Origins: If You Haven't Any Hay (Skip James)

Subject: RE: Origins: If you haven't any hay - Skip James
From: GUEST,Aviva
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 10:21 AM

Oh, now I get it :-) thanks!

Subject: RE: Origins: If you haven't any hay - Skip James
From: Janie
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 08:02 AM

I love the Marie Mauldar (sp.) version of this song.

Janie

Subject: RE: Origins: If you haven't any hay - Skip James
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 06:22 AM

I believe the suggestion is that it is a sexual metaphor

Subject: RE: Origins: If you haven't any hay - Skip James
From: GUEST,Aviva
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 05:45 AM

Thanks so much - but does it mean then "horseback riding"?

(Sorry , I'm not an English native speaker).

Subject: RE: Origins: If you haven't any hay - Skip James
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 10 Oct 03 - 04:03 AM

In his biography of James, I'd Rather be the Devil, Skip James and the Blues, Stephen Calt recounts asking James about the lyrics to this song:

"What's If You Haven't Any Hay about?" I asked.
"Out in the country we used to go hack-ridin'; hay-ridin'. Sometimes there'd be someone who didn't have any hay. So he'd best get on down the road." He chuckled, and began citing a low-down lyric: "You heard Make Me a Pallet on the Floor? Well, I styled it this way: 'Give me the keys to your back door. So I won't be bothered 'round the front no more.'"

(Calt, 1994: 265)

Subject: Origins: If you haven't any hay - Skip James
From: GUEST,Aviva
Date: 09 Oct 03 - 05:02 PM

Hey there all,

I've been reading the lyrics of "If you haven't any hay get on down the road". U can C them here:

http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/artistswithsongs/skip_james_2.htm#get_on_down_the_road


What's the deal - Does "hay" stand for something I should know of? Another Blues slang?

Thanks.