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LAZY JOHN #1
Old-time Swing Breakdown and Song
ARTIST: Dana Robinson; The liner notes say, "Clyde Davenport of Monticello, Kentucky is the source for 'Lazy John.' The first two verses were written by Dana Robinson and the last two verses and the chorus, with some minor modifications, are Clyde's."
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1940’s
RECORDING INFO Lazy John #1: Davenport, Clyde. Puncheon Camps, Appalachian Center Ser. AC 002, Cas (1992), trk# 17 Donegan, Lonnie. Lonnie Donegan, Dot DLP 3394, LP (1961), trk# B.03 Reid, Bruce. Silberberg, Gene (ed.) / Complete Fiddle Tunes I Either Did or Did Not.., Silberberg, Fol (2005), p109 Leftwich, Brad. Say Old Man, County 2714, CD (1996), trk# 12 Molsky, Bruce Soon Be Time; Robinson, Dana On the Trade;
RECORDING INFO Lazy John #2 Related tune: Soldier, Soldier [Won't/Will You Marry Me]: Brand, Oscar; and Jean Ritchie. O Love Is Teasin', Elektra BLP-12051, LP (1985), trk# 3.06; Lomax, Alan; and the Dupree Family. Raise a Ruckus Tonight & Have a Hootenanny, Kapp KL-1316, LP (196?), trk# 5 Ritchie, Jean. Courtin's a Pleasure and Other Folk Songs of the Southern App..., Elektra EKL-122, LP (1957), trk# A.06; Ritchie, Jean. Marching Across the Green Grass and other American Children Game, Asch AH 752, LP (1968), trk# B.06
Lazy John #2 RELATED TO: Soldier, Soldier
SOURCES: Ceolas; Folk Index; Mudcat Forum; Kerry Belch notes; Jeff Titon notes; W. Bruce Reid [Silberberg]. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 88. Brad Leftwich – “Say Old Man.” NOTES: The title, “Lazy John” is a source of confusion for there are two different songs with the same name. The first Lazy John (Lazy John #1) is an old-time fiddle tune recorded in the 1940’s by Bob Wills brother, Johnny Lee Wills. Here’s a verse and chorus of this old-time swing tune:
Lazy John #1- Johnnie Lee Wills
CHORUS: Lazy John, lazy John
Won't you get your day's work all done
I'm in the shade and you’re in the sun
Why don’t you go away Lazy John.
Instrumental
Up in the mornin’ at the break of day,
Workin’ in the cotton tryin’ to earn my pay,
Later in the morning here you come along
Why don’t you go away Lazy John.
Johnnie Lee Wills version was reportedly heard by fiddler Clyde Davenport on the radio. Clyde recorded his version (probably from Wills) and others including Bruce Molsky and Dana Robinson used Clyde’s version.
The second song titled Lazy John (Lazy John #2) is directly related to the ballad, “Soldier Soldier” and a version was posted in the DT by Jean Ritchie that she recorded. The Folk Index on-line lists both together but thay are different songs.
Lazy John #2- Jean Ritchie
From the pupils of John C. Campbell Folk School- Brasstown, NC
Girls: Lazy John, Lazy John, will you marry me?
Boys: How can I marry you- no hat to wear.
CHORUS: Up she jumped and away ran
Down to the market square
There she bought a hat
For lazy John to wear.
Lazy John #1 is also a different song than “Sleepy-Eyed John” although their choruses are slightly similar. Here’s what Andrew Kuntz says about Lazy John #1: Old-Time, Breakdown. G Major. Standard. AB. From Clyde Davenport, and a largely different tune (and song) from the similarly titled “Sleepy (Eyed) John,” with only small similarities in the chorus. Source for notated version: W. Bruce Reid [Silberberg]. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 88. Brad Leftwich – “Say Old Man.”
Notes by Kerry Blech: Lazy John (fiddle tuned F#C#G#D#, which is GDAE tuned a semi-tone flat, key of F#) Clyde Davenport is Bruce Molsky’s source for this lovely “song-tune.” Clyde was born on October 21, 1921 near Mt. Pisgah, in Wayne County, Kentucky, on the Cumberland Plateau, then (and still) a hotbed of old time music. But Clyde did not have to go far to find great fiddling. His father Will Davenport, born in 1876, was a fiddler with a fine local reputation, as was Clyde’s grandfather Francis Marion Davenport. Clyde claims, however, that he never learned to play from any of his relatives, or anyone else for that matter. He repeatedly has said, “It just come to me; it’s a gift.”
