The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #111266   Message #2341300
Posted By: Bob Coltman
15-May-08 - 11:54 AM
Thread Name: Origin: Black Annie
Subject: ADD Version: Black Annie
Re "Black Annie" by The Georgia Yellowhammers, which seems to have nothing whatever to do with the above.

The Yellowhammers were mainly Bill Chitwood and Bud Landress with various other musicians, including sometimes the fine black fiddle/guitar duo Andrew and Jim Baxter. The Yellowhammers were steeped in rags and blues, and some of their records are masterpieces of down-home swing and syncopation.

However, what they meant by titling their 1928 record "Black Annie" isn't clear. Annie is never mentioned by name in the song, and it's not clear the song is about her at all. It's of the "coon song" variety popular in the 1890s, already long in decline by the time this was recorded.

This song is of the "You May Go, But This Is Gonna Bring You Back" family, but it's a wild ride that may include more than one song, such as a "Kill 'Em Kid" passage (a jazz interjection that goes way back) some years before Blind Willie McTell first recorded his "Kill It Kid Rag" (1940). Nevertheless its story is very coherent throughout. Its tune also varies quite a bit from verse to verse.

So the question is, did they just cop the title, perhaps from some unrecorded instrumental by the Baxters? Or is "Black Annie" really the name of this song, and if so, can it be traced to any original, or did they compose it?

You can see that the whole Black Annie business is confusion compounded.

My transcription of the lyrics has a few questions, as indicated.

BLACK ANNIE
Georgia Yellowhammers, 1928.

Well, me and my baby had a little fallin' out,
Won't you stop and let me tell you what 'twas all about,
She woke me up in the mornin', just was half-a past three,
(Said to? Sefus? T'make me?) go to work, but that ain't me.
Well, before I go to work, let me tell you what (I'll?) do,
Get another woman just as warm as you,
I packed my trunk, and I thought I had her (best?),
She got a hundred dollar bill in my favorite (vest?).

CHO:
Oh, you may go, but this's gonna bring you back,
Well, I don't know,
I'm really disgusted at the way you acted,
You took all my furniture, you put it in pawn,
To buy the new tailor-made that you got on,
You may go, but this's gonna bring you back.

Well, I went down town, and I fell in the saloon,
I got my head loaded, got dead pretty soon,
I went right back to the place I'd been before,
And she wouldn't recognize me, wouldn't let me in.
I got myself together and I knocked down the door,
Great big bully (started up? / settin' there?) on the floor,
Skillet and the lid I began to throw,
Well, I thought I heard m' baby say the coon went out the do'
   
You may go, but this's gonna bring you back.   [one line only]

Well, she bought me a wheel for to ride around,
You know m' wheel's called one [o'] the finest in town,
Buy [ ?? two-syllable word ] suit of the finest kind,
Some o' them coons just [ ?? two syllables ] mine,
Well, I got on my wheel an' I started out,
I's about my business when they hear my honey shout,
Kill 'em, kid, the sweet thing, m' honey,
Well, you sure look hot, you sure look hot,
You look down, coons, y' had rather be shot, rather be shot
Than to see my baby comin' down the street
With a pocket full o' money and a place to sleep,
[We're?] no danger to who we meet,
Just kill 'em, kid, kill 'em, kid.

Well, I carried my girl to the dance last night,
Just to show them coons that we were right,
When we entered right through the door,
I thought to my soul we gonna raise a fight,
But when the band begin to play,
Begin to play that bombashay,
I was swingin' in the air when I heard my baby say
Got a brand new man, got [ ?? six or seven syllables sung fast ],
Got a brand new [ / one syllable ], got plenty to eat,
Got a brand new man, an' { ?? ]
Got a swell-headed lady, and she can't be beat.