Jim Jackson - "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop Say" (comments, example, lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is Part III of a three part series that focuses on comedic Blues songs about Black people and pork chops. This post Part III showcases the 1928 song "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop Say" by Jim Jackson.

Information about Jim Jackson and the lyrics to that song are included in the summary statement prepared by the publisher of the featured YouTube sound file of that song.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/sam-collins-pork-chop-blues-comments.html for Part I of this series. Part I showcases the 1927 song "Pork Chop Blues' by Sam Collins. Information about Sam Collins is also given in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-two-charlies-pork-chop-blues.html for Part II of this series. Part II showcases the 1936 version of this song by “The Two Charlies".

Information about those songs is included in these posts along with information about other Blues songs that mention pork chops.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Jim Jackson for his musical legacy. Thanks also to Max Haymes and all others who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT COMEDIC BLUES RECORDS ABOUT PORK CHOPS
http://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20I%20Heard%20The%20Voice%20of%20a%20Pork%20Chop.htm "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop" by Max Haymes, converted to web format from the original typescript by Alan White

Note: This is a summation of portions of this essay with my comments in brackets. The lyrics to Sam Collins and The Two Charlies "Pork Chop Blues" songs which are found below in this post are also from this essay.

Max Haymes describes the Jim Jackson song about pork chops and other songs about pork chops as "comedic blues", and gives the recording dates of 1890-1943 for those songs. Although he doesn't provide any definition for this sub-genre of Blues, it appears from his comments that Haymes meant that "comedic blues" are country Blues songs that either have comedic lyrics, although sometimes those comedic lyrics may hide or allude to a more serious subject or subjects. It occurs to me that like other Blues songs, some of those comedic record titles and their lyrics may also be double entendres (a word or expression that can be understood in two different ways with one way usually referring to sex).

Max Haymes writes that there were five songs that were titled "Pork Chop Blues". The earliest of these songs is a slow Blues "by Bessie Brown "with fine tenor sax playing by a young Coleman Hawkins, aptly backed by up by Fletcher Henderson on piano. {Two verses of this song are quoted].

The essayist indicates that Bessie Brown song may have sparked the idea for the record entitled "You Can Dip Your Bread In My Gravy, Put You Can't Have Any Of My Chops", which was recorded in 1925 by Virginia Liston. That Bessie Brown song may have also inspired the Sam Collins song "Pork Chop Blues" (1927) and the Jim Jackson song "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop Say" (1928). A version of "Pork Chop Blues" was also recorded in 1936 by "The Two Charlies". This record was issued on a Charlie Jordan CD [Charley (Charlie) Jordan was an early Blues singer who "had some moderate success in his own right as a recording artist during his own time, in the 1930s, but he's probably better known among casual blues listeners [today]" http://www.allmusic.com/artist/charley-jordan-mn0000168660]. However, "THE" Charlie Jordan wasn't featured on that "Pork Chop Blues" record.

Max Haymes also mentions another entirely different song entitled "Pork chop Blues" by pianist Lee Green, who also went by the names "Pork chop", "Pork Chop Jackson, "Pork Chop Johnson", and Pork Chop Green/e". Haymes suggested that Lee Green, who recorded many sessions in Chicago between 1927-1935, could have taken his name from the name of an Illinois Central freight train (mea train) meat train called "Pork Chop" that traveled from Iowa through Chicago.

Regrettably, a 1935 unissued master of a record by "Funny Paper" Smith that was entitled "Pork Chop Blues" was destroyed along with other songs from that long session.

Mex Haymes also wrote that in the early part of the 19th century it was common for hogs to be run down streets to livestock yards in many American towns (including New York City). Some hogs were also run down streets to livestock yards in many small towns up to the 1920s. Some of that livestock ran into the woods, became feral, and were hunted by poor people to help supplement their meager diets.

****
SHOWCASE SONG
Jim Jackson - I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop

.

rombusrockeria, Published on Dec 20, 2012

Jim Jackson (c.1884-1937) was a blues and hokum singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Mississippi, whose recordings in the late 1920s were popular and influential on later artists. This comical medicine show song was first recorded for Victor (unissued) in Memphis, Tennessee in January of 1928. [For an essay on this song, see http://bit.ly/VTcft7]

[Editor's Note: That link is the same as the Max Haymes essay whose link is given above]

Spoken: Ah! Don't that sound good? It sounds good to me. It's just like somethin' good to drink. It's alright with me. I know that's playin' good.

