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Crawdad Song- Doc Watson
Traditional Old-Time Breakdown and Song. USA; Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana.
ARTIST: Doc Watson from Doc Watson Clarence Ashley Original Folkways Recordings 1960-1962.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: 1800s; 1909 Perrow; 1917 Sharp 1928 Recording
RECORDING INFO: Pete Seeger 13, AmHist1; Pete Seeger 39; Cannon, Gus. Walk Right In, Stax SCD-8603-2, CD (1999), cut#13 (Crawdad Hole); Daniels, Charlotte; and Pat Webb. Charlotte Daniels and Pat Webb, Prestige International INT 13037, LP (196?), cut#B.06 (Crawdad Hole); Forbes, Walter. Folk Song Festival, RCA (Victor) LSP-2670, LP (1963), cut#A.06; Girls of the Golden West. Songs of the West, Old Homestead OHS 143, LP (1981), cut# 11 (You Get a Line and I'll Get A Pole); Hinton, Sam. Folk Go-Go, Verve/Folkways FV 9011, LP (197?), cut# 3; Hinton, Sam. Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts, Scholastic SC 7530, LP (1964), cut#A.04; Howard, Clint;, Doc Watson & Fred Price. Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley's, Part 2, Folkways FA 2359, LP (1963), cut# 10; Hutchinson Brothers. Hutchison Brothers, Vetco LP 505, LP (1975), cut# 3; Kweskin, Jim. Swing on a Star, Mountain Railroad MR 52793, LP (1979), cut# 3 (Crawdad Hole); Lone Star Cowboys. Are You From Dixie? Great Country Brother Teams of the 1930's, RCA (Victor) 8417-4-R, Cas (1988), cut# 5; Luckiamute River String Band. Waterbound, Lucks '94, Cas (1994), cut#A.07 (Crawdad Hole); Poplin Family. Poplin Family of Sumter, South Carolina, Folkways FA 2306, LP (1963), cut#A.09 (Crawdad Hole); Rascoe, Moses. Blues, Flying Fish FF-454, LP (1987), cut# 12 ; Seeger, Pete. Folksingers Guitar Guide, Folkways FI 8354, LP, cut#A.01; Smith, Raymond; & Bob Cowan. In the Hills of Home, Marimac 9010, Cas, cut# 5; Stracke, Win. Folk Songs for the Young, Golden Records, LP (1962), cut#B.03; Tarriers. Gather Round, Decca DL-74538, LP (196?), cut# 2; Thomas, W. H.. Kirkland Recordings, Tennessee Folklore Soc. TFS-106, LP (1984), cut# 8; Wakefield, Frank. Blues Stay Away From Me, Takoma TAK 7082, LP (1980), cut# 4; Watson, Doc; Clint Howard and Fred Price. Old Timey Concert, Vanguard 107/8, Cas (1987), cut#A.13
OTHER NAMES: “You Get A Line and I’ll Get a Pole;” “What Kin' O Pants Does the Gambler Wear;” “The Crow-Fish Man;” “Sweet Thing;” "Honey;" “Honey Babe;” "The Crawdad Song;" Alice Brown; I'm Going Back To Jenco (Mexico); How Many Biscuits Can You Eat; Gambler's Song; Governor Al Smith; Sweet Child; What You Gonna Do?
SOURCES: Lomax-FSUSA 34, "Sweet Thing/Crawdad Song/Sugar Babe". Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 72-73. Randolph 443, "Sweet Thing;" Sharp/Karpeles-80E 62, "The Crow-Fish Man;" Sandburg, p. 240, "What Kin' o Pants Does the Gambler Wear;" Botkin-AmFolklr, p. 896, "Crawdad;" PSeeger-AFB, p. 86, "Crawdad;" Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 271, "Crawdad;" Silber-FSWB, p. 23, "Crawdad" p. 235, "Sweet Thing;" Mellin, Norman. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 24/4, p46b; Wilson, Mrs.. Eighty English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, MIT Press, Sof (1968), p 83 (Crow-Fish Man); Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
SAME MELODY: Back to Mexico; I Wish I Was
RELATES TO: “Back to Jericho;” "New River Train;" "Going Around the World (Banjo Pickin' Girl, Baby Mine)" "This Mornin', This Evenin', Right Now;" "Otho's Song;" "Wagon;"
NOTES: "A Major. AEAE. One part tune." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). “Crawdad” or the “Crawdad Song” is a “white blues” with three repeating lines and one answering line with the tag “honey babe/sweet child of mine”. This 16 measure “blues” form is widely known and used in many variants.
LYRICS:
You get a line and I'll get a pole, honey
You get a line and I'll get a pole, babe.
You get a line and I'll get a pole
We'll go down to the crawdad hole
Honey, oh ba-a-by mine.
Set on the bank ‘til my feet got cold, honey
Set on the bank ‘til my feet got cold, babe.
Set on the bank ‘til my feet got cold
It’s a sight to see the crawdads jump in that hole,
Honey, oh ba-a-by mine.
Yonder comes a man with a sack on his back, un-huh,
Yonder comes a man with a sack on his back, babe.
Yonder comes a man with a sack on his back,
He's got more crawdads than he can pack,
Honey, oh ba-a-by mine.
Now he fell down and busted that sack, un-huh
He fell down and busted that sack, babe.
He fell down and busted that sack,
Was a sight to see them crawdads backing back,
Honey, oh ba-a-by mine.
What did the hen duck say to the drake, honey?
What did the hen duck say to the drake, babe
What did the hen duck say to the drake,
There ain’t no crawdads in that lake,
Honey, oh ba-a-by mine.
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