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Feather Bed (Ida Red)
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown- West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, North Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas; Widely spread;
ARTIST: Gus Cannon- Cannon's Jug Stompers; Recorded in Memphis, Tenn. on September 5, 1928 and originally released as Victor 38515.
Listen: Gus Cannon
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Late 1800’s- early 1900’s; Early listing in Meade, Spottswood, Meade: 'Journal of American Folklore XXVIII, 1915.
EARLY RECORDINGS: The earliest recordings given are Fiddlin' Powers & Family (vcl by Carson Robison) on August 19, 1924 (issued December 1924- Victor 19434) and Land Norris in July 1925 (issued November 1925- OK 45006). There is a further recording by Fiddlin' Powers & Family (vcl by Charlie Powers) on October 3, 1925 (issued March 1926- Ed 51662). The next earliest is the Riley Puckett in 1926. Charlie Poole’s version of Ida Red was recorded in 1928. Bob Wills' earliest recording (with Tommy Duncan on vocals) was November 29, 1938 in Dallas, but not issued until October 1939 on Vo 05079.
RECORDING INFO: Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Shootin' Creek" (composite, with tune and chorus from "Cripple Creek (I); Columbia15286-D, 1928; on CPoole01, CPoole05) Fretless 144, Double Decker String Band- "Giddyap Napoleon." Bluebird 5488A (78 RPM), Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers (North Ga.) {1934}. Gennett 6604 (78 RPM), 1928, Tweedy Brothers (Wheeling, W.Va. brothers Harry, George, and Charles who played twin fiddles and piano). Rounder CD0364, The Red Mules - "The Marimac Anthology: Deep in Old-Time Music." Victor 19434 (78 RPM, recorded 1925), Fiddlin' Cowan Powers 1877-1952? (Russell County, S.W. Virginia). Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Ida Red" (Vocalion 05079, 1939) Jarrell, Tommy. Rainbow Sign, County 791, LP (198?), cut# 9 .Juggernaut String Band. Greasy Coat, Wildbeest WB004, LP (198?), cut# 6 Pete Steele, "Ida Red" (on PSteele01). Skillet Lickers. Smokey Mountain Ballads, RCA (Victor) LPV-507, LP (1964), cut# 14 . Doc and Merle Watson: Places In The Heart 1984, Milan, LC8126/RC250;
SOURCES: Randolph 44; "Ida Red" Rorrer, p. 83, "Shootin' Creek;" Appalachian Fiddle, Oak, sof (1973), p16a; Charlie. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 60. Double Decker String Band (Kuntz): Frank West (Murray County, Oklahoma) [Thede]; Bob Wills and Sleepy Johnson (Texas) [Phillips]; Tweedy Brothers (W.Va.) [Phillips]. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; pg. 37. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 16. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 387-388. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 117 (two versions). Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 60-61.
OTHER NAMES: “Idy Red” "Shootin' Creek" “Over the Road I'm Bound to Go”
SOURCES: Randolph 442, "Ida Red;" Silber-FSWB, p. 36, "Ida Red;" Rorrer, p. 83, "Shootin' Creek" (with verses from this song but music and chorus from "Cripple Creek"); MWheeler, p.14, "Ida Red;" Appalachian Fiddle, Oak, sof (1973), p16a; Charlie. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 60. Kaufman, Alan. Beginning Old-time Fiddle, Oak, sof (1977), p36;
RELATED TO: “Cripple Creek”, “Shootin’ Creek” (Charlie Poole); “Feather Bed” (Cannon’s Jug Stompers); “Over the Road I’m Bound To Go” (Uncle Dave Macon); “Down the Road” (Uncle Dave Macon & Flatt and Scruggs)
NOTES: A Major (Phillips): G Major (Krassen). AEAE or Standard. AB: AABB (Krassen). Ida Red was originally supposed to have been an African-American bad man, but the gender of the character in most versions is feminine or androgynous. The tune, which varies widely though retains distinctive cadences, was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's. Riley Pucket's (north Georgia) version of the tune, released in 1926, became the second best-selling country music record for the year. Kentucky fiddler Jim Bowles plays a cross-tuned version.
There are two distinct branches of the Ida Red song: 1) The western branch includes Bob Wills 1938 version which is based on "The Parlor is a Pleasant Place to Sit on Sunday Night," by Albert E. Porter 1886. The Randolph versions are also part of this line. 2) The southern branch features short clipped floating lyrics (Ida Red/Ida Green) similar to Cripple Creek. The Skillet Lickers and also Charlie Poole’s versions are part of this line.
Many songs are directly related to Ida Red through the “Over the Road I’m Bound to Go” lyrics at the end of the verses as found in the Lomax Ida Red version. Uncle Dave Macon’s “Over the Road I’m Bound to Go” and Gus Cannon’s “Feather Bed” use the “Over the Road” lyrics. The bluegrass standard “Down the Road” is also related to Ida Red.
