Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: GUEST,Greg F.
Date: 11 Jul 21 - 10:09 AM

And here's Fred Neil's version from 1966.

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jul 21 - 12:18 AM

The devine Rhiannon Giddens performed it in 2015 Shake Sugaree on her album "Tomorrow is My Turn."

Subject: Lyr Add: SHAKE SUGAREE (Libba Cotten/Art Thieme)
From: BK Lick
Date: 14 Sep 11 - 12:08 AM

I do purely love Art's Folk Legacy recording of this song, discussed above and also HERE.
With his permission, I've put AN MP3 OF IT on my server. Here's the version he sings:

Gonna sing you a song, it's not very long
Gonna sing it right, sing it all night long
Oh lordy me, didn't we shake sugaree
Everything I had is done and gone

Well, I've got a secret, that none can tell
I'm a-goin' to heaven in a split pea shell
Oh lordy me, didn't we shake sugaree
Everything I had is done and gone

First star to the right, straight on till morn
I've never seen the like, babe, since I've been born
Oh lordy me, didn't we shake sugaree
Everything I had is done and gone

Well, one of these days, and it won't be long
Gonna look for me, gal, and I'll be gone
Oh lordy me, didn't we shake sugaree
Everything I had is done and gone

Well, if I had wings, like Noah's dove
I'd fly across the river, to the gal I love
Oh lordy me, didn't we shake sugaree
Everything I had is done and gone

Well, I've sung my song, didn't take very long
I sung it right, sing it all night long
Oh lordy me, didn't we shake sugaree
Everything I had is done and gone

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: GUEST,alex
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:10 AM

Mary Lou Lord's version is sung by her only on her album "Got No Shadow". Elliott Smith plays the guitar (marvelously as always). I can't recommend this album enough. Its great.

You can find tabs, standard notation, and a video of Shake Sugaree done by Elizabeth Cotten at:

http://www.sologuitarist.net/elizabethcotten.html

I'm not associated with them, so I can't speak about the quality... at least not until after Christmas when my copy arrives :)

Alex

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: moocowpoo
Date: 21 Nov 04 - 08:05 AM

Mary Lou Lord, well, I like her version too! (didn't Elliot Smith sing it with her>>?)

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 06:43 PM

...and Cindy's name is actually spelled MANGSEN. But I like our folk processed examples too!

Art again

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 06:40 PM

Cindy Manfgsen got it from me---but hers is different.

Art

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 01:49 AM

There's an absolutely fine version recorded by Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsden (sp?). Seek it out.

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: GUEST,Steve Terry
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 07:16 PM

Yes, the Grateful Dead's Sugaree is a totally different song. Lyrics were by Robert Hunter and music by Jerry Garcia. I do think Shake Sugaree inspired the Grateful Dead's Sugaree as evidenced by the chorus:

Shake it, shake it, Sugaree
Just don't tell them that you know me
Shake it, shake it, Sugaree
Just don't tell them that you know me

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: SHAKE SUGAREE (Elizabeth Cotten)
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 12:05 AM

Only in that "moot" and "moontime" kinda rhyme!*bg*

Thanks for the info, FineArt! Much appreciated and always fun to hear where you got your songs.

Thanks for the congrats and the reminder...I'm doing my best to not break out like a pup set loose and breathing, ah, yes, everyone's been reminding me it is necessary for survival!:-)

Okay..I did some more digging around on google. Saw that Dylan did this song, too, on a bootleg tape, so...here's the tabs and some additional lyrics from one of the sites with his stuff. Hope this helps:

Written by Elizabeth Cotten
Performed live by Bob Dylan 7 times in 1996 and 1997
Tabbed by Eyolf Østrem


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E                                 E7
I got a secret, and I ain't gonna tell
A                                  E
I'm going to Heaven in a split pea shell
A                      E         A
Oh Lordy me, didn't we shake sugaree
E            B       A       E
Everything I have is down in pawn.
I pawned my watch, and I pawned my chain
I even tried to sell myself, but I got down so ashamed
I've got a song to sing, and it's not very long
I'm gonna sing it right, if it takes me all night long.
I got a secret, and I ain't gonna tell
I'm going to Heaven in a split pea shell.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Different version (Cotten's own?) with additional verses not sung by Dylan
I have a little song, won't take long
Sing it right, once or twice
Oh lord oh me, didn't I shake sugaree
Everything I got is done in pawn (2x)

I pawned my watch, pawned my chain
Pawned everything that was in my name

I pawned my buggy, house and cot
Pawned everything that was on my lot

I pawned my chair, I pawned my bed
Don't have nowhere to lay my head

I have a little secret I ain't gonna tell
I'm goin' to heaven in a ground pea shell

I pawned my house, I've pawned my home
Pawned everything that I own

I pawned my tobacco, I pawned my pipe
Pawned everything that was in my sight

I know something, I ain't gonna tell
I'm goin' to heaven and I ain't goin' to ...

I pawned my hat, I pawned my shoes
Pawned everything that I could use

I chew my tobacco, spit my juice
I would raise cain but it ain't no use

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 11:28 PM

Kat and all--Hello. (Congrats on the big move. Be calm and breath deep.)

On the version of "Shake Sugaree" I did on my LP THAT'S THE TICKET (C-90) for Folk Legacy Records(available from me on a cassette ), I gave credit to Libba Cotten and mentioned that it was a folk processed version I did. I learned the song from LISA KINDRED in 1965 (Chicago---a hoot at a club named MOTHER BLUES. Lisa had already changed it some. Then I added a couple of verses of my own and tossed in a minor chord. Libba sang "All I got's in pawn." I think Lisa sang it, "Everything I had done and gone." Anyhow, that's how I sang it for 3 or 4 decades. In that time my voice changed. I recorded it in C but did it in G for the last 20 years or so.

Never could do or read tablature even though my first album on KICKING MULE had a companion tablature book for all the songs thereon. Back then they did a tab book for all the things they put out. John Roos and Marsha Bordwell did the tab book from the master tapes but, me not reading tab, I had no idea if it was correct or not. "Shake Sugaree" wasn't on that LP though anyway---so it's just one more moot point.

Is a moot point anything like a period? What do you say, gals??

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 08:12 PM

Wesley, I am sure you are right. :-)I've never heard the G.D. version. I'll send Art a PM and see if he can help out with this.

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: Wesley S
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:50 PM

Kat - From what I remember { and used in context with the Grateful Dead that's very subjective } those are two very different songs. I haven't heard Elizabeth Cotten's but I think her version is a little closer to Fred Neil's. Or rather the other way around. His version is closer to hres. I could be wrong.

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: Dani
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:34 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:06 AM

I was not a Deadhead, so I've never heard the Grateful Dead's version, but there are tabs for it at this site: click here. Different words than in the DT, but Art's differ slightly, too, so....:-)

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:03 AM

It's not tab, but the sheet music is at the DT mirror (numachi) site, , click me!

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:57 AM

Art Theime might have them. He did a stunning version on one of his Kicking Mule albums, I think it was.

Subject: RE: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: van lingle
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 07:34 AM

I've never seen any for it but if you don't have any luck here you might try Stefan Grossman's Woodshed, www.hotboards.com/plus/plus. Good luck, Dave.

Subject: Tab. needed for 'Shake Sugaree' please!
From: GUEST,mulevaline
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 11:51 PM

Anyone know of tab. for Elizabeth Cotton's "shake sugaree"? Thanks bunches!