Lyr ADD: Duck Foot Sue (Harry Bennet)

Subject: Duckfoot Sue
From:
Date: 03 Nov 98 - 11:04 AM

Has anyone besides myself ever heard the song "Duckfoot Sue"? If so, what words do you have? The song was taught to me by my grandmother.
Donald Stew
[e-mail]

Subject: RE:
From: Dave T
Date: 03 Nov 98 - 01:02 PM

Haven't heard that one, but I've heard "Flatfoot Susie" by Big Bill Broonzy. I wonder they're variations of the same song? It often happens, although Big Bill's songs is most likely "bawdier" than the one your grandmother sang. I'll see if I can find the words and post them.
Dave T

Subject: RE:
From: gargoyle
Date: 03 Nov 98 - 06:49 PM

The chorus to an old one ran:

I gotta gal named Cross Eye Sue
Her eyes are red, and her lips are blue
Dimpled hair, and curly cheeks
Her false teeth rattle and her glass eye squeaks

Oh Cross Eye Sue and a kangaroo
Are pretty much the same
A kangaroo, he hops all day
And Sue she hops all night.

What you are probably looking for is a parody of "Slew Foot Sue"

Subject: RE: test,
From: fleetwood
Date: 31 Aug 99 - 01:00 AM

please does anyone know the woods to a song my father in law used to sing he called it "Duck Foot Sue"

Subject: Duck Foot Sue
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Aug 99 - 01:21 AM

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on the song:

Duck-Foot Sue

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to sing to you About a girl I love so true, She's chief engineer with the White Star Line, And her name is Duck-foot Sue." He details her odd looks ("teeth like bits of pipe"), her proposal "if you don't marry me I'll bust," and her appetite.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (but found in tradition c. 1935)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Australia US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 227, "Duck-Foot Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 129-130, "Duckfoot Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 155, "Duckfoot Sue" (1 short text)
Roud #9553
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sluefoot Sue
Slufoot Sue
NOTES [94 words]: John Collins of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, sends me a version which he learned around 1935. Reportedly "a friend's father sang [this] to his dogs. It drove them batty and they 'san'" along with him."
There once was a girl I knew
Her name was Slufoot Sue
She was chief engineer at a shirttail factory
Down by the riverside zoo
Her face was all she had
She had a shape like a softshell crab
Every night she had a tussle
With a patent leather bustle
GEE but she was BAAAD
I begin to think there must be a music hall origin to the song, although I haven't yet found it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MA227

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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: fleetwood
Date: 08 Sep 99 - 11:58 PM

Quote from song:

"Listen for a while and I'll sing to you.
I'll tell you about my love.
They call her Duck Foot Sue.
She has a face like a Mexican calf.
She has a cheerful cemetery laugh."

That's all I can remember.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: Barbara
Date: 09 Sep 99 - 01:35 AM

That wouldn't be Slough or Slew Foot Sue, would it?

Subject: Lyr Add: DUCKFOOT SUE (from Bodleian)
From: fleetwood
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 06:52 PM

Some months ago I requested the lyrics of this song and unfortunately nobody was able to help - but quite recently there was a link posted to the Bodleian Library which I followed and I was able to find the lyrics there, should anybody else want them I thought I would post them in full.

DUCKFOOT SUE

Now listen for awhile and I will sing to you,
About a girl I love and they call her Duckfoot Sue.
She's gentle and divine, long-waisted in the feet,
And her heels stick out behind like an eighteen-carat beet.

So now I'll sing to you
About my love so true
Who was chief engineer in a white star laundry
Out in back-yard view.

Her beauty was all she had.
She'd a mouth as large as a crab,
An India-rubber lip like the rudder of a ship,
And I tell you she was bad.

She was not very fat nor was she very thin.
She looked when she was dressed like a straw in a barrel of gin.
I took her to a hall, at a fat man's social club,
And it cost me half a quid to stuff her up with grub.

She was a funny old guy,
With a double-barrelled squint in her eye.
Her number-ten feet would cover a street.
Her mouth was like a slit in a pie.

She'd a cheerful cemetery laugh,
With a head like a Mexican calf.
She's an iron-clad gunboat clipper-built brig
With a ball on her maintop gaff.

Now when she went away it nearly took my breath.
There's one thing I can say: she will never starve to death.
If I had married her, I should have been afraid
Of getting shot or scalped by the mother-in-law brigade.