Vocal: 1. I walked an' I walked, an' I walked an' I walked;
I stopped for to rest my feet.
I sit down on an old oak tree, there went fast asleep;
I dreamt I was sittin' in a swell café as hungry as a bear.
My stomach sent a telegram to my soul: 'There's a wreck on the road somewhere'.

Refrain: I heard the voice of a pork chop say 'Come unto me an' rest';
Well, you talk about your stewin' beans, I know what's the best.
Well, you talk about your chicken, ham an' egg, turkey stuffed an' dressed;
But I heard the voice of a pork chop say: 'Come unto me an' rest'
Yeh! I heard the voice of a pork chop say: 'Come unto me an' rest'.

Ref: Well, you talk about your stewin' beans, etc.

Spoken: Ah! Stir it up now. Ah! Don't that sound good? Ah! Stir it up.

Repeat 1.

Ref: I heard the voice, etc.

Spoken: Oh! Ah! Ain't that soundin' good? Oh! Play it, man. Don't I do that thing?

Ref: I heard the voice, etc.

Spoken: Aw! Ain't that nice? Lord, it's nice to be nice when you can be nice.

****
COMMENTS ABOUT THIS SONG
The Max Haymes essay provides interesting information about the history of African American songs and sermons in the 1920s that use the Biblical verse "I heard the voice of Jesus say/come unto me and rest" (Matthew 11:28 King James Version). And Haymes suggests that the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet 1929 recording of "I Heard The Voice..." which had a "jaunty piano accompaniment ...a much quicker tempo, [and included the bass singer's] brief scat vocal" instead of the typical slow, lining out style that Black Quartet groups had previously used was because of Jim Jackson's 1928 "I Heard The Voice of A Pork Chop" song.

With regard to that Jim Jackson song, Max Haymes wrote "Jackson’s “Pork Chop” is not so much a parody of the religious number as a brilliant adaptation of it into a quite subtle (at that time) protest song about starvation or at least a general lack of sufficient food, experienced by many of his black audience".

Here are a few other comments about that song:

The lyrics "There's a wreck on the road somewhere" refer to a hog being road kill [being accidentally killed by a car which was being driven on the road.]

"stewin' beans" - stewin' beans is the same as pork and beans.

"turkey stuffed an' dressed" - turkey stuffed with "dressing" (cornbread dressing or other types of "stuffing" that is put inside the turkey for baking.)

"Ah! Don't that sound good? - I think that this refers both to the food and to Jim Jackson's performance. "Ain't that soundin' good?, "Don't I do that thing?", and "Aw! Ain't that nice? Lord, it's nice to be nice when you can be nice" also are self praising statements.

That custom of big upping" yourself within the song is also found in Hip-Hop, and probably other genres of Black music (for instance Calypso?).

-****
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Visitors' comments are welcome.

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The Two Charlies - Pork Chop Blues (comments, example, lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is Part II of a three part series that focuses on comedic Blues songs about Black people and pork chops. This post showcases the 1936 version of this song by “The Two Charlies".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/sam-collins-pork-chop-blues-comments.html for Part I of this series. Part I showcases the 1927 song "Pork Chop Blues' by Sam Collins. Information about Sam Collins is also given in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/jim-jackson-i-heard-voice-of-pork-chop.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases the 1928 song "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop Say" by Jim Jackson.

Information about those songs is included in these posts along with information about other Blues songs that mention pork chops.

This post is also part of a pancocojams series on African American songs and rhymes about "Calling the doctor". Click that tag for other posts in that series.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to The Two Charlies for recording this song. Thanks also to Max Haymes and all others who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT COMEDIC BLUES RECORDS ABOUT PORK CHOPS
http://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20I%20Heard%20The%20Voice%20of%20a%20Pork%20Chop.htm "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop" by Max Haymes, converted to web format from the original typescript by Alan White

Note: This is a summation of portions of this essay with my comments in brackets. The lyrics to Sam Collins and The Two Charlies "Pork Chop Blues" songs which are found below in this post are also from this essay.

Max Haymes describes the Jim Jackson song about pork chops and other songs about pork chops as "comedic blues", and gives the recording dates of 1890-1943 for those songs. Although he doesn't provide any definition for this sub-genre of Blues, it appears from his comments that Haymes meant that "comedic blues" are country Blues songs that either have comedic lyrics, although sometimes those comedic lyrics may hide or allude to a more serious subject or subjects. It occurs to me that like other Blues songs, some of those comedic record titles and their lyrics may also be double entendres (a word or expression that can be understood in two different ways with one way usually referring to sex).

