dead
Sleeping six feet in the ground

I'm gonna fall on my knees
I'm gonna raise up my right hand
I'm gonna fall on my knees
I'm gonna raise up my right hand
Say, I'd feel much better, darlin'
If you'd just only understand

I'm goin' upstairs
I'm gonna bring back down my clothes
I'm goin' upstairs
I'm gonna bring back down my clothes, do them all
If anybody ask about me
Just tell 'em I walked out on

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Chester Burnett

How Many More Years? lyrics © Arc Music, Arc Music Corp