The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #66831 Message #1112209
Posted By: Stewie
08-Feb-04 - 10:42 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Let Your Money Talk (Kokomo Arnold)
Subject: Lyr Add: LET YOUR MONEY TALK (Kokomo Arnold)
I have it on an old Blues Classics LP with Kokomo Arnold on one side and Peetie Wheatstraw on the other. This version does not have the first two stanzas that you quote above. Below is what I hear - I have put in brackets words or phrases I am not certain of.
LET YOUR MONEY TALK
Let your money talk Let your money talk Let your money talk Let your money talk If you feel like ridin' And don't want to walk Let your money talk
Ah you look so (neat) And you look so (neat) And you talk so sweet You talk so sweet Now you can't get by No matter how you try On your dead beat (Could be: oh you're dead beat)
Let your money talk Let your money talk So we can hear So we can hear If you ain't comin' back Tell me right now Leave a dime for beer
Let your money talk Let your money talk Put it in my hand Put it in my hand If you like your (cool kind) Barefooted mama, we can rush the can
If you go to the butcher's If you go to the butcher's To get your sausage (fryin') Your sausage (fryin') If you cain't get it in the front You don't want it behind
You want your ashes hauled You want your ashes hauled And ain't got no man Ain't got no man Just lay it on the wood, pretty mama, Do the best I can
If you want to boogie-woogie If you want to boogie-woogie And haven't got the price And haven't got the price Just let the landlady know, (old man) And she will put it on ice
If you can't see If you can't see If you're deaf and dumb If you're deaf and dumb Don't stand around lookin' cute And on the bum
Source: transcription of Kokomo Arnold 'Let Your Money Talk' recorded on 18 April 1935 in Chicago and issued as Decca 7191. Reissued on 'Kokoko Arnold/Peetie Wheatstraw Blues Classics LP 4.
If you put "rush the can" in a google search, you get a variety of examples of how the term has been used, but no specific definitions:
"rush the can" — A description of what criminals did when they were lying low in Chicago during the winter. They settles down in their accustomed haunts, "rush the can" and follow their vocation of robbery only when something particularly "easy" turns up or when bad whisky has got the better of their judgment. (Chicago Daily News, November 13, 1897.)