Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?

Subject: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: Brían
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 09:46 AM

I love a good song and FOGGY MOUNTAIN TOP is a good one. There are many versions. The Carter Family's version has this verse:

Oh, when you go a-courtin'
I'll tell you how to do
Pull off that long-tailed roustabout
Put on your navy blue

I would love to know if anyone of you 'catters has some information fact or blatant bald-faced opinion about what is meant by a long-tailed roustabout or navy blue. I know from my Webste'rs Dictionary that a roustabout is a common laborer. Is it also a style of coat and what did it look like? Is a navy blue a reference to a navy uniform or just a good suit coat to go a courtin' in?

Brían
(Lovin' these automatic line breaks!)

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 12:07 PM

Well, a roustabout is a laborer, generally with a carnival or circus. I suspect it means take off your work clothes and wear your 'Sunday go to meeting' best'. By 'long tailed roustabout, they might mean something like a smock or an old fashioned frock coat.

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: Brían
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 12:20 PM

Yeah, that's what I thought. A frock style coat would be 19th century type garb?

Brían

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: Schantieman
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 12:28 PM

Surely Navy blue is just the dark blue colour of various bits of naval uniform?

Steve

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 12:41 PM

Roustabout was more used in the past- it could be a dock, levee or railroad worker, a hand on the oil rigs- in other words, a semi-skilled laborer.
Take off your roustabout means take off your working clothes and put on your navy blue (glad rags).

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 12:50 PM

There's a minstrel song from the 1830's called "The Long Tailed Blue" - about a negro dandy and his fancy coat. You can find it at the Levy Sheet Music site. I suspect that the lyrics you're inquiring about have taken this imagery and extended it somewhat to make the verse rhyme.

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 01:31 PM

The sheet music for "My Long Tail Blue" (Click here) at the Levy Collection (only its cover is shown) is:

Title: My Long Tail Blue.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: na
Publication: New York: J.L. Hewitt & Co., 239 Broadway, n.d..
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: I've come to town to see you all, I ask you how d'ye do?
First Line of Chorus: O! for the long tail blue. Oh! for the long tail blue

American Memory has a song sheet (Click here). The first stanza and chorus are:

LONG TAIL BLUE.
(Sold wholesale and retail, By L. Deming, No. 61 Hanover Street, Boston. [n. d.])

I'VE just drop'd in to see you all,
And ax you how you do;
I'll sing you a song, it's not very long,
It's about my long tail blue.

CHORUS.
Just look at my long tail blue,
O, how do you like my blue,
I'll sing you a song, it's not very long,
It's about my long tail blue.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: Brían
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 01:38 PM

Well here's a picture of Gentleman sporting a long tail blue:

MY LONG-TAIL BLUE

The lyrics do seem to be related. Thanks, Les B.

Brían

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: Brían
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 01:41 PM

Thanks Masasto, you beat me. Thanks for getting those lyrics posted. too.

Brían

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 03:41 PM

Obviously a joke reversal. The verses of the song aren't coherent and are borrowed from other songs, typical of a play or dance tune.
Oh when you go a-courtin'
I'll tell you how to do,
Pull off that long-tailed roustabout
Put on your navy blue.

Talley ("Negro Folk Rhymes"): "Black banjo players in Virginia and North Carolina play a tune called "Roustabout," but it is usually sung with a set of commonplace lyrics ...." He gives an atypical example which has a narrative.

The 4th verse of the Carter song is close to this verse from Talley:

You've made me weep. you've made me mourn,
You've made me tears and sorrow.
So far' you well, my pretty liddle gal,
I'se gwine away to-morrow.
also:
When you sees dat gal o' mine,
Jes' tell her for me, if you please,
Nex' time she goes to make up bread
To roll up 'er dirty sleeves.
(many if you sees and when you sees)

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: Brían
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 04:00 PM

That is amazing. Thanks, GUEST.

Brían

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 10:18 PM

Remember that A.P. Carter had a deal with Ralph Peer, the A & R man, to split copyright. So A.P.'s collecting and re-writes of many old songs could have cut across surviving minstrel tunes, and he may have misheard them, or intentionally changed them slightly.

Subject: RE: Origins: Long-Tailed Roustabout?
From: Brían
Date: 02 Oct 02 - 11:18 PM

Well, here's a midi for a tune called ROUSTABOUT. I don't know if it's the same tune mentioned here. I don't seem to have a copy of Talley's book handy, but I see it is quoted an awful lot.

Brían