Her face was the colour of ham.
She had ears like a Japanese fan.
She can talk for an hour with forty horsepower
With a voice like a catamaran.

Her hair was of indigo blue.
She was as graceful as a kangaroo.
You should only see her tussle with a patent leather bustle.
She could whistle like a steamboat, too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: Dixiedoll
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 05:16 PM

The words for Duckfoot Sue is are known to a singer at the Falcon (Poulton-le-Fylde). Is there a connection with Fleetwood and a ex teacher?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: nutty
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 06:43 PM

If you have no luck getting the words - you can buy this recording of the song

Good Order

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 01:10 PM

According to http://settlet.fateback.com/BB5000.htm, "Duck Foot Sue" was recorded by Bob Miller's Trio in 1932 on the Bluebird label, #5011.

And according to http://www.vitaphonevideo.com/brunswick4000.html, "Duck Foot Sue" was recorded by Bob Miller's Hinky Dinkers, on the Brunswick Label, #4431 in 1928 or 29.

And just for fun, here are some more songs/tunes recorded by Bob Miller's Hinky Dinkers:

Cornpone and Pot Likker
Dry Votin' Wet Drinkers
Farm Relief Blues
Golden Wings
Hard Times in Arkansas
Hobo From the T & P Line, Part 2
Hurry Johnnie Hurry
I Took My Time Going
In the Hills of Arkansas
Jenny's Strawberry Festival--Parts 1 & 2
Keep On Keepin' On
Little Red Caboose behind the Train
Practice Night at Chicken Bristle, Parts 1 & 2
The Farmer's Letter to the President
When I Put On My Long White Robe
Wild and Reckless Hobo

Isn't it wonderful that this kind of information is available on the Internet?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 01:30 PM

According to http://www.sjvls.lib.ca.us/cgi-bin/songs_03/FCFL0067, the words only to "Duckfoot Sue" appear in the book, "[My] Pious Friends and Drunken Companions," by Frank Shay, 1936, page 189b.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 02:59 PM

From Notes to Just Another Saturday Night: Sussex 1960:

17 The Girl I Love So True (sung by an unknown singer) (Roud 9553)
(Recorded on 27.5.60 at The Royal Oak, Milton Street)

??? of the girl I love so true
She was chief engineer in the white shirt laundry
Out in the backyard view

??? ???
She'd an Indian rubber lip like a rudder off a ship
And ?? she was mad.

She was not very thin, but she looked when she was dressed
Like a straw in a barrel of gin.

I took her to a ball at the fat man's social club
And it took me half a quid for to stuff her up with grub
For she was a funny old guy?, with a ?? squint in her eye
Her no.10 feet would have covered a street,
She'd a mouth like a crack in a pie.

??? She'd a head like a mixing gaff
????? rig
And a boil on her main top gaff

??? to you
Of the girl I love so true
She was chief engineer in the white shirt laundry
Out in the backyard view.

This is a part of a song called Duck-Foot Sue, written by Harry Bennet in 1884, and sung by G W Hunter. It was also sung, later, by George Foster (1864-1946), who may have recorded it. The only other published recording of this song from these islands was made by the BBC at Eastbridge Eel's Foot in 1938 or '39, when Harry 'Crutter' Cook sang it. This recording has just resurfaced on the Veteran CD Good Order! (VT140CD), and it appears that the song had some East Anglian popularity, as both Keith Summers and Neil Lanham recorded it there and Ginette Dunn cites it as being in Ruby Ling's repertoire. 'Crutter' Cook's version may be more complete than this present one, but it's not a great deal more intelligible!

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 03:08 PM

Found it at the Bodleian Library Broadside Collection.

Duckfoot Sue (Harding B 11(1016))

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 07:49 PM

Jim, your reference to Shay should be to 'More Pious Friend's and Drunken Companions' - his second collection. It only gives one stanza though:

For now I'll sing to you
Of the girl I love so true
She's chief engineer of the night shirt line
And her name is Duckfoot Sue
Her beauty is all she has
She's a mouth as big as a crab
She has an upper lip like the rudder of a ship
And I'll tell you she is mad

[From p155 of Dover 1961 republication of 'My Pious Friends ...'/'More Pious Friends ...']

