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Greasy Coat
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia.
ARTIST: From Kuntz: A Fiddler’s Companion;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Old melody; Lyrics from 1800’s;
RECORDING INFO: Greasy Coat- Folkways FTS 31062, "Ship in the Clouds: Old Time Instrumental Music" (1978. Learned from Burl Hammons, Pocahontas County, West Virginia). Cahan, Andy; Laura Fishleder and Lisa Ornstein. Ship in the Clouds, Folkways FTS 31062, LP, cut# 12; Diller, Dwight; and John Gallagher. Piney Woods, Diller YP-007, Cas (199?), cut#B.04; Hammons, Edden. Edden Hammons Collection, Sound Archives 001, LP (1984), cut# 15 (Old Greasy Coat); Hammons Family. Shaking Down the Acorns, Rounder 0018, LP (197?), cut# 17; Juggernaut String Band. Greasy Coat, Wildbeest WB004, LP (198?), cut# 2.
RECORDING INFO: Pretty Crowing Chicken- Armstrong Family. Wheel of the Year. Thirty Years with the Armstrong Family, Flying Fish FF 70594, CD (1992), cut#20; Presnell, Hattie. Traditional Music of Beech Mountain, NC, Vol I, Folk Legacy FSA-022, LP (1964), cut# 14; Proffitt, Frank. High Atmosphere, Rounder 0028, LP (1974), cut# 4; Schwarz, Tracy and Eloise. Down Home, Folkways FTS 31052, LP (1978), cut#B.05
OTHER NAMES: "Old Greasy Coat" RELATED TO: Pretty Crowing Chicken (Grey Cock); Willie Moore
SOURCES: Kuntz: A Fiddler’s Companion; Ruthie Dornfeld [Phillips]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1), 1994; pg. 102.
NOTES: A Dorian. Standard. ABCC. “Greasy Coat” is related to the “Willie Moore” songs and “Pretty Crowing Chicken” (Frank Profitt). According to Sandy Patton, "Pretty Crowing Chicken" sung by Hattie Presnell of Beech Mountain, NC is a version of "Grey Cock" or, "Saw You My Father" [Child 248].
According to one fiddler Greasy Coat had words like:
"I don't drink and I don't smoke and I don't wear no greasy coat.
I don't smoke and I don't chew and I don't mess with those that do."
And also spontaneously made up at the time of singing, like
"I don't shout and I don't yell and I don't go with boys that smell." [Mudcat Forum]
From Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc: There are several meanings for the term 'greasy coat.' It is an old-time euphemism for a condom, but it has also been suggested the term refers to an unwashed fleece (i.e. still retaining the lanolin), and a Confederate soldiers coat, worn, greasy and dirty from overuse. A verse attached to the tune goes:
Well I don't drink and I don't smoke,
And I don't *mess with the greasy coat
*'wear no' is sometimes substituted for 'mess with the')
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