The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #98413 Message #1949240
Posted By: Richie
26-Jan-07 - 08:01 PM
Thread Name: Origin: White House Blues (from Delia?)
Subject: RE: Origin & Lyr: White House Blues
"Delia Holmes; a Neglected Negro Ballad"
"Will Win is a colored troupadore who has wondered all over the south and west, carrying a battered guitar and earning his meals and lodging by a song. He states that Delia originated following a murder in Georgia having been composed about 1900 by a white minstrel of Dallas, Texas known as Whistlin' Bill Ruff.
An unnamed man kills Delia (White p. 215) fragments in Odum and Johnson as "Pauly" Frankie or Lilly.
Anyone have the versions found in White or Odum and Johnson?