Origins: bordello songs

Subject: Origins: bordello songs
From: Bob Coltman
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 10:23 AM

Some of our best known traditional songs have been featured, possibly even originated, by entertainers in bordellos.   This is just a start at unearthing that unique tradition.
I propose a pool of material that has a fairly good chance of having either originated, or been adopted, by entertainers in whorehouses. We know of some of these entertainers, like Jelly Roll Morton, who played piano and sang to entertain the streetwalkers and their customers.
Less sophisticated venues of course included dives and pine shacks in the "bad section" of town where prostitution mingled with drinking and dancing, and parties where favors were on sale. Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and many others played at these.
But I'd like to focus on specific songs that were, or might have been, performed in professional bordellos at whatever level from elegant to lowdown.
Much of what's given below is speculative of course. Some of the songs may not have any relation to the whorehouse tradition, but they have either a degree of sophistication, and/or an origin, that makes them good candidates in my opinion.
This is just American material. Needless to say there are a great many British songs with similar background. (Not to mention French, German, Italian, Spanish etc. etc.)
Note: some songs ABOUT whorehouses and cribs were probably never sung inside them, and thus would not qualify. Examples: Walking Down Canal Street, Winnipeg Whore.
I've obviously just scratched the surface. I'd like to ask the rest of you for any help you may be able to give in turning up material of this sort.
First written/recorded source is given for at least some of the songs.

ST LOUIS

Something pretty powerful was going on musically in and around St. Louis' red light district roughly 1890-1920. If I am not mistaken, we have that district to thank for the following songs:

Frankie and Johnny - c. 1890
Dis Mornin', Dis Evenin' So Soon (Tell Ol' Bill) - Sandburg Am. Songbag 1927, based on older song framework of "Crawdad Song"
St. Louis Tickle(r) - 1910s, related to "Funky Butt," see below
and (at least in inspiration) St. Louis Blues

I know there is at least one other major St. Louis whorehouse song that's slipping my mind at the moment.

NEW ORLEANS

Another famous bordello district, New Orleans' Storyville, can claim inspiration if not origin for

House of the Rising Sun - c 1910???
Baby In a Guinea Blue Gown - Sandburg New Am. Songbag
Winin' Boy - Jelly Roll Morton c. 1910s
If You Don't Shake You Don't Get No Cake - Jelly Roll Morton c. 19-teens
Funky Butt - Buddy Bolden c. 1900s-1910s

HARLEM

In his 1943 "Call House Madam, The Story of the Career of Betty Davis," Martin Tudordale, Serge G. Wolsey tells the story of this famous Hollywood madam. One of the singers she featured in her house was the "Harlem lezz singer" Yammy Ashbell, two of whose numbers were

(If You're Gonna Put It There), Put It There - Yammy Ashbell "Call House Madam" pre-1940
Wrong Kinda Song - Yammy Ashbell "Call House Madam" pre-1940

She also gives snatches of whore-related bar songs, all pre-1940, like

I Can Still Buy Love -
When I Dipped In Sweet Nellie's Well
Chicken Show
Old Mother Hubbard, Your Backside's Bare
Some Blow the Right Way, Some Go the Tight Way

VARIOUS

Other songs that may have been sung by whorehouse entertainers include

An Inch Above Your Knee - Randolph/Legman c. 1940
Poor Lil (Her Name Was Lil) - Randolph/Legman c. 1940s
Snapoo - German 16th cent origin, British, then American c. WWI
My God How the Money Rolls In / c. 1928 (Randolph/Legman as "My Father Was Hung")
She Was Poor But She Was Honest - British, 19th century
Keyhole In the Door - mid-19th century Anglo-American

and from the recorded blues tradition

The (Dirty) Dozens - Ben Curry, St Louis Red, Leroy Carr all c. 1930
Salty Dog - Papa Charlie Jackson 1924
How Come You Do Me Like You Do - possible traditional origin before "composed" version of 1924
Dirty Mother Fuyer - c. 1910s?
I Carried Water for the Elephant - Leroy Carr (Thomas-Guernsey as "The Circus Song" 1920s
Spoonful Blues - Charlie Patton 1929
Shake It and Break It and) Hang It on the Wall - Charlie Patton 1929
Candy Man - Mississippi John Hurt 1928, Rev. Gary Davis 1950s (two very different versions)
The Boy in the Boat (1930s black origin)
Tricks Ain't Walkin'/Workin' No More - Lucille Bogan 1930, Kid Coley 1931
Clair and Pearley - Kid Coley 1931
Beedle Um Bum - Blind Willie McTell 1950s
Diggin' My Potatoes - Leadbelly 1950s
Keep It Clean - Charlie Jordan 1930
Alabama Bound / Don't You Leave Me Here - c. 1900 traditional
Hole In the Elephant's Bottom - c. 1940s???
The Duck's Yas Yas Yas - James "Stump" Johnson 1929
Don't Give My Lard Away - James "Stump" Johnson 1933
Get the "L" On Down the Road - Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon?
Hot Nuts - Lil Johnson 1935 (as "Get Em From the Peanut Man"
Shave 'Em Dry - Lucille Bogan (Bessie Jackson) did the bawdy version on a dare, 1935 (unissued at the time)
You've Been a Good Ole Wagon (signs are that this was traditional before it was "composed") Bessie Smith, also Lonnie Johnson

also maybe

Pick Poor Robin Clean - Geeshie Wiley & Elvie Thomas 1931
Kill It Kid - Blind Willie McTell (1950s)
Diddie Wah Diddie - Blind Blake, may be a composed version of an earlier traditional rag?
Hesitating Blues probably traditional origin, W.C. Handy copyrighted a 1915 version, another credited to Smythe and Middleton

As the 1920s and 30s produced a cottage industry in "blue" songs, such recorded items as the following may have featured in whorehouses as well:

Dirty Butter - Minnie Wallace
Drivin' That Thing - many artists
The Woodpecker/The Pussy Cat Song
All Round Man - Bo Carter
Bring It With You When You Come
Shake That Thing - Papa Charlie Jackson
It's Tight Like That - Georgia Tom and Tampa Red

R&B

1. "Walk That Dog," "Mustang Sally" and certain other hits of Rufus Thomas have the sound of recomposed bawdy songs.

2. It's noteworthy that when Little Richard was starting out, he is said to have taken breaks from his legitimate song dates (in one city at least) to run across the street to a dive to sing bawdy versions of his hits. Thus we might think of possible whorehouse use of songs like

Tutti Frutti
Long Tall Sally
Good Golly Miss Molly
All Night Long
Slippin' and Slidin'
Chicken Little Baby, etc.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Suggestions welcome. Bob

Subject: RE: Origins: bordello songs
From: Bob Coltman
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 10:24 AM

Title change please?

Sorry, that thread was meant to be titled "Origins: bordello songs."