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: DUCK FOOT SUE (Harry Bennet)
From: Bob Coltman
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 10:36 AM

Four years later (I get up late), here, just for the record for anyone who hasn't already gotten it from the Bodleian, is the complete lyric from Lester Levy at:

http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/display.pl?record=047.019.000&pages=5

Irresistibly romantic! -- Bob

DUCK FOOT SUE
Written by Harry Bennett in 1884, and sung by G W Hunter.
It was also sung, later, by George Foster (1864-1946). It appears the song had some East Anglian popularity.
Recorded by Bob Miller Trio, 1932.

VERSE 1. Oh, listen for a while, and I will sing to you
About a girl I had. Her name was Duck-Foot Sue.
She was gentle and divine, long-waisted in the feet,
And her heel stuck out behind like an eighteen-carat beet.

CHORUS 1: So now I’ll sing to you of the girl I loved so true.
She was chief engineer in a white-shirt laundry out in “Back Yard View.”
Her beauty was all she had, with a mouth like a soft-shell crab.
She’d an India-rubber lip like the rudder of a ship, and I tell you she was bad.

VERSE 2. She was not very fat, nor was she very thin.
She looked when she was dressed like a straw in a barrel of gin.
I took her to a hall, the “Fat Man’s Social Club,”
And it cost me half a sov* to settle for her grub. [*=sovereign]

CHORUS 2: Her face was the color of a ham. She had ears like a Japanese fan.
She could talk for an hour with a forty horsepower. She’d a voice like a catamaran.
Her hair was indigo blue. She was graceful as a kangaroo.
You ought to see her tussle with a patent-leather bustle. She could whistle like a steamboat, too.

VERSE 3. When first she went away, it almost took my breath.
There’s one thing I am sure: she’ll never starve to death.
If I had married her, I’d have always been afraid
Of being shot or scalped by the mother-in-law brigade.

CHORUS 3: She was a funny old guy, with a double-barrel squint in her eye.
Her number-ten feet would cover up the street. She’d a mouth like a crack in a pie.
She’d a cheerful cemetery laugh, and a head like a Mexican calf.
She’s an iron-clad clipper-built gunboat brig, with a ball on her maintop gaff.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST,Auldtimer
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 12:35 PM

This song can be heard (allong with several other marvelous items,including, Anarchy In The UK, Nobby Hall and Hallelujah) on Simon Ritchie's excellent CD - Squeezebox Schizophrenia.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 11:15 PM

This definitely seems like a cousin to "Slough-Foot Sue" and I'm chuffed to see all the lyrics. For what it's worth, the answers are so timely. My grandmother who sings this had a heart attack last night, so I'll have to try and sing it for her when I see her - soon!

Subject: Lyr Add: DUCK FOOT SUE (from Miller & Burnett)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 06:22 AM

You can hear this version of DUCK FOOT SUE at Honking Duck (where they have mistakenly labeled it "Duck Foot Stomp"):

DUCK FOOT SUE
As recorded by Bob Miller & Robert Burnett, Okeh 45541, 1931.

1. Just listen to us for a while, and we will sing to you
'Bout a girl we used to know, and her name was Duck-Foot Sue.
She's beautiful and sweet, long-waisted in the feet,
And her hair sticks out behind, like an eighteen-carat beet.

CHORUS: Oh, her eyes like indigo blue, laugh like a kangaroo.
You can even hear the rustle of her new cotton bustle.
She can whistle like a steamboat, too.
Tootle-oot-toot, tootle-oot-toot, whistle like a steamboat, too.*

2. Oh, she's got the kind of a face, that only a mother could love,
A funny ingrown face, that only a mother could love.
She had a pretty stomach for a laugh, head like a Mexican calf,
Had feet like country-cured ham, and ears like ....(?) CHORUS

3. I reckon when they give out feet, sweet Duck-Foot got her share.
When she's walking down her street, you'd think there's gunboats there.
Now, she ain't got much fat, 'cause she is powerful thin,
But she's a darn good gal, for the awful shape she's in. CHORUS

4. Well, now she's far, far away, it almost stops my breath.
If she travels on her shape, I know she'll starve to death. CHORUS

[*This line is omitted on choruses 2 and 3.]

