I'm looking for the origins of this particular song, and thought I'd revive this thread. I'm especially intrigued by Azizi's post of three years ago, since I have always thought the song had more the feel of an African American blues ballad than an Anglo-American lyric song. Is "buck" a tune that would ever have been used by someone to refer to himself? Was this song considered offensive? (I always thought it was just a name, but now I'm not so sure.)

Does anybody know? Thanks in advance.

Dan