Hop Joint/Take A One On Me family

Subject: Hop Joint/Take A One On Me family
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 04 Apr 15 - 01:53 PM

The "Hop Joint" family of songs was related to the "Take A One On Me" family of songs.

L.J. Farmington recalled hearing this three-lines-per-stanza, refrain-in-the-third-line, first-person song in Arkansas in about 1900:
"Oh, rubber-tired buggy and a rubber-tired hack,
Going to the graveyard to bring my baby back,
Ah, baby, take your leg off mine!
Went up Ellum, come down Main,
Beggin' for a dime to buy cocaine,
Ah, baby, take your leg off mine.
Went in the drugstore, store full of smoke,
Seen a sign hung up: There's No More Coke.
Ah, baby, take your leg off mine...."

John Hurt recorded (studio and live) three-lines-per-stanza, refrain in the third-line, first-person lyrics to "Hop Joint," a song that he well recalled he learned in right about 1901 or 1902:
"Rubber-tire buggy, rubber-tire hack..."
"I went down to the hop joint, hop joint raising sand
Said 'Stroll back your gangway, looking for my man.'
Oh my babe, why don't you come home.
I got a brand new razor, and a 44 gun
Oughta cut you if you stay here, gonna shoot you if you run
Oh my babe, Why don't you come home...."

F. Le Tellier recalled hearing this three-lines-per-stanza, refrain-in-the-third line, first-person song in 1905:
"I went down to the depot to get my baby's trunk;
I stuck my head in the bar-room door, and I left that city drunk.
My darling baby, why don't you come home?
I went down on the Bowery with a 44 in my hand;
I said, 'Look out, you roustabout! I'm looking for my man.
'My darlin' baby, why don't you come home? ..."

Gates Thomas recalled hearing this three-lines-per-stanza, refrain-in-the-third-line, first-person song before about 1906:
"Went to the hop-point [typo for hop-joint], went in a lope;
Sign on the 'scription case, 'NO MORE DOPE.'
Ho, lo, Baby, take a look at me.
Old Crow Whiskey, Devil's Island Gin,
Doctor said it would kill him, but didn't tell him when.
Ho, lo, Baby, take a look at me...."

The above four lyrics all have the I-went-somewhere theme, followed by a "baby" or "babe" who is mentioned near the start of the refrain.

Howard Odum heard this three-lines-per-stanza, refrain-in-the-third-line, first-person song by 1908:
"Comin' down State Street, comin' down Main,
Lookin' for de woman dat use cocaine,
Honey, take a one on me!"

Mentioning "Baby," "honey," or the like near the start of a third-line refrain was widespread in three-lines-per-stanza songs, such as "The Carrier Line" by Sid Hemphill, which was about events of roughly 1906. The three-lines-per-stanza song at the top of p. 236 of Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 book has the refrain "Oh, sugar babe, darlin' man," and is in the first person.

The "Knife-Song" about having the quote "blues" that Odum collected by 1908 was three lines per stanza, refrain in the third line, and in the first person. The use of "Lawd" in the refrain in that Odum song makes an interesting comparison to the song that starts on p. 177 of Anne Hobson's _In Old Alabama_, 1903.

Subject: RE: Hop Joint/Take A One On Me family
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 04 Apr 15 - 02:43 PM

Regarding all these three-line-per-stanza songs with a refrain consisting of the third line and similar to "Oh my baby...," another example is "Harvey Logan" as Dock Boggs learned it from Clintwood Johnson. Johnson was born in about 1890 and lived in a mostly black neighborhood, and Logan died in 1904. Boggs' "Harvey Logan," like the song Le Tellier heard, mentioned "the Bowery" and a gun.

Subject: RE: Hop Joint/Take A One On Me family
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 01 Apr 16 - 11:26 AM

https://twitter.com/mixellany/status/292647078331576320