Origins: Git Along Little Dogies

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Apr 23 - 04:21 AM

There is an odd line: "and lop off their tails"- I've never heard of calves/dogies having their tails lopped off. Sheep, yes. Cattle, no.

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 08:37 PM

Sharlot M. Hall, "Old Range Days and New in Arizona," Out West (March, 1908):


"Get along, get along, little dogie,*
You're going to be a beef-steer by-and-by.
Your mother she was raised way down in Texas,
Where the jimson weed and sand-burrs grow.
Now we'll fill you up on prickly pear and cholla,
'Till you're ready for the trail to Idaho. |
Oh! you'll be soup for Uncle Sam’s Injuns;
It’s “Beef, heap beef!” you hear ’em cry;
Get along, get along, little dogie,
For the Injuns they'll eat you by-and-by.
                     
                        --Old Trail-song of the 'Eighties.

"*Pronounced do-gy - a small, stunted yearling - any young animal that is poor and undersized."

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Dec 13 - 01:01 PM

The old version from the Bodleian Collection is posted in thread 2696.

Rocking the Cradle

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Dec 13 - 12:52 PM

"Rockin' the Cradle," version by ?, is in the DT. "Rocking the Cradle, "Kiandra" version by Ian Campbell folk group, also in the DT. Also see "As I Was Out Riding" in DT.
The song is before 1900, see Bodleian Collection, broadside 2806 b.9(282).

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Dec 13 - 12:30 PM

Comment on the old post by Iona, , but the verse does have the line "Then throw those dogies upon the trail.
That verse, and the one about the jimson weed and sandburs, is from a Lomax version.
There is a final verse to his song:

Oh, you'll be soup for Uncle Sam's Injuns,
"it's beef, heap beef," I hear them cry.
Git along, git along, git along, little dogies,
You're going to be beef steers by and by.

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Artful Codger
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 04:54 PM

That's "heap big hotdog".

And just to take the chronology further, "Rocking the Cradle" is purported to be derived from the Irish (Erse) "Christ Child Lullaby". (Wonder if that was derived from something in the Finnish "Piae Cantiones" collection--it's like the Kevin Bacon of Christmas carols.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Rex
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 03:41 PM

Thanks to Mich`ael for pointing out the Rocking the Cradle mention above. I had looked through it before posting and had not seen it. Even after seeing your post, I looked again and still did not find it. I guess I was lost in the brush. My apologies go to Joe as well as Waltz and Engle along with gratitude for their most excellent ballad index.

Rex

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 07:16 PM

Well, there's always this:      CLICKY.

(Or as a friend of mine once put it, "When a dog bites someone, they usually have a darn good reason.")

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 03:47 PM

Sorry, Don, not enough meat on that critter to make a good hamburger.

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 03:29 PM

Sorry, but it HAS to be done......

CLICKY.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 02:29 PM

The Australian "Kiandra" version comes from A. L. Lloyd.

And I'm afraid we know what that means.

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 11:58 AM

Seamus Ennis always pointed out this resemblance when he sang Rocking the Cradle. I was going to mention it, Rex; but then saw it was included in the sources & comments in Joe's v full post,11 Jan 12 - 03:37 AM, from the Traditional Ballad Index.

~Mich`ael~

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 11:53 AM

There is what I thought was a Welsh song..

I am a young man from the town of Kiandra
I married a woman to comfort my home
She goes off and she leaves me and cruaely deceives me
And leaves me with a baby that's none of my own

Oh how I rue the day ever I married

With a weeping and wailing and rocking the cradle
And rocking the baby that's none of my own

Doesn't reallhy sound Welsh...oh well...

But there is a song between this one and the little dogies one that shows the connection perfectly. John Bartlett sings it
There is one verse to dogies that was commonly written..that would anot be sung today..you'll b e beef heap beef for Uncle Sam's "Injuns"..

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Rex
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 10:34 AM

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this is derived from the Irish song, "Old Man Rocking the Cradle":
Hi ho, hi ho, my laddie lie aisy
For perhaps your own daddy might never be known
I'm sitting and sighing and rocking the cradle
And nursin' the baby that's none of my own

The song of an orphan child becomes a song of an orphan calf.

Owen Wister gives us a valuable place in time for the cowboy
rendition in 1893 but there is an earlier mention.
Andy Adams in his "Log of a Cowboy" speaks of it while driving
a herd across the Platte in 1882.

