Lyr ADD: Sugar in My Coffee

Subject: Lyrics: Sugar in My Coffee, O
From: hartley
Date: 23 Sep 97 - 07:33 AM

Are there lyrics to this old fiddle tune? If so, does anyone have the words?

Subject: Sugar In My Coffee
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 28 Oct 01 - 09:00 PM

Hi Guys,
Anyone know more lyrics to Sugar In My Coffee?

This is the only part I know.......

How in the world the old folks know
I love sugar in my coffee O
How on earth did they find out
They found sugar round the spout

Would love to add more lyrics if there are.
Thanks,
Miss Bonnie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar In My Coffee
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 09:21 AM

Hi
Those are the only words I've ever heard.
It comes from Currence Hammons. According to the "Folk Music Performer Index" (folkindex.mse.jhu.edu/index.htm)it is on "Old-Time Banjo Anthology, Vol. 1", Marimac AHS 4 (1991). I'm at work and cannot remember if I have that tape. Learned it from Diane Jones and that was her source.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar In My Coffee
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 09:26 AM

I was hoping I'd hear from you Russ. Seems you would have been the best person for me to ask.
I heard Sherman Hammons sing it. He says "how in the hell did they find out" That is the only difference in words I know from what I've heard Dwight sing.

Thanks for you help,
Bon

Subject: Lyr Add: SUGAR IN MY COFFEE
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 08:31 PM

The Fiddler's Companion entry for this gives the following verses:

SUGAR IN MY COFFEE

Go there once and go no more
If they don't give no sugar in my coffee-o
How in the world's the old folk know
That I'll take sugar in my coffee-o

Sugar's high and sugar's low
But I'll take sugar in my coffee-o
How in the hell's the old folk know
That I'll take sugar in my coffee-o
It refers to versions by Uncle Dave and Fiddlin' John and gives a precursor from Talley's 'Negro Folk Rhymes':

Sheep's in de meader a-mowin' o' de hay
De Honey's in de bee-gum, so dey all say
My head's up an' I'se boun' to go
Who'll take sugar in de coffee-o? (Similar to Uncle Dave Macon's lyric)

I'se de prettiest liddle gal in de county-o
My mammy an' daddy, dey bofe say so
I looks in de glass, it don't say, "No"
So I'll take sugar in de coffee-o. (Close to John Carson's lyric)

You'll find the full entry here:

Fiddler's Companion

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar In My Coffee
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 09:44 PM

Thanks Stewie Dewie. You know it isn't easy to stretch a song out with only two verses. I'm thrilled. Now you have me all inspired to work on this tune so I can share it with others. Major appreciated.
Bon

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar In My Coffee
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 11:44 PM

This song called OLD COUNTRY STOMP contains the phrase "Little more sugar in the coffee."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar In My Coffee
From: Gypsy
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 11:53 PM

This ISN'T the same as "Sugar in the Coffee" is it? Tune sounds different to me. Or am i playing it wrong?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar In My Coffee
From: GUEST,Fiddlin' Ryan Spearman
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 05:13 PM

This is all a great help to me as well...I wish I could decipher the last three verses that Uncle Dave sings. Does anyone know any verses that start:
                  "Jaybird Sittin on a Hickory Limb..."
             or   "Preacher went to?.."

Subject: Lyr Add: WOULDN'T GIVE ME SUGAR IN MY COFFEE
From: Stewie
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 01:52 AM

Little Neo,

Pleased it was of use to you.

Fiddlin' Ryan,

This is what I hear Uncle Dave singing. The transcription, as always, is open for correction. How does it line up with what you hear?


WOULDN'T GIVE ME SUGAR IN MY COFFEE

Instrumental [banjo] introduction.

[Spoken] Hot dog! People, you know, a gentleman asked me last night what I was doing. I said, 'Well, sir, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I don't do anything'. He says, 'Well, what do you do on Thursday, Friday and Saturday?' I says, 'Why, I rest'. He says, 'You do anything on Sunday?' 'Oh, yes sir, that's my busiest day'. He says, 'What are you doing on Sunday?' I says, 'Getting ready to do nothing on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday'. Ha! Ha!

I'll be dogged if I can see,
How my little honey got away from me,
Been there once, I'm going home,
Wouldn't give me sugar in my coffee-o

Just one thing that bothers my mind,
A world full of women and none of 'em mine
Been there once, I'm going home,
Wouldn't give me sugar in my coffee-o

Well try to look for a needle in the sand,
Try to find a woman that's got no man
Been there once, I'm going home,
Wouldn't give me sugar in my coffee-o

Jaybird sitting on a hickory limb,
Picked up brickbat took him on the chin - hi-ho mister don't you do that again,
Brother, you'll kick the bark off a seasoned hickory limb
Been there once, I'm going home,
Wouldn't give me sugar in my coffee-o

Preacher went to Florida, the truth to tell, he went to Miami at a big hotel,
He went to the beach and the bathing was fine,
Sued for divorce in an hour's time
Been there once, I'm going home,
Wouldn't give me sugar in my coffee-o

Never you mind what your mammy say,
Shake your little foot and sail away,
Been there once, I'm going home,
Wouldn't give me sugar in my coffee-o

Source: transcription of Uncle Dave Macon 'Wouldn't Give Me Sugar In My Coffee' recorded on 8 September 1926 and issued as Vocalion 15440 in December 1926 [also as Vocalion 5002 in February 1927]. Reissued on Uncle Dave Macon 'Wait 'Till The Clouds Roll By 1926-1939' Historical LP HLP-8006 [1975].

