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Johnny Booker
Traditional Old-Time Song and Breakdown; Found in US and British Isles
ARTIST: Max Hunter Collection: Johnny Booker Cat. #1065 (MFH #263) - As sung by Raymond Sanders, Mountain View, Arkansas on May 12, 1970
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: From Minstrel era (mid 1800’s), Sweeny- 1840; documented versions appear in the early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: Gus Cannon “Old John Booker, You Call That Gone” Dec. 5, 1956, Memphis, Tenn. Folkways LP 2610, 2691; Jerry Jordan [pseud. for Walter Smith], "Old Johnny Booker Won't Do" (Supertone 9407B, 1929); Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "Johnny Booker" (Decca 24214, 1947; on CrowTold01); New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Johnny Booker Won't Do" (on NLCR17, NLCRCD2) Gerald Milnes, 1999). Marimac 9000, Dan Gellert and Shoofly - "Forked Deer" (1986. Learned from the New Lost City Ramblers); Cousin Emmy (Cynthia May Carver). New Lost City Ramblers with Cousin Emmy, Folkways FTS 31015, LP (1968), cut# 14; English, Logan. American Folk Ballads, Monitor MF 388, LP (196?), cut#B.01a; Gellert, Dan; and Shoofly. Forked Deer, Marimac 9000, Cas (1986), cut#B.09;
RELATED TO: "Ease that Trouble in the Mind" Randolph 258 (1 text); "Poor Old Man" (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse- lyrics); Jawbone (lyrics) “Old Dan Tucker;” “Do, Mr. Boker, Do; “Old Johnny Bucka;”
OTHER NAMES: “Mister Booger;” “Knock John Booker;” “John Booker;” “Old John Booker, You Call That Gone,” “Whipped Johnny Booger From His Shirt Tail Down;” “JohnnyBucca,” “Johnny Bucka,” “Do Me Johnny Boker;” “Do, Mr. Boker, Do;” “Old Johnny Pigger;” “Old Johnny Pucker;” “Old Johnny Bull”
SOURCES: New Lost City Ramblers. Old-Time String Band Songbook, Oak, Sof (1964/1976), p194; Randolph 268, "Mister Booger" (2 texts 2 tunes); Lomax-FSNA 258, "Knock John Booker" (1 text, 1 tune); Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 194, "Johnny Booker" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The tune is known as a banjo/string band piece and comes from the minstrel era. “Johnny Booker” is in the repertoire of fiddler Owen “Snake” Chapman (b. 1919) who calls it, “Whipped Johnny Booger From His Shirt Tail Down” (see notes, paragraph 6). It is also known as a sea shanty and much like “Hogeye” and “Johnny Come Down To Hilo” has borrowed lyrics and melodic themes from its minstrel roots.
The Johnny Booker song is about the troubles experienced by a teamster/sailor along the way: A broken yoke, a stalled cart, etc. Chorus something like "Do, Johnny Booker, oh do, do me do, Do, Johnny Booker, oh do" or "So walk a Johnny Booger to help that nigger"
From Ceolas: Gene Winnans mentions an African-American banjo player named Gus Cannon, who worked medicine shows from 1914 to 1929. Cannon's first two tunes (learned in "strumming style") were "Old John Booker You Call That Gone" and "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," learned from "Old Man Saul" Russell, who "just played around the house for his own amusement." The musical West Virginia Hammons family had members who played this tune, as did Tygart Valley banjo players (Gerald Milnes, 1999). Marimac 9000, Dan Gellert and Shoofly - "Forked Deer" (1986. Learned from the New Lost City Ramblers).
The sea shanty versions tend to have names such as Johnny Booker/JohnnyBucca/Johnny Bucka/Dead Horse/Do Me Johnny Boker/Do, Mr. Boker, Do, while the minstrel versions tend to have names like Old Johnny Booker/Poor Old Man/Johnny Booger/ Old Johnny Booger/Old Johnny Pigger/Old Johnny Pucker.