Max Haymes writes that there were five songs that were titled "Pork Chop Blues". The earliest of these songs is a slow Blues "by Bessie Brown "with fine tenor sax playing by a young Coleman Hawkins, aptly backed by up by Fletcher Henderson on piano. {Two verses of this song are quoted].

The essayist indicates that Bessie Brown song may have sparked the idea for the record entitled "You Can Dip Your Bread In My Gravy, Put You Can't Have Any Of My Chops", which was recorded in 1925 by Virginia Liston. That Bessie Brown song may have also inspired the Sam Collins song "Pork Chop Blues" (1927) and the Jim Jackson song "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop Say" (1928). Haymes wrote that Sam Collins' 'Pork Chop Blues' "has a definite medicine show-cum minstrel feel about it."

A version of "Pork Chop Blues" was also recorded in 1936 by "The Two Charlies". This record was issued on a Charlie Jordan CD [Charley (Charlie) Jordan was an early Blues singer who "had some moderate success in his own right as a recording artist during his own time, in the 1930s, but he's probably better known among casual blues listeners [today]" http://www.allmusic.com/artist/charley-jordan-mn0000168660]. However, "THE" Charlie Jordan wasn't featured on that "Pork Chop Blues" record.

Max Haymes also mentions another entirely different song entitled "Pork chop Blues" by pianist Lee Green, who also went by the names "Pork chop", "Pork Chop Jackson, "Pork Chop Johnson", and Pork Chop Green/e". Haymes suggested that Lee Green, who recorded many sessions in Chicago between 1927-1935, could have taken his name from the name of an Illinois Central freight train (mea train) meat train called "Pork Chop" that traveled from Iowa through Chicago.

Regrettably, a 1935 unissued master of a record by "Funny Paper" Smith that was entitled "Pork Chop Blues" was destroyed along with other songs from that long session.

Mex Haymes also wrote that in the early part of the 19th century it was common for hogs to be run down streets to livestock yards in many American towns (including New York City). Some hogs were also run down streets to livestock yards in many small towns up to the 1920s. Some of that livestock ran into the woods, became feral, and were hunted by poor people to help supplement their meager diets.

****
SHOWCASE SONG
Ragtime Guitar (CHARLEY JORDAN) 'Pork Chop Blues'



RagtimeDorianHenry Uploaded on Mar 10, 2009

CHARLEY JORDAN (1890-1954)
-snip-
As a reminder, this song was recorded by "The Two Charlies", and it appears that neither of "the two Charlies" were Charley Jordan.

****
LYRICS: PORK CHOP BLUES
(The Two Charlies)

1. Folks you oughta to know, three weeks ago, I was sick an' was about to die;
I has a stomach trouble from missin' my meals, and I was sore in my side.

2. Doctor Haigh came into the front of my bus, an' set down on my wheel*
An' just about the time when mother walked in, this is what he said.
You need some pork chop poultice an' some pork n' beans, good greasy [in your] stomach three times a day

3. If you had-a been doin' three weeks ago;
the boy been well today.

4. Well, a man is sick an' about to die
Just mix 'im up some of that potato pie.
Hear the voice of the pork chop say, 'Come unto me an' rest'
(Spoken) 'Yeah' (6)

Repeat- 1-4
*Steering wheel

Source: http://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20I%20Heard%20The%20Voice%20of%20a%20Pork%20Chop.htm
-snip-
Sam Collins "Pork Chop Blues" (1927) and The Two Charlies' "Pork Chop Blues" are examples of country Blues and so-called comic blues songs which were performed at Black medicine shows. Click http://www.folkstreams.net/context,124http://www.folkstreams.net/context,124 for information about African Americans performers in black-faced minstrel shows and in traveling medicine shows.

****
COMMENTS ABOUT SOME OF THESE LYRICS

1."Doctor Haigh came into the front of my bus" - In his essay, Max Haymes wrote that the lyrics of the song indicates that the singer was living in a bus.

I think the last name for the doctor purposely sounded like the word "high", which added comedic effect and alluded to being "high" off of liquor and/or illegal drugs - things that may also still be used by poor people whose stomachs hurt because they are hungry.

2. "An' just about the time when mother walked in" - "Mother" here is probably the singer's wife or woman.

3. "an' some pork n' beans, good greasy" - The pork and beans should be good and greasy, meaning the pork shouldn't be lean but contain a lot of animal fat (as that has a lot of protein).