'...Within a short time, some one in the lead wig-wagged his lantern; it was answered by the light in the rear, and the next minute the old rear song,--

    "Ip-e-la-ago, go 'long little doggie,
    You 'll make a beef-steer by-and-by,"--

reached us riders in the swing, and we knew the rear guard of cattle
was being pushed forward...'

So now you've got a story for this song.

Rex

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 08:44 PM

BTW, the "standard" version was one of the very first songs I ever learned, age 4 or 5.

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 08:43 PM

I knew cowboys sang to the cattle, but I didn't know the cows listened so closely.

Arlo's dad's version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQITVzERKrM&feature=related

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: GUEST,Nick E
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 08:15 PM

This thread shifted a pile of memories and this show fell .

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: GUEST,Nick E
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 08:09 PM

Perhaps the definitive performance of this son was by Arlo Guthrie on The Muppet Show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cfhQFL2ePw

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 07:27 PM

Woody Guthrie wrote a version with a "Jack of Diamonds" verse, IIRC.

I used to plug in a quasi-trad

"I ain't got no father, I ain't got mother,
I'm a poor lonesome cowboy a long way from home.
I ain't got no sister, I ain't got no brother,
So 'long with them longhorns I'm bound for to roam."

(I kind of like it, actually.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 11:13 AM

Thanks, Q and Iona.

It's interesting to see the differences.

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jan 12 - 05:40 PM

Owen Wister original also posted in thread 67615: Git Along

Subject: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jan 12 - 05:34 PM

Lyr. Add: GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES
Owen Wister, Journal, Feb. 21, 1893

As I walked out one morning for pleasure,
I met a cowpuncher a-jogging along;
His hat was thrown back and his spurs was a-jingling,
And as he advanced he was singing this song-

Chorus:-
"Sing hooplio, get along my little dogies,
For Wyoming shall be your new home.
It's hooping and yelling and cursing these dogies
To our misfortune but none of your own."

2
In the Springtime we round up the dogies,
Slap on the brands and bob off their tails;
Then we cut herd and herd is inspected,
And then we throw them on the trail.
3
In the evening we round in the dogies
As they are grazing from herd all around.
You have no idea the trouble they give us,
As we are holding them on the bedground.
4
In the morning we throw them off the bed ground,
Aiming to graze them an hour or two.
When they are full, you think you can drive them
On the trail, but be damned if you do.
5
Some fellows go on the trail for pleasure,
But they have got this thing down wrong;
If it hadn't been for these troublesome dogies,
I never would thought of writing this song.

With musical score and chords, melody as sung by Frank Goodwyn, Pp. 206-207.
Fife American Collection (42 volumes) I 233.

Austin E and Alta S. Fife, 1969, Cowboy and Western Songs, a Comprehensive Anthology. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., and reprint Bramwell House, New York.

Owen Wister, Out West. His Journals and Letters, Univ. Chicago Press, 1958. Ed. Fanny Kimball Wister.

Subject: RE: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: GUEST,Iona
Date: 11 Jan 12 - 01:35 PM

It's funny, because it's such a well known song, and yet most people don't know all the lyrics or the title. At least in my experience.

Roy Rogers also recorded it in one of his movies,Here

Subject: Origins: Git Along Little Dogies
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 12 - 03:37 AM

