Lyr Add: Doggone My Good-Luck Soul (Hattie Hudson)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Doggone My Good-Luck Soul (Hattie Hudson)
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 05 Dec 10 - 01:56 PM

Shucks folks, I'm slipping. Hattie Hudson is also on Document DOCD-5163. Texas Girls 1926-1929. She sings

Doggone my good luck soul and Black hand blues.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Doggone My Good-Luck Soul (Hattie Hudson)
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 05 Dec 10 - 01:38 PM

Cracking song, and one that has been all too seldom anthologised. My database is in bits at the moment, so I can't check properly. But the only listing I can find is on a superb anthology called Piano Blues: Dallas 1927 - 1929. Magpie PYCD 15.

Presumably, since the death of Francis Wilford Smith, the Magpie label is no more. So folks wanting to hear this piece will have to purchase the Yazoo Cd which Stewie mentioned earlier.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Doggone My Good-Luck Soul (Hattie Hud
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Dec 10 - 01:22 PM

I found this one verse quoted in a book:

I wanna go home and I ain't got sufficient clothes.
Doggone my bad-luck soul.
Wanna go home and I ain't got sufficient clothes.
I mean sufficient cold-weather clothes.
Well, I wanna go home and I ain't got sufficient clothes.

--Blind Lemon Jefferson, BAD LUCK BLUES, recorded October 1, 1926.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Doggon My Good-Luck Soul
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 27 Feb 01 - 12:55 AM

Don't worry Stewie, we "nurds" know that you poofread before posting. Thanks for the info on Hattie. I'd never heard of her.

ick

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Doggon My Good-Luck Soul
From: Stewie
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 08:33 PM

If a JoeClone could put an 'e' on the 'doggon' in the thread title to correct it to 'doggone', I would be much obliged.

--Stewie.

Subject: Doggon My Good-Luck Soul
From: Stewie
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 08:28 PM

Here's one of my favourite pre-war blues:

DOGGONE MY GOOD-LUCK SOUL
(Mostly traditional, arr Hattie Hudson)

(Spoken) Oh play that thing, Miss Jefferson. The time ain't long now.

I've got a gold horseshoe, going to put it on my door
Doggone my good-luck soul!
Hey, put it on my door
Bad luck has gone from here, it can't come back no more

Oh, lord, I just got lucky; I believe I'll bet and win
Doggone my good-luck soul!
Hey, believe I'll bet and win
The man I've got right now, took him from my best friend

Oh, mama, I can't be good; lord, I believe I'll just quit tryin'
Doggone my good-luck soul!
Hey, believe I'll just quit tryin'
I don't live in the country, on paved streets all the time

Been with my same little sugar just ten long years today
Doggone my good-luck soul!
Hey, ten long years today
And if he should quit loving me, I'll throw myself away

Oh, poor little rabbit, you can hop all in my yard
Doggone my good-luck soul!
Hey, hop all in my yard
I ain't going to take your feet nor fill your head with stars

Oh, where's the mean fortuneteller and the black cat that failed?
Doggone my good-luck soul!
Hey, the black cat that failed
Come around to see me in the morning, I'm carrying keys to the jail

I got three good men, but it's two more in my way
Doggone my good-luck soul!
Hey, two more in my way
And if this good luck don't leave me, I'll love myself away

Source: Hattie Hudson 'Doggone My Good-Luck Soul' Columbia 14279-D. Recorded in Dallas, Texas, on 6 December 1927. Reissued on Various Artists 'Before the Blues Vol 2' Yazoo CD 2016.

Nothing at all is known about the very talented Hattie Hudson who recorded only 2 songs. It is believed that she sang locally in the Dallas area, but never achieved the fame of some of her contemporaries. 'Doggone My Good-Luck Soul' is an answer to 'Bad Luck Blues' recorded in October 1926 by Blind Lemon Jefferson. Jefferson's song had a similar melody and the refrain: 'Doggone my bad-luck soul'. David Evans has suggested that, from her spoken introduction, Hattie was trying to give the impression that she was the piano player and that she was related to Jefferson. Columbia foiled this by printing Willie Tyson's name as the pianist on the record label.

PS.