4. If you had-a been doin' three weeks ago;
the boy been well today. = If you had been doing that (eating sufficient food) three weeks ago, you [that man who was sick] would be well today.

5. "Just mix 'im up some of that potato pie." = just bake him a sweet potato pie.

6. "Hear the voice of the pork chop say, 'Come unto me an' rest'" - This line references the 1928 Jim Jackson song "I Hear The Voice Of A Pork Chop Say".

That song is featured in Part III of this pancocojams series.

**
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Visitors' comments are welcome.

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Sam Collins - "Pork Chop Blues" (comments, example, lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is Part I of a three part series that focuses on comedic Blues songs about Black people and pork chops. This post showcases the 1927 song "Pork Chop Blues' by Sam Collins. Information about Sam Collins is also given in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-two-charlies-pork-chop-blues.html for Part II of this series. Part II showcases the 1936 version of this song by “The Two Charlies".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/jim-jackson-i-heard-voice-of-pork-chop.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases the 1928 song "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop Say" by Jim Jackson.

Information about those songs is included in these posts along with information about other Blues songs that mention pork chops.

This post is also part of a pancocojams series on African American songs and rhymes about "Calling the doctor". Click that tag for other posts in that series.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Sam Collins for his musical legacy. Thanks also to Max Haymes and all others who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT SAM COLLINS
From ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Collins_(musician)
"Sam Collins (August 11, 1887 – October 20, 1949)[1] who was sometimes known as Crying Sam Collins and also, according to one authoritative website,[2] as Jim Foster, Jelly Roll Hunter, Big Boy Woods, Bunny Carter, and Salty Dog Sam, was an early American blues singer and guitarist.[1]

Biography
He was born in Louisiana, United States,[1] and grew up just across the state border in McComb, Mississippi. By 1924 he was performing in local barrelhouses, often with King Solomon Hill with whom he shared the use of falsetto singing and slide guitar. He was first recorded by Gennett Records, on "Yellow Dog Blues", in 1927, and recorded again in 1931, some of his later recordings appearing under different pseudonyms. His rural bottleneck guitar pieces were among the first to be compiled on LP. His best known recording was "The Jail House Blues".[1]

He relocated to Chicago, Illinois, in the late 1930s, and died there from the effects of heart disease in October 1949, at the age of 62.[1]"

****
INFORMATION ABOUT COMEDIC BLUES RECORDS ABOUT PORK CHOPS
http://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20I%20Heard%20The%20Voice%20of%20a%20Pork%20Chop.htm "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop" by Max Haymes, converted to web format from the original typescript by Alan White

Note: This is a summation of portions of this essay with my comments in brackets. The lyrics to Sam Collins and The Two Charlies "Pork Chop Blues" songs which are found below in this post are also from this essay.

Max Haymes describes the Jim Jackson song about pork chops and other songs about pork chops as "comedic blues", and gives the recording dates of 1890-1943 for those songs. Although he doesn't provide any definition for this sub-genre of Blues, it appears from his comments that Haymes meant that "comedic blues" are country Blues songs that either have comedic lyrics, although sometimes those comedic lyrics may hide or allude to a more serious subject or subjects. It occurs to me that like other Blues songs, some of those comedic record titles and their lyrics may also be double entendres (a word or expression that can be understood in two different ways with one way usually referring to sex).

Max Haymes writes that there were five songs that were titled "Pork Chop Blues". The earliest of these songs is a slow Blues "by Bessie Brown "with fine tenor sax playing by a young Coleman Hawkins, aptly backed by up by Fletcher Henderson on piano. {Two verses of this song are quoted].

The essayist indicates that Bessie Brown song may have sparked the idea for the record entitled "You Can Dip Your Bread In My Gravy, Put You Can't Have Any Of My Chops", which was recorded in 1925 by Virginia Liston. That Bessie Brown song may have also inspired the Sam Collins song "Pork Chop Blues" (1927) and the Jim Jackson song "I Heard The Voice Of A Pork Chop Say" (1928). Haymes wrote that Sam Collins' 'Pork Chop Blues' "has a definite medicine show-cum minstrel feel about it."

A version of "Pork Chop Blues" was also recorded in 1936 by "The Two Charlies". This record was issued on a Charlie Jordan CD [Charley (Charlie) Jordan was an early Blues singer who "had some moderate success in his own right as a recording artist during his own time, in the 1930s, but he's probably better known among casual blues listeners [today]" http://www.allmusic.com/artist/charley-jordan-mn0000168660]. However, "THE" Charlie Jordan wasn't featured on that "Pork Chop Blues" record.

