Lyr Add: Wake up, sleepy! (Steamboat)

Subject: Wake up, sleepy! (Steamboat)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Nov 01 - 05:06 PM

WAKE UP, SLEEPY! (Steamboat)

O---O---O,
Wake up, sleepy, tell you Joe.
I wanna make you a'quainted with the *two blue seams.

O---O---O
Midnight was my *cry, 'fore day was my *creep,
I got a pretty little girl in *Jeanie Orleans,
An' she lives on Perdita street.

O---O---O
If yo' shoulder bone get sore this time,
Get yo' little shoulder an' head on down.
O---O---O
Oh, roustabout don't have no home,
Make his livin' on his shoulder bone.

O---O---UM
I lef' my home in eighty-four,
I ain't never been there no mo--oh.

AH ---AAH
I know my sweetie gwine open the door,
Soon she hear the Natchez blow.
AH ---UM
De Natchez up the bayou, an' she done broke down,
She got a head to'ad Memphis and she's *New bound.

O---O---O
Didn't you hear Daniel in the lion's den,
Lord have mercy, shove me down.
O---O---O
Roustabout don't have no home,
Gonna see you tomorra 'bout dawn.

O---O---O
Oh, day was my cry, midnight was my creep,
I got a sweet little girl in Jeannie Orleans,
An' I do all I can to see her.

O---O---O
Take dis here Black boy, he's a stevedore,
Headin' down the river sho' 'cause dere ain't no more.

*Blue seams on the cotton bales. *Jeannie?, and New; New Orleans. *Cry and creep; free time versus work time.
Sung very slowly, with drawn out words, to match the pace of carrying heavy bales, etc. This song could be a winner for the right folk singer.
Henry Truvillion, Newton County, Texas.
Poorly recorded, and with gaps and mis-hearings in the field notes. John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip. Click on Links at top of page and go to Lomax Collection, select Audio Subject and go to list of Work songs; under "Steamboat."
@work @Negro

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wake up, sleepy! (Steamboat)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 08:17 AM

Another verse was placed with this song, but does not seem to belong.

Oh, up an' down Big Muddy with my sack up on my back,
I'm goin' make it to my shanty, ain't comin' back.
I'm sech an old man ?
Ain't goin' up the Mississippi no mo' ?

No audio or other notes were found.
Henry Truvillion, in Lomax and Lomax 1939

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wake up, sleepy! (Steamboat)
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 02:43 PM

This verse makes more sense than the one transcribed by Dicho.

O-O-O-ah
If yo' shoulder bone gits so' this time,
Git you a little sody an' turpentine.

Henry Truvillion sang this song a little differently each time. Definition of "two blue seams"- sacks of cotton seed had twom blue seams.
These corrections from Botkin, B. A., 1955, Mississippi River Folklore, p. 571-572.