Lyr Req: High-Geared Mama (Jimmie Davis)

Subject: High Geared Momma???
From: July4thbby
Date: 15 Oct 01 - 08:41 PM

Can someone help me with the title and lyrics to this song??

I'M A HIGH GEARED MOMMA COMING TO TOWN DON'T LET IT GET YOU DOWN, YOU CAN THROW IT IS HIGH AND YOU CAN THROW IT IS LOW, MAKES A OLD MAN GET HIS CANE AND GO

Thanks, Cookie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: High Geared Momma???
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Oct 01 - 01:49 PM

Here's some information: "High Geared Mama" was written by Jimmie Davis, the "Singing Governor" of Louisiana who also wrote "You Are My Sunshine." (The link gives some interesting biographical information about him.)

The 5-CD set "Nobody's Darlin' But Mine: 1928-1937" (issued by Bear Family in 1998) contains Davis' recordings of both "High Geared Mama" and "High Geared Daddy," which was written by Buddy Jones. Jones performed with Davis and they co-wrote several songs. I suspect one of these songs was an "answer" to the other, but I don't know which came first.

The bio (linked-to above) says that "High Geared Mama" was regarded as a "racy" recording, and Earl Long tried to use it to discredit Davis in a political campaign, but the attempt backfired.

It seems this song would be a good addition to DigiTrad, so I hope someone finds it and posts it here.

Subject: Lyr Add: HIGH-GEARED MAMA (Jimmie Davis)
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 09:52 PM

HIGH-GEARED MAMA
(Jimmie Davis)

Now talk about your gals but I've got one
She's a high-geared mama, she's a son of a gun
She's got knee actions so they say
You oughta see her make her getaway
She's a high-geared mama comin' to town
Don't let her get you down

She can walk the dog, she can ball the jack
She can really cock 'em back
She's a high-geared mama built for speed
She has got anything you need
She's a high-geared mama comin' to town
Don't let her get you down

Instrumental break

She can throw it in high, she can throw it in low
Make an old man grab his stick and go
She wanted a dress and she wanted a ring
But she didn't even want to shake that thing
She's a high-geared mama comin' to town
Don't let her get you down

She's a two-time mama when I leave her at home
She calls another daddy on the telephone
She's snorted and cavorted, capered and reared
She never even whimpered and never even cared
She's a high-geared baby comin' to town
Don't let her get you down

Instrumental break

For exercise she'd walk a mile
She can cut your pork chops any old style
If you like a girl like this girl of mine
You can come get mine just any old time
She's a high-geared mama comin' to town
Don't let her get you down

I took her to church the other day
She and the preacher made a getaway
They buried the preacher a mile from town
She come to the funeral in her red nightgown
She's a high-geared mama comin' to town
Don't let her get you down

Instrumental break

She's a high-geared mama comin' to town
Don't let her get you down


Words and music by Jimmie Davis. Recorded 21 March 1936 in Roosevelt Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana. Issued as De 5206.

Source: transcription from reissue on 'Songs of Jimmie Davis: Nobody's Darlin' But Mine Vol 4' Bear Family BCD-15943.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: High Geared Mama
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 12:04 PM

Thanks, Stewie. Certainly has a different tone than "You Are My Sunshine", doesn't it? It's hard to imagine a politician writing a song like that.

Are there any politicians today writing anything other than memoirs or political essays? Eugene McCarthy wrote poems (not exactly earthshaking), Vaclav Havel wrote plays, Winston Churchill wrote history and biography, Benjamin Disraeli wrote novels -- that's all I can think of.

Hope you don't mind the thread drift...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: High-Geared Mama (Jimmie Davis)
From: GUEST,yr uncle
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 02:44 AM

Thanks. Thought of this one while listening to some Jimmy Rodgers.
Heard it originally on a windup in Kansas in the late forties. It was too risque for my Mom to let me listen to...after I'd already heard it a dozen times.
So governors were honest men once.