Max Haymes also mentions another entirely different song entitled "Pork chop Blues" by pianist Lee Green, who also went by the names "Pork chop", "Pork Chop Jackson, "Pork Chop Johnson", and Pork Chop Green/e". Haymes suggested that Lee Green, who recorded many sessions in Chicago between 1927-1935, could have taken his name from the name of an Illinois Central freight train (mea train) meat train called "Pork Chop" that traveled from Iowa through Chicago.

Regrettably, a 1935 unissued master of a record by "Funny Paper" Smith that was entitled "Pork Chop Blues" was destroyed along with other songs from that long session.

Mex Haymes also wrote that in the early part of the 19th century it was common for hogs to be run down streets to livestock yards in many American towns (including New York City). Some hogs were also run down streets to livestock yards in many small towns up to the 1920s. Some of that livestock ran into the woods, became feral, and were hunted by poor people to help supplement their meager diets.

****
SHOWCASE SONG
'Pork Chop Blues' SAM COLLINS, Delta Blues Guitar Legend



RagtimeDorianHenry, Uploaded on Mar 19, 2009
" Pork Chop Blues "

Early country Blues...
-snip-
LYRICS: PORK CHOP BLUES
(Sam Collins)

1. I went out west about a year ago. I taken sick an’ I like to die.
Had the rheumatism all in my chest, tuberculosis all in my side.

2. I went to the doctor, the doctor said, “Boy, what’s the matter with you?
That doctor looked around at me: I said “Doctor, what I need?”

3. The doctor shook his head and said
“You need the pork chop poultice an’ the stew an’
veg. in’ your stomach three times a day.

4. If you had been doin all the time
You’d-a been a healthy child today

5. When a man get sick and die
Stop in a swell café and get a chocolate pie
Pork chop poultice, stew an’ beans in your stomach three times a day

6. Some say that preachers won’t steal
I caught two in my cornfield
One had a bushel and the other had a bag
They both had crocus sacks around their neck
Pork chop poultice, stew an’ beans in your stomach three times a day.

7. Need a pork chop poultice, stew an’ beans in your stomach three times a day.
Do you know last time winter when the time was tough?
Pork an’ beans in the kitchen was a struttin ‘is stuff
Pork chop poultice, stew an’ beans in your stomach three times a day [5]

Source: http://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20I%20Heard%20The%20Voice%20of%20a%20Pork%20Chop.htm The essayist includes the comments that Jim Jackson may have gotten the idea for his song about pork chops from "contemporary songster and bluesman Sam Collins. Born in Louisiana in 1887 (3 years younger than Jackson) Collins recorded quite extensively in 1927 and 1931. At one of his earlier sessions he cut Pork Chop Blues (Gennett 6260) which had a definite medicine show-cum minstrel feel about it."
-snip-
Click http://www.folkstreams.net/context,124http://www.folkstreams.net/context,124 for information about African Americans performers in black-faced minstrel shows and in traveling medicine shows.

****
MY COMMENTS ABOUT SOME OF THESE LYRICS
I've assigned numberrs to these comments for referencing purposes. Those comments are given in the order that the words or phrases are found in the song, but the numbers aren't necessarily the same as the line numbers.
1."I like to die" = It was like I was dying ; I almost died

2. "the pork chop poultice" - There probably wasn't an actual poultice made up of pork chops. That was made up for the purpose of this song.

3."veg." = vegetables

4."If you had been doin all the time" = If you had been doing that all the time [i.e. eating enough food]

5. "Some say that preachers won’t steal/I caught two in my cornfield" - This is a floating verse that is found in a number of African American plantation songs/early Blues, including a example in the now classic 1922 collection entitled Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Other Wise which was edited by Thomas W. Talley. The version in Talley's collection uses what is now known as "the n word" instead of the word "preacher".

6. "One had a bushel and the other had a bag" - In the Max Haymes article that line is given as question marks. This is my transcription of that line which is given as question marks in the Max Haymes article. Click http://www.texasbasket.com/new/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_2 for information about and photographs of fruit and vegetables bushels (baskets).

7. "struttin like it was king" - strutting (walking with a proud, erect gait) because it was the food that many poor people ate because it was relatively low cost
***
UPDATE: July 20/2014 8:20 AM: Read the comment below about the meaning of "crocus sacks" and about the real meaning of this song.