Jeff Todd Titon, who recorded Clyde extensively in 1990, wrote a lovely set of biographical notes about Clyde for the Appalachian Center cassette tape Clyde Davenport – Puncheon Camps (AC002, Appalachian Center, Berea College, Berea, Kentucky). Clyde played and sang this piece on that tape. Jeff quotes Clyde in those notes “I heard this once on the radio and learned it.” Dr. Titon then proceeds to suggest that the radio source might have been Johnny Lee Wills and his western swing band who recorded a song called Lazy John on the Decca label in the 1940s (which is too late to appear in any of my discographies). I’ve not heard the Wills track, nor am I familiar with any other source renditions of this particular song-tune. Clyde still plays, at home and away, but is traveling and performing less these days. He won the National Heritage Award in 1992 and used some of the prize money to relocate from his longtime home in Monticello, Kentucky to his present abode near Jamestown, Tennessee, also on the Cumberland Plateau.
Clyde had a very nice LP on County, Clydeoscope (County 788, 1986) and also has two CDs currently in print, both issued in 2005 by the Field Recorders’ Collective (FRC 103 & 104) as Clyde Davenport, Vol. 1 & 2, from recordings made by Ray Alden and home tape recordings Clyde made himself. Perhaps more difficult to find but worth the effort are some recordings of Clyde on the LP anthology County 786, Getting’ Up The Stairs – Traditional Music from the Cumberland Plateau, volume 1: Music of the Big South Fork Area (produced by Clyde’s longtime friend and accompanist Bobby Fulcher); and two LPs on the Davis Unlimited label that feature Clyde on banjo accompanying fiddler W.L. Gregory. For the full effect, you might want to try and track down the VHS video Shades of Clyde, made by Buddy Ingram and issued on his Cedar Glade label. I don’t know if Buddy has any plans to try and issue this (and other fine tapes on his label) as DVDs, however. If Clyde appears in your area, by all means make every effort to see him in person. He had traveled and performed extensively over the years with accompanists such as Bobby Fulcher, Andy Cahan, Steve Green, Alice Gerrard and others, and currently usually has Michael DeFosche along for (ac)company, a combination not to be missed.
Notes on Clyde Davenport by Jeff Titon: Kentuckian Clyde Davenport is a master old-time fiddler and banjo player. His large repertory of traditional tunes, many of them rare, makes him an important source musician. At 85, he still plays wonderfully well. For almost twenty years old-time fiddlers and banjo players have made pilgrimages to his home in Monticello, Kentucky, to share in his music. Clyde is amused and pleased by all the attention he has received but it hasn’t seemed to change him or his music.
Clyde Davenport was born on Oct. 21, 1921 to William Francis Davenport (b. 1876) and Lucy (Boston) Davenport. He was raised on their 250-acre mountain farm near Mt. Pisgah, in Wayne County, in south-central Kentucky, on the Cumberland Plateau, near the Tennessee line. There was music in the family. Clyde remembers his grandfather, Francis Marion Davenport, in his 90s asking for his fiddle. Clyde's father Will, a thrifty farmer, who played fiddle and clawhammer-style banjo at home for his own amusement, as a teenager learned most of his fiddle tunes from neighbors, old men born well before the Civil War, and from one in particular named Will Phipps. “You'd have to beg him to play the banjo,” Clyde said of his father, “but he'd pick up the fiddle without being asked.”