Subject: Another variation of Cross Eyed Sue
From: GUEST,Beaumont
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 08:46 AM

As sung by my grandfather (1915-2004):

[chorus:]
Oh, I know a gal named cross eyed Sue
Her eyes are red, her lips are blue
Curly hair and dimple cheeks
Her false teeth rattle and her glass eye squeaks

Cross-eyed Sue, she wears shoes
A' buttons up the back
She can't get a dress to fit her hips
So she has to wear oat sacks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 10:39 AM

Hello Beaumont,

The Cross Eyed Sue song you quoted (not related to Duck Foot Sue) seems to have been written by Carson Robison, and was recorded (in the 1920s-30s) by Robison and also by Frank Luther.

It has been reissued on the CD Transatlantic Traveler by Carson Robison on the BACM label as B.A.C.M. 104.

Not to stretch thread creep too far, but though I couldn't find complete lyrics, here's a partial version from the web.

O I got a gal named Cross Eyed Sue,
As purdy as she can be,
She's got a wart on the end of her nose,
And a face like a sour apple tree,

CHO
O I got a gal named Cross Eyed Sue,
Her eyes are red and her lips are blue,
Pearly and curly cheek,
Her false teeth rattle and her glass eye squeaks.

Cross Eyed Sue and a kangaroo
Are pretty much alike,
Kangaroo hops around all day,
And Sue hops around all night,

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST,Brian Kell
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 04:08 PM

An excellent recording of Harry Crutter Cook singing at the Eel's Foot in Eastbridge Suffolk originally recorded by the BBC in 1939 and now reproduced on the CD Good Order 9VT140 by Veteran Records find them at www. Veteran. co.uk. The song put Alan (Woody) Wood in first place at Rothbury last year, traditional song (male).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: RONNIE 56
Date: 20 May 09 - 07:04 AM

On the flip side of the 78 record Crossed Eyed Sue (Duck Foot Sue) was a song called Peg leg Jack has any one have the lyrics of the song.
Also what are the other verses of Duck Foot Sue?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST,Fay
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 05:01 PM

The only verse my father used to sing is a little like the ones above. It went...
Listen unto me
And I will sing to you
About the girl I love
Her name was Flat Foot Sue
Sheeeeeee
Was a funny old guy
With a double barrel squint in her eye
She could sing for an hour
Like a forty year old sparrow
She could whistle like a stame boat too
Her figure was all she had
Her mouth just like a crab
With an indian rubber lip
Like the rudder of a ship
And they told me she was mad

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST,Geoff Wentworth
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 08:31 AM

My granddad , Fred Kirby, used to sing this song to us (along with several other nonsense songs) He learnt them I think in the first world war whilst serving in France.
Another verse is
Her beauty was all she had
She'd a face like a soft shell crab
She'd an india rubber lip like the rudder of a ship
And I tell you she was mad

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 12:19 PM

My Dad used to sing Cross Eyed Sue to us and it went

Verse 1
I've gotta gal named cross eyed Sue
she's pretty as she can be
a great big wart on the end of her nose
and a face like a sour apple tree

Chorus:
Oh I've gotta gal named cross eyed Sue
her eyes are red and her lips are blue
with dimpled hair and curly cheeks
her false teeth rattle and her glass eye squeaks

Verse 2
Cross eyed Sue and a Kangaroo
are very much alike
a kangaroo hops all day
and Sue she hops all night

(back to chorus)

Subject: Cross Eyed Sue
From: GUEST,Richard Eggers
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 12:26 AM

Does anyone know where I may be able to purchase a 1932 recording by Carson Robison titled "Cross Eyed Sue"? My internet address is [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jun 11 - 12:28 PM

I got a gal named cross eyed sue
her eyes are red and her lips are blue
dimpled hair and curly cheeks
her false leg wobbles and her glass eye squeeks

Oh cross eyed sue and a kangaroo
are very much alike
the kangaroo hops around all day
while sue she hops at night

I got a gal named cross eyed sue
as purdy as she can be
she's got a wart on the end of her nose
and a face like a sour apple tree

I got a gal that is so tall
sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall
dimpled hair and curly cheeks
her false teeth rattle and her hip bones squeek

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue
From: GUEST,Kathy
Date: 16 Oct 11 - 05:44 AM

Her name was duck foot sue
She was never very good, she was never very bad
Her beauty was all she had
She had a face like a fresh water crab
She was chief engineer at a ????? Laundry
Down at Watermaloo
But she's my best gal now (Repeat)
To me she always be a ????
There'll never be another
She's like my dear old mother
She's my best, my best gal now.