****
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Visitors' comments are welcome.

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Frank Stokes & The Beale Street Sheiks - Chicken You Can Roost Behind The Moon (example & lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is Part I of a two part pancocojams series that focuses on two (1926 and 1927) comedic Blues songs about Black people and chicken. This post showcases the song "Chicken You Can Roost Behind The Moon", recorded by Frank Stokes & The Beale Street Sheiks. Information about Frank Stokes is included in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/sweet-papa-stovepipe-all-birds-look.html for Part I of this post. Part I showcases the song "All Birds Look Like Chicken To Me" by Sweet Papa Stovepipe (McKinley Peebles). Some information about Sweet Papa Stovepipe and a brief note about the composition of this song are also included in that post.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thank to Frank Stokes for his musical legacy. Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT FRANK STOKES
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stokes_(musician)
"Frank Stokes (January 1, 1888 – September 12, 1955)[1] was an American blues musician, songster, and blackface minstrel, who is considered by many musicologists to be the father of the Memphis blues guitar style.[2]

...In the mid 1910s, Stokes joined forces with fellow Mississippian Garfield Akers as a blackface songster, comedian, and buck dancer in the Doc Watts Medicine Show, a tent show that toured the South. During this period of touring, Stokes developed a sense of show business professionalism that set him apart from many of the more rural, less polished blues musicians of that time and place. It is said that his performances on the southern minstrel and vaudeville circuit around this time influenced Jimmie Rodgers, who played the same circuit. Rodgers borrowed songs and song fragments from Stokes and was influenced stylistically as well.

Around 1920, Stokes settled in Oakville, Tennessee, where he went back to work as a blacksmith.[2] Stokes teamed up again with Sane and went to work playing dances, picnics, fish fries, saloons, and parties in his free time. Stokes and Sane joined Jack Kelly's Jug Busters to play white country clubs, parties and dances, and to play Beale Street together as the Beale Street Sheiks, first recording under that name for Paramount Records in August 1927.[2] All told, Stokes was to cut 38 sides for Paramount and Victor Records."
-snip-
"Chicken You Can Roost Behind The Moon" is an African American medicine show song. Here's an excerpt from http://www.folkstreams.net/context,124, an article about Black performers in "black-faced minstrel shows" and Black performers in "medicine shows":
"As long as medicine shows have toured this country, blacks have played in them. Medical entrepreneurs, quick to exploit the increasing fascination of whites whith [sic] African-American culture, employed blacks as novelty entertainers in otherwise white shows. Jug bands, buck and eccentric dancers, harmonica players, even jubilee quartets, became standard features on the med circuit...

Playing to African-American audiences, black med troupers adapted the racial stereotypes of minstrelsy to their own ends and expanded their repertoires. Their medicine shows became an amalgam which included brass bands, tap dancers, ragtime guitarists, comedy teams, and classic blues shouters. Folk and vernacular elements alternated with Tin Pan Alley, burnt-cork minstrelsy with vaudeville. “Foreign” traditions were tempered by the black aesthetic to reflect the African-American experience...

At the pinnacle of the black med [medicine] show business were full-fledged minstrel troupes mounting elaborate spectacles in vast tents that seated 2000 people. Most of these were headed by white pitchmen like Doc Robinson of the Silver Minstrels, Doc Byar of the World’s Minstrels, and Doc Bartok of Bardex. The closing of The Bardex Minstrel Show in 1960 marked the end of a proud tradition of black artistry in med minstrelsy."

****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLE
Frank Stokes - Chicken You Can Roost Behind the Moon



HAMS: Harm Reduction for Alcohol Uploaded on Mar 29, 2009
-snip-
Here's a comment from this sound file's discussion thread:
Joshua Eden, 2010
This song was recorded in 1927. The singer died in 1955.

****
LYRICS
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=7709 Frank Stokes Song- "Chicken You Can Roost Behind the Moon".

Subject: Lyr Add: CHICKEN YOU CAN ROOST BEHIND THE MOON
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 11:54 PM

I have listened to the recording several times, and read the previous comments, and this is my best attempt at a transcription. There are still several questionable words—see my notes at the end. In the chorus, the words in brackets are the ones he inserts sometimes, and omits sometimes.


CHICKEN YOU CAN ROOST BEHIND THE MOON
(Frank Stokes/Beale Street Sheiks)

Boy, d'you ever do anything like stealin' chickens?

CHORUS: Now [it's] chicken, chicken, oh, chicken,
You may go up in a balloon. [Doggone ya!]
Chicken, [chicken,] you may hide behind the moon. [Doggone ya!/Confound ya!]
[Now] chicken, I never let a fowl be.
Ten thousand dollar 'ward for the [or "furthest"?] fowl on earth,
He don't roost too high for me.

