The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #16280   Message #151136
Posted By: Stewie
18-Dec-99 - 02:49 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
Subject: Lyr Add: FLY AROUND MY PRETTY LITTLE MISS
Here's the Skillet Licker version from the late 1920s, as best as I can transcribe it from Riley Puckett's less than clear vocals. Though the title is 'Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss', that line does not actually appear in the song. There is no specific chorus in this version, simply repetition of several verses.

FLY AROUND MY PRETTY LITTLE MISS

Put that meat all under the bed
Yonder comes the owner
Sold my hog and bought me a mule
Ain't gonna pray no more

Eighteen pounds of meat a week
Whisky in a still
How can the young men stay at home
When the girls all look so well

Fare you well my pretty little miss
Fare you well my honey
If I'm not there by the middle of the week
You can look for me on Sunday

Jaybird died with the whooping cough
Sparrow died with the colic
Long came a red bird fiddle on a (peg ?)
Wind along girls to the frolic

Eighteen pounds of meat a week
Whisky in a still
How can the young men stay at home
When the girls all look so well

Put that meat all under the bed
Yonder comes the owner
Sold my hog and bought me a mule
Ain't gonna pray no more

Fare you well my pretty little miss
Fare you well my honey
If I'm not there by the middle of the week
You can look for me on Sunday

Eighteen pounds of meat a week
Whisky in a still
How can the young men stay at home
When the girls all look so well Spoken: Court 'em, boys, court 'em.

Source: The Skillet Lickers 'Old-Time Fiddle Tunes and Songs from North Georgia' County CD-3509