Agreed, Charley. The song originated with the Dixon Brothers, and they should be given full credit.

According to Gus Meade's book Country Music Sources, Dorsey Dixon, one of country music's finest early songwriters, is the originator and composer, c. 1935. The song was recorded with his brother Howard as the Dixon Brothers in Charlotte, NC, February 12, 1936, and released in June 1936 on Bluebird and Montgomery Ward: BB B6327, MW M4823.

Subsequently a cover version was issued by Bill Cox and Cliff Hobbs, Vocalion 04811, July 1939. Meade also finds related a 1946/7 King recording (King 629) by Fairley Holden and his Ice Cold Papas.

"The Intoxicated Rat's" circulation among folk singers probably started in the 1940s when Alan Lomax released a 78rpm album reissuing recordings from the southern county market called Smoky Mountain Ballads (Victor P78). From there it passed into the repertoire of quite a few folk singers, particularly in New York, and subsequently circulated in children's camps, where it got shortened by counselors into various versions of two or three verses (one is called "The Little Brown Rat" I think) and is still occasionally found sung in camps today.

It all stemmed from the Dixons' recording. That recording, by the way, is one of the glories of early country music, vocally and instrumentally, and more people ought to hear it.

The song may have been based on an older joke whose punchline was "bring on your g—d— cat," but it's not clear whether the joke stemmed from the song. I am not aware of the involvement of Wade Mainer, and tend to doubt it.

Yes, it is frustrating that posters in general seem to resist the obvious: the song is a Dixon Brothers song, and Dorsey Dixon wrote it.

Bob