The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #82345 Message #4167515
Posted By: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
14-Mar-23 - 04:41 AM
Thread Name: Origins: How old is the song 'Cripple Creek'?
Subject: RE: Origins: How old is the song 'Cripple Creek'?
Two years later:
“The Banjo and the Loom THUMP-chug-a-tinkle-tang, tump-a-tinkle tine! Listen at the banjo and the loom; Banjo keeps a-pickin' in the shadow o' the vine, Batten keeps a-thudden' th'ough the room. Cabin in the sunshine –– chug-a plunk-a pling! Mocker in the sarvice-bush –– listen at him sing! “Possum up a 'simmon-tree,” here the music ring Out across the meadows all in bloom! Says the loom to the banjo: Thump-a, chunk-a-choo! You lazy, good-for-nothin' scamp! My head's a-swimmin' with the work I 've got to do, My back 's a-th'obbin' with a cramp. Goin' up Cripple Creek, layin' in the shade, Waitin' for the money that the old man made–– Nary hill o' 'taters hoed, and your ax has laid More 'n a week a-rustin' in the damp!”
Banjo keeps a-twangin' clear: “Time, oh, keep-a time! What's the good o' harkin' from the tomb? I can set you dancin' to a ringin' rip o' rhyme; I can always chase away the gloom. 'Way down yander, where they plant a heap o' truck, Sleepin' in the corn-pile, covered with a shuck–– Oh, it 's I am young forever, and forever I'm in luck! Whoop!” says the banjo to the loom. Emma Bell Miles. [In Lighter Vein, Scribner's Monthly, an Illustrated Magazine for the People, Vol.74, 1907]