The Ida Red-bad man story stems only from the version Lomax collected on a Texas prison farm and printed in American Ballads and Folk Songs. He headed the section "Negro Bad Men" but had a mixture, including the Boll Weevil song, in that section.
Charlie Poole’s “Shootin’ Creek” was recorded in New York on July 23, 1928 for Columbia Records. The chorus is known as “Cripple Creek” but Poole changed the name to “Shootin’ Creek” after a community he frequented in Franklin Co. Virginia. The first three verses are verses normally found in Ida Red. Poole probably got the Ida Red idea from Riley Pucket’s 1926 version, which was the number two country music hit of the year. The Wills version takes its first, second, and last stanzas quite directly from "The Parlor is a Pleasant Place to Sit on Sunday Night," by Albert E. Porter 1886. There are recordings of "The Parlor is a Pleasant Place” by Frank Crumit (Vi 19777 in 1925); Hugh Cross Co 15182 in 1927; Doc and Chickie Williams and the Boarder Riders- The Original Historical Early Recordings (1947 – 1960) Volume 1WR 505.
The "The Parlor is a Pleasant Place " seems to be the original home of the lyrics, since there are additional verses not used in the Wills record and the song tells a little story about courting in the parlor. The first stanza goes: The light is in the parlor, the fire is on the grate/ The clock upon the mantle ticks out it's getting late/ The curtains on the window are made of snowy white/ The parlor is a pleasant place to sit on Sunday night.
“Interestingly, the Randolph text, though garbled, also begins with a variation of the "lights in the parlor" stanza. I wonder if this is traceable to the Wills performance (record or radio), or if the "parlor" lyrics had been allied to "Ida Red" prior to the Wills recording. I've never heard them in any southeastern version that did not derive directly from Wills, but the latter is the only southwestern version I've ever heard” 12-Stringer from Mudcat.
VANCE RANDOLPH: "This is not really a song at all, say the serious ballad singers, but just "idlesome words" set to an old fiddle tune, still popular at backwoods hoedowns and kitchen-sweats. Ten recordings of "Ida Red," .....1935-1939...., are found in the Archive of American Folk Song (Check List, 1942, p. 181)." Randolph gives a short version he recorded in 1941, the singer alternating stanzas with fiddle playing. Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, vol. 3, p. 197, of the 1980 ed., Univ. Missouri Press.
NOTES FROM CHARLES WOLFE: Another such tune was Ida Red, the quintessential Texas two step that has become a required addition to any dance in Texas, Oklahoma, or southern California. Though associated with western swing king Bob Wills (who recorded his definitive version in 1938), it seems much older. Folksong collector John Lomax classified it as a song about "Negro Bad Men" and prints a version he collected in the Colorado River bottoms in Texas (see his book American Ballads and Folk Songs.) The song was featured in later years by Woody Guthrie's uncle, Jack Guthrie, a popular radio entertainer in the 40s, and leant its melody to rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry for his 1955 classic "Mabelline."
MAYBELLINE: Many sources claim Chuck Berry's 'Maybelline' was simply an adaptation of the Wills 1938 Vocalion recording of 'Ida Red,' the traditional folk tune that Bob had set to a beat:
In May, 1955, with an introduction from Waters, Berry went to Chicago to audition for Leonard Chess in hopes of landing a recording contract. Berry thought his blues material would be of most interest to Chess, but to his surprise it was the hillbilly "Ida Red" that got Chess' attention. Chess, a great blues label, in recent years had seen its market shrink and was looking to move beyond the rhythm and blues market and Chess thought Berry might be that artist that could do it. So on May 21, 1955 Berry recorded, "Ida Red" renamed "Maybellene," the name taken from a line of cosmetics, with Johnny Johnson, Jerome Green (from Bo Diddley's band) on the maracas, Jasper Thomas on the drums and blue legend Willie Dixon on the bass. Johnson's piano playing, the heavy drums and maracas and Berry's lead style gave Maybellene the hard rhythm and blues feel that balanced the country elements. Maybellene reached the pop charts and #1 on the rhythm and blues charts.