1. I got to thinkin' 'bout chicken late the other night.
Man, I couldn't hardly rest.
I jumped out o' bed, grabbed up my own shoes,
Thought o' where some chicken was at.
I grabbed big -------, stuck 'im under my arm,
Some'n' I never let fall.
I don't think I robbed your hen house
Till I get the roost', poor chicken an' all. CHORUS

2. Oh, that chicken made me awful mad the other night, man.
That's some'n' I didn't like to take.
I grabbed my little haversack down 'cross my back,
Grabbed the chicken right by the neck.
Said, I turned around, quick as I could,
A chicken all way up there.
I won't steal meat right out of confinement(?)
I'll steal a chicken from anywhere. CHORUS

3. That police 'rest me last Friday night.
You couldn't think of what 'twas about.
I'm goin' down the alley where I lived at,
A lot o' chicken tied in my house.
Say, you may carr' me to pen'tent'ry wall.
I'd go to work out my time.
Just as quick as you put me on the L&N track,
I'll have chickens on my mind. CHORUS

* * *
Chorus line 5: I think the word is "'ward" meaning "reward"

Verse 1 line 5: I think he's referring to some kind of equipment he uses for stealing chickens, maybe something he would personify by giving it a nickname, as a man might call his gun "Old Bertha." But he wouldn't take a gun, would he?

Verse 2 line 7: "Confinement" is just a guess; I still don't think it's right.

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Sweet Papa Stovepipe - "All Birds Look Like Chicken To Me" (example, partial lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is Part I of a two part pancocojams series that focuses on two 1926-1927 comedic Blues songs about African Americans and chicken. This post showcases the song "All Birds Look Like Chicken To Me" by Sweet Papa Stovepipe (McKinley Peebles). Some information about Sweet Papa Stovepipe and a brief note about the composition of this song are also included in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/frank-stokes-beale-street-sheiks.html for Part II of this series. Part II showcases the song "Chicken You Can Roost Behind the Moon".

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thank to Sweet Papa Stovepipe (McKinley Peebles) for his musical legacy. Thanks also to those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT SWEET PAPA STOVEPIPE
"Sweet Papa Stovepipe [was] a singer from New York City who probably got the nickname by wearing a top hat and whose "All Birds Look Like Chicken to Me" taps into the minstrel tradition of the 1890s. This individual's given name was McKinley Peebles. http://www.allmusic.com/album/rare-paramount-blues-1926-1929-mw0000054537
-snip-
Very little information about Sweet Papa Stovepipe is known besides his real name and that he recorded "All Birds Look Like Chicken to Me," and "Mama's Angel Child" (both circa 1926). However, some additional information about that singer can be gleaned from these two comments published on http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=155033&messages=7 "New CD of Bessie Jones due out Oct 2014" by Matthew Edwards,
17 Jul 14 - 04:37 PM and Matthew Edwards, 17 Jul 14 - 07:26 PM
..."The Association for Cultural Equity website notes that he [Sweet Papa Stovepipe] was recorded with Bessie Jones in New York in 1961 singing You've Got To Reap Just What You Sow under the name of the Reverend McKinley Peebles"...

**
..."Google Books also turns up part of an article by Anton J Mikofsky in the Encyclopedia of the Blues, Gerard Herzhaft, 2nd edition, 1997 describing McKinley Peebles/ Sweet Papa Stovepipe as a well-known street performer in 1970's New York with a theatrical style, and also a colleague of the Rev. Gary Davis."
-snip-
Sweet Papa Stovepipe shouldn't be confused with "Daddy Stovepipe (Johnny Watson), one of the earliest born blues performer to record and Stovepipe No.1 – (real name Sam Jones), who also first recorded as a one-man band in 1924.[6] Daddy Stovepipe and Stovepipe No.1 were deemed to be the first blues one-man bands ever to be recorded on disc."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_Stovepipe
-snip-
"Stovetope hats" (top hats) were considered to be part of the attire for a sophisticated man, which is why they were adopted by some early Blues and medicine show singers to set them apart from the average man and other performers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_hat

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THE COMPOSITION OF "ALL BIRDS LOOK LIKE CHICKEN TO ME"
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=155033&messages=7 "New CD of Bessie Jones due out Oct 2014" by Matthew Edwards, 17 Jul 14 - 07:26 PM
..."According to Songfacts the song ["All Birds Look Like Chicken To Me"] was written by the black songwriter Irving Jones in 1899, in response to the hit song by Ernest Hogan "All Coons Look Alike To Me"."
-snip-
Note that Ernest Hogan was also African American.

