Lyr Req: Steamboat Whistle Blues (John Hartford)

Subject: Song search, 'Steamboat Whistles Blues'?
From: GUEST,George Barnett
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 12:59 PM

This is *not* the version by John Hartford, although I believe the title to be the same. Any help in learning the rest of the lyrics, title, sources, tune, etc., will be most appreciated. I am a lurker who is constantly amazed at the depth of knowledge of Mudcat listers and by their willingness to share that knowledge. Thanks in advance,
George Barnett.

All I know of the song are the following lyrics:

"I started out to be a towboat man but I never got the hang of a ratchet bar.
I was truckin' up north in the Illinois hills with coal dust in my ears.
I got stuck in the ice on Christmas Eve and I froze my ass, it's true.
Just a blankety blankety blankety blank with the Steamboat whistle blues."

blankety = lost lyrics

Subject: RE: Song search, 'Steamboat Whistles Blues'?
From: BuckMulligan
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 01:01 PM

I assume you want a different TUNE than Hartford's version, 'cause that sure is the same opening lyric.

Subject: Lyr Add: STEAMBOAT WHISTLE BLUES (John Hartford)
From: harpgirl
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 01:15 PM

Subject: Lyr Add: STEAMBOAT WHISTLE BLUES^^
From: harpgirl - PM
Date: 18 Feb 01 - 09:20 AM
In The Mudcat Shop: The Land

STEAMBOAT WHISTLE BLUES
(John Hartford)

Well I started out to be a towboat man
But I never got the hang of a ratchet bar
I was a-growin' up a-deckin' in the
Illinois trade with coal dust in my ear
I got stuck in the ice on Christmas Eve
And I froze my ass it's true
Just a shiv'rin' and a-shakin' with a Down South case of them
Steamboat whistle blues
Oh Captain Way, I'm sorry, my hat is off to you
You've been a-hanging out by the old cook stove
With the steamboat whistle blues

Well, way up North I called your phone
But I didn't get no one to answer
So I opened up the window and I smoked a little bit
And I watched the cars go by
I'm gonna hunt you up and ask you
If you found out anything new
Or are you a-hangin' to the best you had
With the steamboat whistle blues
I've been right here since nine o'clock
And believe you me that's true
Just a-lookin' at the water ways churning with the steamboat whistle blues

Well the city's growing up where it looks all square
Like a crossword puzzle on the landscape
It looks like an electric shaver now
Where the courthouse used to be
The grass is all synthetic
And we don't know for sure about the food
The only thing we know for sure is them steamboat whistle blues
I'd sit and watch my TV if I thought I could trust the news
About the only thing I trust these days
Is them steamboat whistle blues

Well "far out" Johnny well I heard him say
As he stretched out back on the water bed
Bluegrass music is a thing of the past
And the same for rock and roll
And I loaned him two or three dollars
And he gave me the latest news
And he left me here with a Rolling Stone
And the steamboat whistle blues
I'll tear off down the river some day before I'm through
Then come back here and see it out
With the steamboat whistle blues

from Aereo Plain, Warner Records, 1971

Subject: RE: Song search, 'Steamboat Whistles Blues'?
From: harpgirl
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 01:20 PM

I think John's "version" is the only extant one, George! Of course, I could be wrong about John Hartford's songs. Daggum though, I'm at work with no instruments and can't tell you the chords...

Subject: RE: Song search, 'Steamboat Whistles Blues'?
From: GUEST,George Barnett
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 01:24 PM

Again, "Thank you" for your help. What a tremendous resource this list is. I was mistaken thinking that it was *not* John Hartford's version I was looking for and I apologize for any confusion which *MY* confusion may have caused.

Thanks again
George

Subject: RE: Song search, 'Steamboat Whistles Blues'?
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 06:35 PM

Roy Acuff also recorded a song with this title in October 1936 which begins:

I thought I heard that steamboat whistle blow (x2)
It blowed like it never blowed before

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Song search, 'Steamboat Whistles Blues'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 08:37 PM

Roy Acuff's was a reworking of the jugband tune "K. C. MOAN".
Or vice versa.

I thought I heard that K. C. when she moaned,
Oh, I thought I heard that K.C. when she moaned,
I thought I heard that K. C. when she moaned,
She moaned like she never moan no more.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Song search, 'Steamboat Whistles Blues'?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 09:20 PM

Norm Cohen, in "The Long Steel Rail," pp. 406-412, has several versions, which be heads with Kansas City Railroad Blues/KC Moan. He says it "is an example of a railroad song that has close relatives among steamboat songs; it is impossible to say at present whether one form grew out of the other, or if the two developed simultaneously."
The two forms of transport co-existed for a long time.

In the thread on coonjine songs, another is discussed where the same problem exists.