The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157782   Message #3726267
Posted By: 12-stringer
26-Jul-15 - 02:50 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Do Right Daddy Blues (Gene Autry)
Subject: Lyr Add: DO RIGHT DADDY BLUES (Gene Autry)
Autry recorded the song three times in early 1931: two versions are essentially the same, the third quite different.

First is the text which he recorded for Victor, 18 Feb 1931, with Frankie Marvin on steel guitar. There are a couple of steel breaks in the song, and a shorter one at the end. Autry yodels at the end of each verse in all versions, and sings a repeat of the chorus line, following a guitar solo, at the end of each version, though that chorus line differs in the duo and solo recordings.

I just come down from across the Soo
I'm a true-lovin' daddy, say, will I do?
I'm a do-right daddy and I don't deny my name.

Now you can feel my legs, you can feel my thigh
But if you feel my legs you gotta ride me high
I'm a do-right daddy and I can't be treated this way.

Well I didn't come down to beat nobody's time
I just come down to see a gal of mine
I'm a do-right daddy, I can ramble where I please.

Then I took that gal to the Dallas fair
We sure set us a record there
I'm a do-right daddy and I don't care where I go.

I went to Boston, come back down Maine
I met a policeman, he says "What's your name?"
I says my name is on the tail of my shirt
I'm a do-right daddy, don't have to work.

I'm a-goin' to the river, gonna jump in and drown
Cause my little baby's done and turned me down
I'm a do-right daddy but I can't keep livin' this way.

(short steel break by Frankie Marvin)
I'm a do-right daddy but I can't keep livin' this way.

Autry cut this for ARC two months later, 13 Apr 1931, with Frank Marvin playing acoustic, rather than steel, guitar. The timing is different, a bit funkier, but the lyrics are identical, except that verse 3 of the Victor rendition is omitted from the ARC take. With a verse omitted, Marvin gets an extra guitar break.

There's also a solo version with Autry providing his own acoustic guitar accompanment, which was recorded 31 Mar 1931 and released on the Victor sub-label Timely Tunes. Completely different lyrics in this one.

The old train's comin' down the track
I'm a-leavin' you mama, never comin' back
I'm a do-right daddy and I don't deny my name.

You can cheat on me once, you can cheat on me twice
But you must keep your daddy warm at night
Cause I'm a do-right daddy, you must stay home at night.

You leave home early and you come home late
I'm a steppin' daddy with a Cadillac 8
I'm a do-right daddy and I'll take the mamas out.

I don't want you, mama, if you don't want me
There's too many mamas will set on my knee
I'm a do-right daddy and I don't have to stay with you.

I was a brakeman on a railroad train
And that's just how I got my name
I was a do-right daddy, and the girls will say the same.

Some of these days, when I'm far away
You'll wake up in the mornin' and say
I was a do-right daddy, you wish I'd come back home.

(acoustic guitar solo)
Cause I'm a do-right daddy and I don't deny my name.