That comment by Matthew Edwards continues: "So this song perhaps has some claim to being an early anti-racist song". end of quote. However, while the title of the song "All Birds Look Like Chicken To Me" undoubtedly came from the "All Coons Look Alike To Me" song, its lyrics are by no means anti-racist. Instead, that song is part of the Southern plantation/minstrel and medicine show category of songs about Black people's fondness for chicken and Black people stealing chickens. Read my comments about that subject in the pancocojams post http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-story-behind-stereotype-of-black.html "The Story Behind The Stereotype Of Black People & Fried Chicken"

"All Birds Look Like Chicken To Me" is an African American medicine show song. Here's an excerpt from http://www.folkstreams.net/context,124, an article about Black performers in "black-faced minstrel shows" and Black performers in "medicine shows":
..."As long as medicine shows have toured this country, blacks have played in them. Medical entrepreneurs, quick to exploit the increasing fascination of whites whith [sic] African-American culture, employed blacks as novelty entertainers in otherwise white shows. Jug bands, buck and eccentric dancers, harmonica players, even jubilee quartets, became standard features on the med circuit...

Playing to African-American audiences, black med [medicine show] troupers adapted the racial stereotypes of minstrelsy to their own ends and expanded their repertoires. Their medicine shows became an amalgam which included brass bands, tap dancers, ragtime guitarists, comedy teams, and classic blues shouters. Folk and vernacular elements alternated with Tin Pan Alley, burnt-cork minstrelsy with vaudeville. “Foreign” traditions were tempered by the black aesthetic to reflect the African-American experience...

At the pinnacle of the black med show business were full-fledged minstrel troupes mounting elaborate spectacles in vast tents that seated 2000 people. Most of these were headed by white pitchmen like Doc Robinson of the Silver Minstrels, Doc Byar of the World’s Minstrels, and Doc Bartok of Bardex. The closing of The Bardex Minstrel Show in 1960 marked the end of a proud tradition of black artistry in med minstrelsy."

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SHOWCASE EXAMPLE
Sweet Papa Stovepipe All Birds Look Like Chicken To Me (1926)



Randomandrare, Uploaded on Oct 18, 2009

I do not own the copyright to this recording. This video is for historical and educational purposes
Sweet Papa Stovepipe (real name unknown):Vocals & Probably Guitar
Recorded in Chicago, IL. November, 1926
Originally issued on the 1926 single (Paramount 12404) (78 RPM)
This recording taken from the 2004 4CD Box Set "The Paramount Masters"

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PARTIAL LYRICS
Note: This is a beginning transcription attempt for "All Birds Look Like Chicken To Me". I'm posting it because I haven't found the lyrics for this song online. However, in spite of repeatedly listening to this recording, I'm very unsure about many of its lyrics. Additions and corrections to this transcription would be appreciated.

ALL BIRDS LOOK ALIKE TO ME
(as sung by Sweet Papa Stovepipe, 1926)

Chorus:
All birds look like chicken to me
They look like little fat hens
I fork them with my butter and fries
And eat them all one size
That chicken looks great to me
Looks like a little fat hen to me
Eat'em in an hour
All kind of power
They look like chicken to me

Verse:
Me and my oldest brother
Went out at night to have a little fun
We met that pullet early
We met him about at one
Well I grabbed hold of the rooster
And swung him all round and round
I saw the other one wheezing
Gonna beat everyone in town

Chorus

Verse:
If there’s no roosters over yonder* [meaning heaven]
Don’t wanna go there
Take me down to the __ on the table
I’d do real good there
Here’s the only thing I crave
Wanna ___ until my grave
If there’s no roosters over yonder
I don’t wanna go there.

Chorus:

Verse:
I had no use a for the pullet
Since one day in the spring
I ??? eat them up
All on his wings
I grabbed that other rooster
And slapped all around and round
And the next time I come around ‘he get out of the way
He __ ‘bound

Chorus:

Verse:
One spring I was walkin
Walkin far away
There’s nothing there for me to
Eat one morn to stay
Now chicken now get ready
And let us all get right
I’m gonna take you all to see God
And see you home tonight.

Chorus

Verse:
Chickens, chickens
Come right here to me
Chickens, chickens
I know we can agree
Chickens, chickens
Fly right here to me
I’ma ????
Cause we can not agree

Chorus

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