Lyr Req: Pick Poor Robin Clean

Subject: Lyrics for Pick Poor Robin Clean
From: rjradack
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 04:14 PM

I'm a first time mudcatter. i'm looking for the lyrics to the song Pick Poor Robin Clean. Anyone

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Pick Poor Robin Clean
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 07:39 PM

Well, rjradack, you did the right thing in starting this thread. Give it a day or two; this place is FULL of people who know all kinds of songs, so someone is bound to turn up with some sort of answer, soon.

If you don't get any responses for a day or two, feel free to do what the rest of us do: just type in "refresh" and hit "submit Message". That will bring it back up to the top of the threads and hopefully someone who knows it will see it.

Good luck and Welcome!

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Pick Poor Robin Clean
From: _gargoyle
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 08:12 PM

Don't pay no tenshun to Kitty, she been "refreshin'" so many long-dead-threads lately that she's bound to run out deoderant soon.

How about a link to a sound clip from American Pop - An Audio History - from Minstrel to Mojo a href= http://www.musicandarts.com/wh1017-3.html>Pick Poor Robin Clean you will find the link half way down their page on the right side.

Thanks for the lead...this appears to be one recording that I MUST have....loved it.

Subject: Lyr Add: PICK POOR ROBIN CLEAN (Luke Jordan)
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 09:19 PM

As well as on the 'Minstrel to Mojo' set mentioned by GG, Luke Jordan's original recording has been reissued on Various Artists 'Before the Blues Vol 3' Yazoo 2017. In his notes to that album, Don Kent writes:

Derived from a breakdown and given a lazy, raggy cast, this song was probably very popular in the medicine show and carnival circuit in the early 1900s, when it was undoubtedly current. Jordan plays it as a true breakdown, changing chords with every measure, and takes a stab at flamenco-styled guitar in the last instrumental passages. Luke Jordan was born in Bluefield, West Virginia in 1892, an area that experienced a rapid growth in black population at the turn of the century with the expansion of its coalfields. Jordan evidently learned this song fairly early, as it was his signature piece when he settled in Lynchburg in 1916. Most black Lynchburg musicians report that Jordan did not play any blues when he arrived there.

PICK POOR ROBIN CLEAN

Chorus:
You better pick poor robin clean
Pick poor robin clean
I picked his head, I picked his feet
(Would have) I picked his body, but it wasn't fit to eat
You'd better pick poor robin clean
Pick poor robin clean
But I'll be satisfied having your family

Get off my money and don't get funny
'Cos I'm a nigger, don't cut no figure
Gamblin' for Sadie, she is my lady
I'm a hustlin' coon that's just what I am

Repeat chorus

Well didn't that jaybird laugh
When he picked poor robin clean
Picked poor robin clean, poor robin clean
Didn't that jaybird laugh
When he picked poor robin clean
Well I'll be satisfied having your family

Repeat chorus

Well if you have that girl of mine
Gonna have your ma, your sister too (two)
Your auntie three
If your great-grandmammy do the shivaree (?)
I'm gonna have 'em all
I'll be satisfied having the family

Repeat chorus
^^
Long instrumental passage

Source: Luke Jordan 'Pick Poor Robin Clean' Vi 20957. Recorded 18 August 1927. Reissued on Various Artists 'Before the Blues Vol 3' Yazoo CD 2017.

Jordan sometimes sings 'would have' and at other times 'I' in the fourth line of the chorus. He also alternates between 'your family' and 'a family'.

There is an excellent rendition by Dave Ray on the Koerner, Ray and Glover reunion album 'One Foot in the Groove' Tim/Kerr TK96CD137. Dave gets around Jordan's second verse by singing:

Get off my money, don't get funny
'Cos I'm a white guy, knows a big lie
Gamblin' for Sadie, she is my lady
I'm a hustlin' fool, that's just what I am

He also has 'neighbours' instead of 'jaybird'. 'Didn't the neighbours laugh when they picked poor robin clean'.

Cheers, Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Pick Poor Robin Clean
From: _gargoyle
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 10:09 PM

Absolutely LOVE IT!!! Understanding the lyrics makes it even better.

Hopefully, have it by twelfth-night for my brother.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Pick Poor Robin Clean
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 10:14 PM

If I'm not mistaken, Pink Anderson also recorded it, and even though I'm supposed to clean the basement for Christmas, I'm gonna hunt down that recording! Thanks for the lyric Stewie.
Rick

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Pick Poor Robin Clean
From: rjradack
Date: 19 Dec 99 - 05:18 PM

This response was amazing, I got the lyrics and then some... thank you all, i'm a mucdat convert.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Pick Poor Robin Clean
From: _gargoyle
Date: 19 Dec 99 - 09:18 PM

Ah....Mr. Joe Offer....

Your backside help is greatly, Greatly, GREATLY, appreciated!!!

However, when you go cleaning up double posts, PLEASE recognize that the SECOND or THIRD post usuallyhas been CLEANED-UP, because the first was missing a key element such as an

THANX again for ALL of your effort and time.

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Pick Poor Robin Clean
From: Art Thieme
Date: 22 Dec 99 - 03:58 PM

GEESHIE WYLIE (female) recorded this on a blues 78 rpm record.

Art