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Georgie Buck/ Georgia Buck
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown- Southeast: Piedmont and Appalachian region, relatively rare banjo song;
ARTIST: From "The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore; the folklore of North Carolina, collected by Dr. Frank C. Brown during the years 1912 to 1943, in collaboration with the North Carolina Folklore Society"
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: Global Village C217, (Black fiddle and banjo players) Joe and Odel Thompson - "Old Time Music From the North Carolina Piedmont." Rounder CD 0382, Marvin Gaster - "Uncle Henry's Favorites."
OTHER NAMES: Georgie Buck; Barbara Buck; Old Georgie Buck;
SOURCES: "The tune was also in the repertoire of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, guitarist and banjo player Elizabeth Cotten, and was played by African-American fiddler Joe Thompson in GDGD tuning." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). American Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway. 1995); Recordings by Dick Roberts and Joe Thompson & Odell Thompson (Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40079) and Odell Thompson (Rounder CD 0439) clearly belong to Conway's banjo song genre, although a 1927 recording by The Hill Billies (reissued on Document DOCD-8041) treats it more like a regular song. A rather odd-sounding field holler version by Leonard Emanuel (Rounder CD 0071) is indicative of another way in which this song was used. Doc Watson also does a banjo version.
NOTES: "Heard in many parts of the South, but relatively rare" (Kerry Blech). The tune is known as a black Southern banjo song.
Georgia Buck belongs to what Cecilia Conway calls 'the banjo song genre'. Such songs are usually characterized by the following five musical features: 1) rhythmic and syncopated playing throughout the performance, especially when singing; 2) elaborated instrumental interludes; 3) compressed vocal lines of two or more syllables per beat; 4) occasional but irregular interruptions by instrumental interludes within the stanza; and 5) varied repetition of instrumental elements. (American Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway. 1995).
The first recorded version from 1927 by Al Hopkins and his Bucklebusters is a version of Rueben's Train with some of the lyrics adapted from Georgia Buck. The first and especially the last verse seem to come from the stock of the Georgia buck song even though they are fit into the Reuben's train form.
Georgia Buck "The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore; the folklore of North Carolina, collected by Dr. Frank C. Brown during the years 1912 to 1943, in collaboration with the North Carolina Folklore Society"
500 Georgia Buck
This is reported by Robert Duncan Bass (JAFL XLiv 434) as one of the songs of Negroes in the Pedee country. South Carolina, with the notation that it "was a favorite of some years ago" but that he has secured only a fragment (six lines) ; "the rest seems
to have been lost." Odum (JAFL xxiv 363) reports the line "Don't ever let yo' baby have her way" from the singing of Southern Negroes. The Archive of American Folk Song has a record of it made by B. L. Lundsford. See also Mrs. Steely 219 (i935);, Dr. White on one of the niamiscripts writes "Cf. Old Joe Clark," and in ANFS 337 he recalls stanzas of that song which lie heard sung by mountain whites containing the line "Never let a woman have her way." But otherwise they contain nothing of our song. It is of course not unlikely that 'Georgia Buck' is sometimes sung as part of 'Old Joe Clark,' since almost anything may be included in that song. Randolph OFS 11 307 has two stanzas from Arkansas entitled 'Barbro Buck' and cites Sharp 11 274. A girl sings of her lover in the army.
Version A 'Georgia Buck.' William B. Covington in 1913 reported the following as "reminiscences of my early youth spent in the country on the border of the sand hills of Scotland county."
1 Georgia Buck, Georgia Buck,
Georgia Buck said so :
'Go to my shack, dog on my track,
And it's nobody's business but mine.
If you don't believe I'll fight
Just follow me out tonight.
And I'll shoot you or I'll cut you, God knows.'
2 Georgia Buck, he's dead,
And de last word is said,
'Baby, let vour bangs hang low.'
(or) 'Never let a woman have her way.'
'Georgia Buck.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton as sung by Mrs. Buchanan of Horse Creek, Ashe county. Mrs. S. remarks : "This seems to be a sort of joking song — the verses are made up as the singer goes along and are usually unveiled allusions to some one in the crowd." Dr. White has noted on the manuscript: "I learned the second stanza from N. C. mountains, with similar tune, about 1911. Only it was 'Old Joe Clark.' Another stanza gave his last words as 'never let a nickel go by.' "
1) Old Georgie Buck he died.
He laughed and he cried
'Oh rock me the cradle, law, law.'
2) Old Georgie Buck is dead ;
And the last word he said :
'Don't never let no woman have her way.'
3 Georgie Buck passed away
On his own wedding day.'
'I'm shore glad to escape, boys,' he said.
' The manuscript has here "May"— presumabily a mere slip in copying.
'Georgia Buck' Obtained from Miss Jewell Rubhins (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue) of Pekin, Montgomery county, in 1922. A fragment.
I been around the ben'
And I'm gwine ter go agin,
Georgia Buck said so.
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