The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53669   Message #828714
Posted By: Stewie
17-Nov-02 - 09:23 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Rabbit Foot Blues (Blind Lemon Jefferson)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rabbit Foot Blues (Blind Lemon)
I must be losing it. It slipped completely from mind that Will Weldon [Casey Bill] was a member of the original Memphis Jug Band (g/v) for its 1927 sessions and some of its 1928 sessions. The 'Hitch Me To Your Buggy' is not actually a Memphis Jug Band recording. Following the 20 October 1927 recording session in Atlanta in which the band recorded 2 sides, solo sides were recorded by Will Weldon and Vol Stevens who accompanied each other. The 2 sides that Weldon recorded were 'Turpentine Blues' and 'Hitch Me To Your Buggy and Ride Me Like a Mule'. Will sang and played his own guitar, accompanied by Stevens on guitar and spoken comments. Vol Stevens recorded 'Vol Stevens Blues' and 'Baby Got the Rickets (Mama's Got the Mobile Blues', vocal and banjo-mandolin, accompanied by Weldon on guitar. These sides are listed under their own names, not MJB, in the Dixon & Godrich discography. They were the only recordings by Stevens under his own name, but Casey Bill went on to record numerous sides in the 1930s, beginning in 1935. Casey Bill seems to have left the band some time after the February 1928 sessions and Charlie Burse (v/g) joined for the 11 September 1928 session.

The Burns & Charles version differs sufficiently from the Weldon original that it is worth posting the latter. There is a word in the second stanza that I cannot decipher: it sounds like it could be 'fellow', but that doesn't make much sense to me. I have not attempted to decipher Stevens' spoken asides. [I must confess too that I prefer the Burns and Charles vigorous mandolin/guitar attack to the more sedate original accompaniment].


HITCH ME TO YOUR BUGGY
(Casey Bill Weldon)

You can hitch me to your buggy, babe, drive me just like I was a mule
You can hitch me to your buggy, drive me like I was a mule
And I want you to understand, woman, ain't nobody's fool

Oh I may be right, lord, but lord I may be wrong
Then I may be right, lor', and I may be wrong
And my ? done come here, baby, caught that train and gone

Gonna buy me a bulldog, watch my baby while she sleep
Gonna buy me a bulldog, watch my baby while she sleep
Gonna keep my baby from makin' her midnight creep

Miss Ida says she'd love me, but I don't believe she told me the truth Miss Ida says she'd love me, don't believe she told the truth
Every time I put my hand on her, boy, she'd rather get 'er loose

Source: transcription of Will Weldon (Casey Bill) 'Hitch Me To Your Buggy And Drive Me Like A Mule' recorded on 20 October 1927 in Atlanta Georgia and issued as Vi 21134. Reissued on Memphis Jug Band 'Memphis Jug Band Volume I' JSP CD 606.

All this, of course, doesn't help with your original query, Chis, but it may be of interest to some.

Cheers, Stewie.