From Traditional Ballad Index: Paul Stamler found this verse, "I went to the river an' I couldn't get across, Ease that trouble in the mind, I jumped on a log an' thought it was a horse, Ease that trouble in the mind," in a version of "Johnny Booker" in Cohen/Seeger/Wood. If so, it may be a fragment of that song. But the fragment in Randolph (quoted in its entirety above) does not appear in the "Johnny Booker" versions I've seen. And Randolph has distinct Ozark versions of "Johnny Booker."
From Fiddler Owen “Snake” Chapman (b. 1919): Way back then, people had to make their own clothes. They grew their own cotton and wove their own yarn, string and everything. And my mom said that they would use the tree barks to dye the clothes different colors. She told me the colors that you could get from different tree barks: you could get brown from walnut and purple from something else. And that's where they got that tune Whipped Johnny Booger From His Shirt Tail Down. Back when Daddy come up here, all they had to wear were these real long shirts and didn't wear pants because they had to make their own clothes. So they whipped Johnny Booger on his naked legs.
Here’s an example of the lyrics by J.W. Sweeny from 1840:
As I went up to Lynchburg town,
I broke my yoke on de coaling ground;
I drove from dare to bowling spring,
And I tried for to mend my yoke and ring.
Chorus: O Jonny Boker, help dat *po' boy do,
Jonny Boker, do.
Johnny Booker is also found in England in the early 1900’s. Here are several examples from the Mudcat Forum:
Old John Pigger:
Old John Pigger went fishing one day,
Stuck three feet right in the clay
Old John Pigger did holler and shout
As he ran for a shovel to dig himself out!
Old Johnny Bull:
Old Johnny Bull was a silly old fool
He was drunk both night and day
He swore that the hair on his head was fair
But the ruddy old stuff was grey - was grey
The ruddy old stuff was grey
From Lincolnshire before 1916- Old Johnny Poker:
Old Johnny Poker was a gay old *fellow,
And a gay old *fellow was he.
*Old Johnny Bucca:
Johnny died and went to heaven,
He got there at half past 'leven
Peter said "Johnny you're late
You'll 'ave t' bugger off cos we've got to shut the gate.
*As sung in Cornwall since time of Mervyn Vincent and Charlie Bate.
Here are the lyrics to Johnny Booker from the Max Hunter Collection:
VERSE 1: I drove down to *Lickburg town
I broke my yoke to the collar of the ground
Drove from there to ole Ike's shop
I hallered at my driver an' told 'em t' stop
Do, Johnny Booker won't you help this **sinner
Do, Johnny Booker, do.
VERSE 2: Sighed, Mr. Wright can you mend my yoke
He jumped to th bellow an' e' built up a smoke
Sighed, Mr. Wright, no time t' stay
He piked up a hammer an' he banged right away
Do, Johnny Booker won't you help this **sinner
Do, Johnny Booker, do
VERSE 3: Sighed, Mr. Wright, do you charge anything
Fer mendin' my yoke an' ring
No, says he, I never charge
Without th work is very large
Do, Johnny Booker won't you help this **sinner
Do, Johnny Booker, do.
VERSE 4: I drove from there to Andy's mill
There t' pull that little hill
I whipped my steers an' I rolled my cart
An' all I could do an' couldn't start
Do, Johnny Booker won't you help this **sinner
Do, Johnny Booker, do.
VERSE 5: I whipped my steers an' there I stayed
Till twelve a'clock, way next day
I said t' th driver, this won't do
I must push an' so must you
Do, Johnny Booker won't you help this **sinner
Do, Johnny Booker, do.
VERSE 6: I set my shoulder again the wheel
An' in the ground I screwed my heel
Then I give a mighty strain
An' all my efforts was in vain
Do, Johnny Booker won't you help this *sinner
Do, Johnny Booker, do.
VERSE 7: I set down, begin to cry
Team an' the driver, come drivin' by
Said to the driver, o pity take
Won't you help this **sinner for your conscience sake
Do, Johnny Booker won't you help this **sinner
Do, Johnny Booker, do.
VERSE 8: Yes, says he, will help thee
Took out his horses one, two, three
Wiped from my eyes, the fallin' tears
An' he hitched two horses, before my steers
Do, Johnny Booker won't you help this **sinner
Do, Johnny Booker, do.
*Lynchburg
**edited for racial concent
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