Fattening Frogs
In the 1950s an oldtime jook band turned up in Alabama: the Mobile Strugglers, who got a tremendous sound out of two fiddlers, a guitar player, a bass player and a washtub man who doubled on banjo-mandolin. I learned Fattening Frogs from some takes made of the band at the time. The song's much older; some say it's one of the earliest blues, and it was recorded earlier by Virginia Liston and others. But nobody did it with the Strugglers' flair, and that's where I hear it coming from. I added the wig verse from a song by Cannon's Jug Stompers; it belongs here.

FATTENING FROGS

Cooked my own breakfast this morning, pretty mama,
Cook my dinner on time,
You took my last dollar
Like you took my last dime,

    CHORUS
    I'm getting tired
    Fattening frogs for snakes.
    It takes me so many years
    To learn my mistakes.

When I first knowed you, pretty mama,
You didn't have them fine clothes,
You owed your house rent,
You's almost sleeping outdoors.

Take that wig I bought you,
Let your head go bald,
When I first knowed you, pretty mama,
You didn't have no hair at all.

When I first knowed you, pretty mama,
You would drag me in your door,
Now I'm getting old
You don't want me no doggone more.