According to Johnny Johnson: “I had a brother living there and I got a job with him working for Penn Railroad. Compared to Chicago, or anywhere for that matter, there wasn’t much of a music scene in St. Louis: there was jazz and blues, but not much. There weren’t too many clubs, so my band played mostly parties.” That New Year’s Eve his saxophonist called in sick, and he hired an ‘unknown’ named Chuck Berry. “Chuck’s music raised all kinds of eyebrows that night because they weren’t used to seeing a black man playing hillbilly music. We became the hottest band on the local scene and two or three years later, Chuck took a tape of old hillbilly songs to Chicago’s Chess Records – it was an old fiddle tune called ‘Ida Red.’ I changed the music and re-arranged it, Chuck re-wrote the words, and the rest, as they say, was history. Leonard Chess asked me to come up to record it live. At that time, somone else already had a song out by the same name, so we had to change our version. We noticed a mascara box in the corner, so we changed the name to ‘Maybellene.’ ”
MORE NOTES: Ida Red is also included in "Civil War Guitar" (Legend records GLC-6031), available at practically any of the U.S. Park Service visitor’s centers. The arrangements on the CD consist of guitar, banjo and an occasional harmonica. Assuming that this inclusion means Ida Red was played during the Civil War, this would date Ida Red back to the 1860’s. No evidence is available to back-up this assertion.
Jeff Todd Titon includes 'Ida Red' as tune #65 in his 'Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes' University Press of Kentucky p94: This widespread dance tune with lyrics has been recorded by fiddlers and banjo players throughout the South and the South-west. It appeared in several of the 1915 Berea students' tune lists, but was not played in any of the Berea fiddle contests. The lyrics (see Thede 1967, 60, and Lomax and Lomax 1934, 110-111) suggest an African American or minstrel origin. ... Published recordings - Kentucky: Ed Haley, Rounder 1131/1132; Jim Bowles, Meriweather 1001-2, Marimac 9060. Elsewhere: Dykes Magic City Trio (1927), OHCS 0191; Tommy Jarrell, County 791; Ernest V. Stoneman, Rounder 1008; Clayton McMichen, Davis Unlimited DU 33032. [JTT p95]
North Louisiana String Band notes: This old-time novelty number, which begins side one, emphasizes both lyrics and breakdown instrumentation and has been recorded by country musicians, including Bob Wills and Roy Acuff. Combs (1967: 92) attributes the tune to black origins. There are many variants in the Anglo-American tradition. Lomax (1960: 110) cites Texas variants, and Randolph (1950: 442) gives Arkansas variants, which are significantly different from Beebe's version. The North Louisiana String Band usually began performances with this song so that concerts began with the solo fiddler, seemingly to demonstrate the historical development of the string band.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN TRADITION: Ida Red can also be traced to the African American tradition through Thomas Talley collection and through gandy dancers John Mealing and Cornelius Wright, Jr. The term gandy dancers comes from the Chicago-based Gandy Manufacturing Company, maker of railroad tools, and the "dancing" movements of the workers using them. Teams of eight to 14 men worked together to lay or care for the tracks of southern railroads. They had a rich repertoire of songs used for the many tasks required of them; songs, in the poetic words of folklorist Alan Lomax, that "sounded so wild and sweet that the mockingbirds in the nearby bushes stopped to listen, [as the] railroad moved into the Southern wilderness."
Since the caller was never sure when the call had to stop, there was generally no narrative logic to the sequence of his calls. A verse recalling a biblical figure of the past is followed by several about women of the present:
If I could I surely would,
Stand on the rock where Moses stood.
If I could (rap it, rap it!)
I surely would, Stand on the rock,
Where Moses stood.
I don't know but I've been told,
Susie had a jelly roll.
I don't know
But I've been told,
That Susie had,
A jelly roll.
Ida Red and Ida Blue,
got a gal named Ida too.
Oh boys over yonder (6 x)
Notes: Includes a reference to Cripple Creek with similarities to Uncle Dave Macon's "Over the Road I'm Bound To Go" and Lomax's "Ida Red".
Here are Cannon’s lyrics to "Feather Bed"/Over the Road/Ida Red:
Listen: Gus Cannon
I remember the time just before the war,
Colored man used to hunt him out chips and straw.
But now, bless God, old master dead,
Colored man plumb fool about feather bed.
Wee wee, my dear Nancy,
Over the road I'm bound to go.
I went up to town, go out to shriek and howl,
Think I heard my baby cry.
Wee wee wee, honey, over the road I'm bound to go,
Wee ee ee, baby, over the road I'm bound to go.
I went downtown, didn't mean no harm,
Police grabbed me right by my arm.
Soon I began to pitch, I began to rear,
Felt like strolling in the air.
Ooh oooh, baby,
Over the road I'm bound to go.
I went downtown, doing my best,
To find the boys that stole the vest.
Went on around 'bout Court Square,
To find the boys that done stole the coat.
Wee ee ee, baby,
Over the road I'm bound to go.
Now I knew Joe Louis was in stand,
Had them law books in his hands.
I began to pitch, pull out a writ, began to read to me,
Said, "Nigger, you been stealing in the first degree."
Wee ee ee, baby,
Over the road I'm bound to go,
Old Britt and Moses Brown,
Said, "I'm going across Cripple Creek, going to town."
Oo ooh ohh, baby,
Over the road I'm bound to go.
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