THE KICKING MULE

Only a portion of the song, with music, in Brown, North Carolina Folklore, vol. V, "The Music of the Folk Songs."

Recorded by G. S. Robinson, Asheville, 1939, "evidently before the singer turned over his MS text to Dr. Brown." Additional text may be in vol. III.

Once there was a man, his name was Simon Slick,
He had a mule with dreamy eyes- and how that mule could kick!
He'd shut one eye and switch his tail and greet you with a smile,
He'd gently raise you from the ground and kick you half a mile.

Whoa, mule, I tell you,
Whoa, mule I say!
Keep your seat, Miss Liza Jane,
And hold on to the sleigh.

No. 513, p. 328, F. C. Brown, North Carolina Folklore, vol. 5, 1962, ed. J. P. Schinhan, Duke Univ. Press.

Obvious folk crossing with "Simon Slick" and with versions of "Whoa, Mule!" The title "The
Masato (thread 48200) traces "Simon Slick" back to Turney's "The Coons Around Our Block Songster," 1879, but the song is probably older (a song about a canaller?). A cross with "Huckleberry Picnic" is covered in thread 48200.

N. I. White, Simon Slick songs, collected in 1915-1916 in Alabama, of course have no mention of a sleigh, and a different story line from the song by Hays.

SIMON SLICK, (A)

I had a mule one time,
His name was Simon Slick;
He met that Railroad Texas train
And kicked it off de track,
Kicked de feathers from dat goose,
He broke de elephant's back,
Woah mule," I say, "Woah."
Ain't got no time to fool wid you
For fooling wid dis mule.

In another version, the man, not the mule, is named Simon Slick. The single verse is very similar to the first verse of The Kicking Mule" as posted above, recorded by G. S. Robinson.

N. I. White, 1928, American Negro Folk Songs, pp. 227-228.

"De Huckleberry Picnic," words and music by Frank Dumont, Oliver Ditson & Co., c. 1879, does not mention any mules. The song was joined to Kicking Mule!, Simon Slick, Hold Onto the Sleigh, etc. by various singers and vaudeville-minstrel performers.
See thread 48200, where Joe Offer posted the original.
Huckleberry Picnic