The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54404   Message #842816
Posted By: GUEST,Q
06-Dec-02 - 11:26 PM
Thread Name: Steamboat coonjine songs
Subject: RE: Steamboat coonjine songs
Lyr. Add: MISSISSIPPI BOAT SONG

Some boats are fast and others slow,
Stern wheel boats on the Ohio,
With five feet scant on all the bars,
This boat can beat the railroad cars.
Now is the time for a bully trip,
So shake her up and let her rip!

Chorus
Now is the time for a bully trip,
Hudah, hudah, hudah hay,
So shake her up and let her rip!
Hudah, hudah, hudah hay,
With five feet scant on all the bars,
This boat can beat the railroad cars.

Our boys they all do like this fun,
'Tis not the first time that we've run.
Our Captain bets on every race,
And when he drinks he runs his face.
I saw him bet ten thousand down,
With Captain Joe, in Orleans town.

So crowd her hard with pitch and pine,
The other boat's ten miles behind.
Telegraph wires are mighty slow,
And our safety valves are tied below.
I bet my money and I'm bound to win;
And fill my pockets full of "tin."

Minstrel song, about 1870, of the type which helped build up the myth of the river steamboat. Possibly by Jerry Bryant, who sang it at Bryant's Minstrels, N. Y.
Published as a broadside by H. De Marsan, N. Y. From American Memory, America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets. No music given.