Ox Drivin' Blues

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Ox Drivin' Blues - Leadbelly
24 January 1935 NYC
ARC 16694-1 unissued
Transcribed from Leadbelly King of the 12-String Guitar, Columbia Roots 'N' Blues 467893
12 string in standard down 6 semitones to B and played in A(7) position, actual pitch is E flat

Whoa! back buck[1], and gee! by The Lamb![2][3]
Who made the back band[4][5]? Cunningham[6]
Whoa! back buck, and gee! by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Oh God damn
Whoa buck, and gee, by the lamb
Who made the back band? Oh God damn

[holler]This man he was drivin' twenty yoke of oxen
He was a long ways from home
And he looked down the road, looked like he could see his wife
And he 'gin to holler at the old oxen
"Kyyah! Whoa yeah buck, back up!"[/holler]

Whoa buck, and gee, by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Whoa, God damn

Eighteen, nineteen, twenty years ago
I'd take Shirl' to the party-oh
I'd take Shirl' to the party-oh
All dressed up in her calico
Whoa buck, and gee, by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Whoa, God damn

Me and my baby come a-walkin' down the road
Wind from her feet knockin' "Sugar In The Gourd"[7]
Sugar in the gourd and the gourd on the ground
Want to get a sugar gotta roll the gourd around
Whoa buck, and gee, by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Whoa, God damn

[holler]"Kyyah! Whoa yeah, back up, whoa buck!"[/holler]

Whoa buck, and gee, by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Whoa, God damn

Whoah b(l)ack buck, and gee, by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Whoa, God damn
When I was skinnin' for Johnny Rye
Puttin' my initials on a mule's behind[8]
Whoa buck, and gee, by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Whoa! God damn
[holler]"Kyyah! Whoa yeah, back up, whoa buck!"[/holler]
Whoa Buck, and gee, by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Whoa, God damn

Eighteen, nineteen, twenty years ago
Shirl' knocked down old Cotton Eyed Joe
Cotton Eyed Joe and-a Cotton Eyed Joe
Wouldn't let him dance for to sell his soul
Whoa buck, and gee, by The Lamb
Who made the back band? Whoa, God damn

Notes

  1. Whoa, back buck: Later song titles have 'back', he sometimes sings 'black' here
  2. Gee: Animal team driver command to turn right. "Haw" is the command to turn left, "Whoa" to stop
  3. "Gee! by The Lamb!", possibly a reference to Christ, defused exclamation venting frustration at getting the team to turn
  4. back band: A strap going through the harness saddle to join the belly band either side. Takes the weight of the shafts or pole. In cart harness it is replaced by a chain running in a groove in the harness saddle, hooked to the shafts either side.
  5. black band: Alternative theory is "black bad", as in "too black bad". It actually sounds most like a hybrid, "black band"
  6. Cunningham: From Mack McCormick's 1974 notes to Henry Thomas on Herwin Records:
    A century ago a businessman named Cunningham leased convicts from the state prison to work the sugar cane fields along the Brazos. His name became immutably fixed in the prison song tradition, surviving in songs through generations of convict song leaders, and even cropping up on recorded blues derived from the prison tradition. Aside from this instance provided by Henry Thomas there is Smokey Hogg's 1952 Penitentiary Blues with its dialogue between mother and convict son:
    My mama called me -
    I answered "Ma'am"
    "You tired of rolling -
    For Cunningham?"
  7. Sugar In The Gourd: Fiddle tune, see Ernest Stoneman. Various theories as to meaning and origin exist. Reference to coitus is one possibility, "gourd" as female reproductive apparatus, "sugar" as male, or semen
  8. "Skinnin' for Johhny Rye" line also appears in Honey, I'm All Out And Down

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