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

Get Along, Little Dogies

DESCRIPTION: Characterized by the chorus, "Whoopee ti yi yo, get along, little dogies, It's your misfortune and none of my own. Whoopee ti yi yo, get along, little dogies,You know Wyoming will be your new home." Tells of herding cattle down the trail for slaughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (journal of Owen Wister)
KEYWORDS: cowboy animal work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 178, "Little Doogie" (sic) (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 268-270 "Whoopee, Ti Yi Yo, Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 76, "Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 58, "Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text plus addenda, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 385-389, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 189, "Go On, You Little Dogies"; 190, "Run Along, You Little Dogies" (2 texts, 2 tunes, both of which appear to be mixtures of this song with something else; the chorus of 190 derives partly from "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)")
Larkin, pp. 98-104, "Git Along Little Dogies" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 853-854, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 80, pp. 174-175, "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text)
Arnett, pp. 126-127, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 174-175, "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 109, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 244, "Git Along Little Dogies (Whoopee Ti Ti Yo)"
DT, GITDOGIE*
Roud #827
RECORDINGS:
Beverly Hill Billies, "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo Get Along" (Brunswick 598. 1932)
Cartwright Brothers, "Get Along Little Doggies" (Columbia 15410-D, 1929; on WhenIWas2)
Edward L. Crain, "Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Git Along Little Doggies" (Crown 3275, 1932)
Girls of the Golden West, "Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Doggies" (Bluebird B05718, 1934)
George Goebel, "Night Herding Song" (Conqueror 8157, 1933)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "Whoopie-Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Dogies" (on Struggle2, CowFolkCD1)
Beverly Hillbillies, "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo" (Brunswick 598, c. 1931)
Kenneth Houchins, "Get Along Little Doggies" (Champion 16584, 1933)
Harry Jackson, "As I Went Walking One Morning for Pleasure" (on HJackson1)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Get Along, Little Doggies" (Victor V-40016, 1929, rec. 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4469 [as Harry "Mac" McClintock and his Haywire Orchestra], 1934)
Harry Stephens, "The Night Herding Song" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
John I. White, the Lonesome Cowboy, "Whoopee-Ti-Yi-Yo" (Banner 32179/Perfect 12709//Conqueror 7753/Romeo 1629 [as "Little Doggies"], 1931; on BackSaddle)
Marc Williams, "The Night Herding Song" (Brunswick 497/Supertone S-2263, 1931)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Night Herding Song
File: R178

---

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Subject: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES
From: GUEST,Iona
Date: 11 Jan 12 - 02:44 AM

GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES a.k.a. "When I was A-walking one morning for pleasure"

When I was a-walking one morning for pleasure
I spied a cowpuncher a-riding alone
His hat was thrown back and his spurs were a-jinglin'
And as he approached he was singing this song

(chorus)
Yippe ti-yi-yo, git along little dogies
It's your misfortune and none of my own
Yippee ti yi yo, git along little dogies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home

It's early in the Spring that we round up the dogies
We mark 'em and brand 'em and bob off their tails
Round up the horses, load up the chuck wagon
Then throw the dogies out on the north trail

(chorus)

Your mother was raised away down in Texas
Where the Jimsonweeds and the sand burrs grow
We'll fill you up on prickly pear and cholla
Until you are ready for Idaho

(chorus)

I'd love to know if there are other verses or other versions of this song too. Also, I'm not 100% sure that the "Then Throw the Dogies" line is word perfect. It might not be 'throw'.

Subject: RE: Song title help!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 31 Dec 01 - 12:20 AM

It's in the DT. Click on "G" in the DigiTrad Lyrics Search above.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Song title help!
From: Louie Roy
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 11:20 PM

I can post the lyrics if you don't mind my eractic typing and poor spelling Louie Roy

Subject: RE: Song title help!
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 08:25 PM

There is a full discussion of the song in John I. White 'Git Along Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West' Uni of Illinois Press pp16-26 - reference linked above by Mataso. Austin Fife, included in the Amazon reference, is not co-author, but supplies a short foreword. Haywire Mac's was the first commercial recording (Victor V40016 1 March 1928).

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Song title help!
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 06:39 PM

This song title is adopted as a book title and a movie title.

In Folk Music Index there're three pieces with "doggies" (not with "dogies") in their titles: 4. Brand, Oscar. Oscar Brand's Children's Concert, Riverside RLP 1438, LP (1961), cut#B.01 (Git Along Little Doggies) 11. Just IV. First Twelve Sides, Liberty LRP-3340, LP (196?), A.06 (Doggies) 14. McClintock, Haywire Mac. Hallelujah, I'm A Bum, Rounder 1009, LP (197?), cut# 2 (Git Along Little Doggies)
Ramon F. Adams writes: "During that roundup all orphan calves became known as dough-guts; later the term was shortened to dogie, which has been used ever since throughout cattle land to refer to a pot-gutted orphan calf. The termbecame popular through western songs, though a great percentage of the singers pronounce it doggie, as if they were singing of a pup." (Western Words, new edition, 1968, p. 96).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Song title help!
From: Alice
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 01:14 PM

Bilbert, be sure to sing it with a long "o", as in dogies, and not doggies.

Subject: RE: Song title help!
From: Sorcha
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 01:06 PM

It's called Git Along Little Dogies. You need more lyrics?

Subject: Song title help!
From: GUEST,Bilbert
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 01:03 PM

Anyone help me with the title to the song with the folowing verse: "yippee ti yi yo, get along little doggies, it's your misfortune, and none of my own...."

Thanks in advance and Happy New Year to all!!