Fiddlin' John Carson's 'Little More Sugar In The Coffee' [Okeh 45542] is one stanza only. It is repeated with the third line left out and the last line is repeated in isolation.

Prettiest girl in the country-o
Daddy and mammy both said so
All dolled up in calico
Little more sugar in the coffee

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar In My Coffee
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 19 May 09 - 03:06 PM

Hi Stewie, (only 6 years later ... how's that for quick response?)

Some suggested changes:

Chorus: Been there once, I wouldn't go no mo'

That badly mixed up 4th verse is usually something like:

Jaybird sittin' on a hickory limb,
He looked at me and I looked at him,
Picked up a brickbat, hit him on the chin,
Great Godamighty, don't you do that again.

My theory on the hash Uncle Dave makes of it is that the A&R man, or perhaps Uncle Dave himself, decided that divine reference was disrespectful and it caused Uncle Dave to lose track and mess up the verse. He was a pretty good improviser on the spot, but this one tied him in knots.

Bob

Subject: Lyr Add: SUGAR IN COFFEE (from Thomas W Talley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 May 09 - 08:59 PM

From Negro Folk Rhymes by Thomas W. Talley (New York: Macmillan Company, 1922):


SUGAR IN COFFEE

Sheep's in de meader a-mowin' o' de hay.
De honey's in de bee-gum, so dey all say.
My head's up an' I'se boun' to go.
Who'll take sugar in de coffee-o?

I'se de prettiest liddle gal in de county-o.
My mammy an' daddy, dey bofe say so.
I looks in de glass, it don't say, "No";
So I'll take sugar in de coffee-o.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar in My Coffee
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 May 09 - 09:06 PM

From an article "Some Play-Party Games of the Middle West" by Edwin F. Piper, in The Journal of American Folk-Lore, Vol XXVIII, 1915, page 281:

B.
(Western Iowa, 1900.)

1. First your heel, and then your toe,
And I'll take sugar in my coffee, O.

2. How do you think my mammy knows,
I take sugar in my coffee, O.

3. Cornstock fiddle and a shoestring bow,
And I take sugar in my coffee, O.

4. Sugar's high and coffee's low,
And I take sugar in my coffee, O.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar in My Coffee
From: Barry Finn
Date: 20 May 09 - 09:23 PM

Prison work song

"I don't want no sugar in my coffee,
It makes me mean, Lord, it makes me mean"


Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar in My Coffee
From: GUEST,Joanne Stevenson
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 11:17 PM

My children's British kindergarten teacher taught us in Canada in the 70s

I don't know how the old folks know
I like sugar in my coffee-o
Wind blows high, wind blows low
Blows my sugar and coffee-o

Oh what do I do with the baby-o
What do I do with the baby-o
What do I do with the baby-o
Take him to his mammy-o

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar in My Coffee
From: Azizi
Date: 16 Sep 12 - 10:07 AM

For those who may be interested, this page on my Cocojams website http://cocojams.com/content/sugar-my-coffee-o-fiddle-song-early-sources-examples is a compilation of information, comments about and text examples of the song "Sugar In My Coffee O".

Included in that page are several posts from this thread and from another Mudcat thread. That page also includes other examples such as this US civil war recollection:

"I got up this morning whistling 'Sugar In The Coffee', one of the old tunes of that day. I want to tell where I first heard it. Uncle Burns Malone and his cousin, Jack Malone, waked me up in the night back in 1868, singing that old song." http://www.granburydepot.org/z/biog/malone.htm

And this version from Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 5, April 1939, page 32-33 and quoted on that same online site:


"How in the world did you all know
I like sugar in my coffee so?
Some like it hot, some like it cold,
But I like sugar in my coffee so.
I had a girl named Sally, Oh,
But she won't put sugar in my coffee so.
Up in the hollar the cowbells ring,
The hound dog barks, and the hoot owl sing.
I had a girl Sweet Nancy,
I asked her if she'd marry me.
She says, "I like your manners so,
And I like sugar in my coffee too."

-snip-
More comments and related links are included in that Cocojams page.

Thanks in advance for visiting that page.

Azizi Powell

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sugar in My Coffee
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Apr 22 - 04:30 PM

This song was performed for the first time that I heard it in 1966 or 1967 on a LP 33 1/3 vinyl record by a Danish or Swedish band - name escapes me now but had some Ks in it. As well as the "I don't want no bald headed woman" lyric