Starting in his mid-teens, Clyde played for dances in the Mt. Pisgah region, traveling to play in homes for square dances every Saturday night. Often he went with one of his brothers and, because none of them played banjo, the job of banjo-playing fell to him. Clyde remained on his parents' farm until he was drafted into the infantry during World War II. Like a disproportionate number of young men from Appalachia, he saw plenty of front-line combat. He emerged uninjured at the age of 24 and returned to his parents’ farm. A few years later he went north, to work in a Chrysler automobile factory in Newcastle, Indiana, stamping numbers on shock absorber covers. He began playing the fiddle daily on a 15-minute country-music radio show in nearby Muncie but decided against a musical career. It didn't seem like work. “I wouldn't never have had to work no more, but I wanted to work. I was stout and able to work, then. Well, I was raised to work. Worked ever since I was big enough to pick up a hoe. Love to work. I had a brother'd work day and night if he could get to it. It was all of us wanted to work all the time, and me too.”
Clyde stopped playing fiddle and banjo altogether for fifteen years. If he'd continued playing professionally, he would likely have become a bluegrass fiddler or Nashville session musician and set aside his older repertoire. In 1950 Clyde married Lorene Gregory and in 1957 they moved back to Wayne County and bought a farm, growing corn and tobacco and raising cattle. Later they moved to the county seat, Monticello. In the mid-1970s folklorist Charles Wolfe produced two albums in which Clyde returned to music and played banjo behind the fiddling of W. L. Gregory: Davis Unlimited 33014 (Monticello) and 33028 (Homemade Stuff). Later in the 1970s folklorist Bob Fulcher, a banjo player, began visiting Clyde, recording him extensively, and traveling with him to festivals. More of Fulcher's recordings of Clyde are available on County 788, Clydeoscope, and on an anthology of music from the Cumberland Plateau, County 786, Gettin’ Up the Stairs.
Perhaps the most valuable pieces in Clyde’'s repertory are those he overheard from his father Will and other local fiddlers and banjo players when he was a young boy. Some of these, such as “Iowa Center,” appear to survive only in the versions Clyde plays. Many are in standard tuning, in the key of G. Also in his repertory are many regional tunes, as well as unusually fine versions of more widespread tunes, as played in the Cumberland Plateau region. Some of these came indirectly from African American fiddlers: Clyde’'s settings of “Liza Jane,” “Sally Goodin,” and “Little Boy, Where’'d You Get Your Britches” show a strong black influence. Others he got directly from banjo player Dick Burnett and fiddler Leonard Rutherford, Monticello residents who had made recordings in the 1920s and were considered the best in the county. Clyde heard them in person, often in front of the county courthouse. Clyde admired Rutherford's smooth bowing and clear noting and patterned his tone after him. A third part of his repertory consists of tunes Clyde picked up from records and radio. These include popular songs, waltzes, well-known breakdowns, religious pieces, and bluegrass tunes. Fourth, Clyde plays some old-time tunes he heard from people who visited him in recent years. But unless the tune was one his father played, Clyde seldom can identify the source. “It's no use to ask me where they came from,” he says. Clyde also sings a few ballads such as “The Soldier and the Lady” and “Omie Wise.” More of his father's tunes, particularly on the banjo, have come into his memory recently, and he has composed a few, two of which are on this album.
Clyde plays most of his fiddle tunes in standard tunings, particularly in the key of G. “The old-timers all played mostly in G,” he said. “Cross key” is Clyde's next most common fiddle tuning, which he achieves by lowering his two high strings from e to d and from a to g, obtaining GDdg. (Most old-time fiddlers achieve the same result by tuning up the two low strings, obtaining AEae.) Like most banjo players, Clyde employs several different tunings to bring out the melody on the upper strings. Banjo tunings are given here as Clyde thinks of them; the actual pitch is sometimes a half or full tone higher. Here is some information about tunings, keys and general facts of the tunes that appear on the two volume set FRC103 and FRC104, along with others from Jeff Titon's recordings of Clyde that appear on cassettes available at Berea College in Kentucky.
Here are the lyrics to Lazy John by Dana Robinson:
LAZY JOHN #1-Dana Robinson; The Trade
I got a gal, she lives up the road
Eyes are crooked and her legs is bowed
But we sure have a lot of fun
Won't you go away Lazy John
chorus: Lazy John, Lazy John
Won't you get your day's work all done
You're in the shade, I'm in the sun
Won't you go away Lazy John
Goin' to a dance on Saturday night
Goin' to dance 'til the mornng light
Then I'm gonna bring my little baby home
Won't you go away Lazy John
chorus
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