The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157861 Message #3728615
Posted By: Noreen
06-Aug-15 - 01:56 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Walk, Tom Wilson, Walk (Uncle Dave Macon)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Walk, Tom Wilson, Walk
Someone else sings it on YouTube and it sounds like
Walk, Tom Wilson, walk out the room
which rhymes-
but have a look at this:
Uncle Dave Macon A Study in Repertoire
The song appears about half way down:
....And this was not the only time that Uncle Dave would mix up all sorts of verses together. Take the song Walk, Tom Wilson, Walk:
Bring up my marbles get back to talk,
But don't knock that meddler, I'm going to tell you so.
Chorus:
Walk Tom Wilson walk out the door,
Police start picking with a brand new dog.
Well I just got back from old New York,
Where I never had been before,
Ain't got as much money as I had when I left,
But I know a whole lot more.
I thought when I left home
I'se a man of some renown,
But in old New York I was on the board,
Just a rube from a one horse town.
And Gee Whiz what they done for me,
Lingered in my memory from the early morn till the sun goes down,
Got bunkoed all around. I couldn'twalk ever till the third confound,
Just a darned old rube from a one horse town.
I'd writ some letters on the train,
That I wanted to mail back home,
Tell the folks just what I'd see'd,
And just how fur I'd come.
I saw a box all painted red,
And I dropped my letters in,
Fire engines come from all around,
And the bells begin to ring.
And Gee Whiz what they done for me,
Squirted water all over me,
Grabbed a feller and I said to him, "
Pull me out for I can't swim."
The crowd all shouted "Let him drown,"
"It's a darned old goose from a one horse town.
"Walk, Tome Wilson, Walk has been re-issued on JSP7729.32
The song kicks off with a verse about Rolley Hole, a form of marbles that is still played today in parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. This is followed by the chorus, which gives the song its title, comprising a couple of lines from a Minstrel song, which also entered the Negro song tradition. (Or was it, perhaps, a Negro sing that was taken up by the Minstrel shows?)...
and more about the original(?) minstrel song.
At least it explains the marbles! :@)