A second song, derived in part from "The Son of a Gambolier"
and performed in Newberry by Bert Graham, is "Joe Williams," regarding
a foul-mouthed, lusty ox-driver who ventures from the woods to town
and back again in search of female companionship (AFS 2344 A1).

Oh my name it is Joe Williams and my age is twenty-one,
I'm a rambling wreck of poverty and a roving son-of-a-gun.
From driving ox teams in Comstock lumber woods,
To hear me curse and swear at them it'll do your asshole good.

Whoa Buck! Gee haw Diamond! You broad-horned son-of-a-bitch.
It's don't you dare to kish at me, or I'll slog you till you tip.
Come swamper, cut that knot off, you lobcocked son-of-a-whore.
Or I'll make you suck that off-ox tit till your upper lip gets sore.

Now I'm like any old bullpuncher, I like my lager beer.
Like any old bullpuncher, I like my whisky clear.
Like any old bullpuncher, I like my gin and tod.
For I'm a rambling wreck of poverty and a son-of-a-gun, b'god.

Oh it's now I go down to Cheboygan,6 1 think I'm quite a man.
I promenade around the streets, my aleck in my hand.
In going up Broadway, I met a pretty lass.
I introduced her to my aleck and slap 'er up her ass.

Oh I tangled up her little guts till she was in a fit,
And when I pulled out old Reuben, he was covered in blood and shit.
Oh the spendings from her asshole would run a water mill,
And if you had a fatter sow, you'd a-got a barrel of swill.

For I'm like any old bullpuncher, I like my lager beer.
Like any old bullpuncher, I chase me whisky clear.
Like any old bullpuncher, I like my gin and tod,
For I'm a rambling wreck of poverty and a son-of-a-gun, b'god.

So now I go back to the woods, I found I've got the pox,
I wish to Christ I'd stayed at home and shagged that old off-ox.
Put on a little wagon grease and did it up in a rag,
For when I think of that old whore, I wish I were a stag.

So now my song is ended and I'll sing to you no more.
So health to all you shanty boys and hell to that old whore.
So now my song is ended and I'll sing to you, alas!
And if any of you don't like this song, you can kiss that off-ox ass.(7)

7. In addition to common woods terms like "bullpuncher" and "swamper," the rarer "kish" is a "call to
cows or calves" previously reported from Dutch and Flemish settlements in North Dakota and "on the Upper
Delaware and in the Catskills"—perhaps indicating its route into the Michigan lumber camps (Cassidy and Hall
1996:228). Presumably an ox that would "kish" at its driver is "talking back." Paul Gifford confirmed that this
song was in oral tradition in Michigan in the 1970s: "I taped a man named Orin Miller, of Scottville, MI (a
fiddler) sing a version of this. His version had "Ludington" instead of "Cheboygan," but it was equally filthy
("swamper, cut that knot off, you lop-cock son of a whore, or suck my old snotty old fuck-stick until your upper
lip gets sore," etc.)" (Gifford 2007) .

From "Woodsmen, Shanty Boys, Bawdy Songs and Folklorists in America's
Upper Midwest" by James P. Leary, in The Folklore Historian,
Volume 24, 2007.

The text of the song above is from the singing of Bert Graham,
Newberry, Michigan, recorded August 1938.


Listen online: https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A2GMOMLZNFINBL9B