That's all I can remember from what my Dad used to sing to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue (Harry Bennet)
From: GUEST,Teamkitty
Date: 02 Mar 12 - 01:12 AM

Thanks for all of the slough-foot, duck-foot versions! I'm grateful and especially entranced by the patent-leather bustle and India-rubber lip! Now if I can just find out about the seasick Norwegian! :^)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue (Harry Bennet)
From: GUEST,gsmonks
Date: 04 May 12 - 12:43 PM

The "cross-eyed Sue" lyrics mentioned above are by Billy Blinkhorn, from his Dad's Cookie Songbook, late 1930's-early 1940's.

Just so you know.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue (Harry Bennet)
From: GUEST,T C Cunningham
Date: 18 Mar 13 - 04:19 AM

I learned it form my father about 75 Years ago this way.

Her name was Duck Foot Sue, the girl I loved so true.
She had an upper lip like a rudder of a ship,
and she walked like a kangaroo. She had a pretty little Graveyard laugh,
a head like a Mexican calf, she was long built, limber built, gunboat brig, with a ball on her maintop gaff.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue (Harry Bennet)
From: GUEST,Diane Ward Koch,
Date: 23 May 13 - 07:59 AM

I haved been trying to find these lyrics for 45 years!

My grandfather in Ireland sang this to me, when I visited him (from the states). As a child of 9, I remembered a remarkable part of it.
Thank you so much!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue (Harry Bennet)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Sep 13 - 12:03 AM

My dad used to sing this, but he would sing:
I know a gal named Cross Eyed Sue, her eyes are pink and her lips are blue. She has dimpled hair and curly cheeks, her false teeth rattle and her glass eyes squeak!
(and after he sang this the second time..)
Her feet are too big for socks, so she wears a gunny sack...

Now Sue's ole man , so they say, stays drunk both night and day. He feeds his horses on flap jacks and he feeds his kids on hay.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue (Harry Bennet)
From: GUEST,Mike Stewart
Date: 20 Jan 14 - 09:47 PM

Here's a version my father sang to us in the early 1940s.

I know a gal, I do,
Her name was Slew Foot Sue.
She was the chief engineer at the Duck Foot Laundry
Down by the wayside zoo.

Her form was all she had,
She was built like a soft-shelled crab.
Every evening she would tussle with her patent-leather bustle,
Oh boy, she wasn't bad.
Toot, Toot.

Subject: Slew Foot Sue lyrics
From: GUEST,Gail and Terry
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 01:32 AM

Slew Foot Sue: Song taught to my sister and me by our dad whose father was originally from Missippi.

I got a gal I do
Her name is slew foot sue
She’s chief engineer at the shirt tail factory
Down by the review side blue
Her face is all she has
A shape like a soft shell crab
A stiff up lip like a rutted of a ship
My gosh does she look sad, hey
My gals a cracker
She chews tabacker
Sits by the fireside and spits on the floor
And in my future life
She’s gunna be my wife
How’d the heck you find that out
She told me so
Dingaling a ling ling
She told me so
Dingaling a ling ling
She told me so
Dingaling a ling ling
She told me so
How the heck you find that out
She told me so

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duck Foot Sue (Harry Bennet)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 08:09 AM

From

https://www.classic-country-song-lyrics.com/oleslewfootlyricschords.html

Ole Slew Foot
Recorded by Johnny Horton
Written by Howard Hausey

G
High on the mountain tell me what you see
                        C               G
Bear tracks bear tracks looking back at me

Better get your rifle boys before it's too late
                                     C               G
'Cause a bear's got a little pig and headed thru the gate

    D7                            G
He's big around the middle and he's broad across the rump
       D7                         G
Running ninety miles an hour taking thirty feet a jump

Ain't never been caught he ain't never been tree'd
                         C       G
Some folks say he looks a lot like me


I saved up my mon' and I bought me some bees
                                 C          G
And they started making honey way up in the trees

Cut down the tree but my honey's all gone
                         C          G
Ole Slew-Foot's done made himself at home

Repeat #2

Winter's coming on and it's twenty below
                              C            G
And the river's froze over so where can he go

We'll chase him up the gulley

Then we'll run him in the well
                                     C             G
We'll shoot him in the bottom just to listen to him yell

Repeat #2