Many blues songs contain the lyric, “I woke up this morning,” A popular blues riddle is:
   
Q: What does it say on a blues singer’s tombstone?
A: “I didn’t wake up this morning…”
     
The joke has been cited in print since at least January 1991, when it was in Musician magazine.
 
         
Google Books
January 1991, Musician, “Eddie G’s Christmas Party Jokes,” pg. 98, col. 3:
Q. What did it say on the blues singer’s gravestone?
A. “I didn’t wake up this morning.”
 
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Finnish Music Quarterly
1991
Pg. 51:
This is a grim tale of repressed feelings, love, dreams, and revenge: it is a Finnish blues, a dream that begins to come true and defy the old epitaph carved on the blues-singer’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”.
   
Google Books
The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Joke Book
By Dave Marsh and Kathi Kamen Goldmark
New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin
1997
Pg. 30:
What was the epitaph on the blues singer’s grave?
“I didn’t wake up this morning. . . .”
 
5 January 1997, Journal Star (Peoria, IL), “Internet a good place for musician jokes: Website devoted to musical humor can brighten a winter day” by Gary A. Panetta, pg. B3:
Panetta, Gary A. Journal Star; Peoria, Ill. [Peoria, Ill]05 Jan 1997: B.3.
“What does it say on a blues singer’s tombstone?”
“I didn’t wake up this morning.”
     
Google Books
Squeeze My Lemon:
A Collection of Classic Blues Lyrics
Written and compiled by Randy Poe
Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation
2003
Pg. 70:
Question: What’s the epitaph on a blues singer’s tombstone?
Answer: “Didn’t wake up this morning.”
 
Google Books
The Best Musicians’ Jokes
By Bruno Kassel and Carlo May
Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
2005
Pg. 13:
What does it say on a blues singer’s tombstone?
“Well…I didn’t wake up this mornin’...”
 
Twitter
DoobieDawg
@DoobieDawg
What does it say on a Blues Singer’s Tombstone…...
I didn’t wake up this mornin…....
10:45 PM · Apr 14, 2008·Twitter Web Client
   
Google Books
The Musician’s Joke Book
By Jim Green
London, UK: Wise Publications
2010
Pg. ?:
Q: What was inscribed on the tombstone of a Blues singer?
A: Didn’t wake up this morning… “
   
Google Books
3000 Jokes, 2997 Laughs
By Mike Haskins
London, UK: Portico
2017
Pg. ?:
What did the blues singer want engraved on his headstone? ‘I didn’t wake up this morning. Didn’t get out of bed . . .’
 
Twitter
Hardwire Speers
@HardwireSpeers
What does it say on a blues singer’s tombstone?
“I didn’t wake up this morning…”
#BluesJokes #MusicJokes
See also:
(link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgKXLtbO4-Q&list=PL-EtMpAnrVpkbARswUvqiKDSuh1ZbM5NQ) youtube.com/watch?v=tgKXLt…
#blues #bluesmusic #guitar #originalmusic
Didn’t wake up this morning
Original blues song by Neil “Hardwire” Speers. Get free music at http://www.hardwirespeers.com Didn’t wake up this morning © Neil Speers, 2012 Didn’t wake up…
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11:51 AM · Aug 13, 2018·Buffer