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Rubber Dolly
Bluegrass/Old Time Rag; USA, widely known.
ARTIST: Ella Fitzgerald; Lyrics are attributed to "Werner/Werner"
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Early 1900’s; My Creole Belles by Lampe 1900; Rubber Dolly late 1800’s
RECORDING INFO: Atkins, Chet. Chet Atkins and his Guitar, RCA Camden CAS 659(e), LP (1964), trk# A.04 Brower, Cecil (Cousin Cecil). Old Fashion Country Hoedown, Cumberland MGC 29500, LP (196?), trk# B.03 Campbell, Scott. Campbell Family. Champion Fiddlers, Fretless 101, LP (1977), trk# B.13 Choates, Harry. Western Swing. Historic Recordings by Bob Wills, Lightcrust..., Old-Timey LP 105, LP (1966), trk# 15 [1948ca] Clark, Ken. Fiddlin' Country Style, Wyncote W-9077, LP (1964), trk# A.04 (Dobro Dolly) Johnston, Don. I Am a Fiddler, Johnson, LP (198?), trk# B.01 Kizzar, Tim. In an Arizona Town, AFF AFF 33-3, LP (197?), trk# 19 [1960s?] Landress, Bud (George Oscar). Southern Dance Music, Vol. 2, Old-Timey LP 101, LP (1965), trk# 13 [1929/11/21] Landry, Ned. Best of the Country Fiddlers, RCA Camden CL-50027, LP (196?), trk# 8 Mainer, Wade; and Mainers Mountaineers. Wade Mainer and the Mainers Mountaineers, Old Homestead 90002, Cas (1971), trk# A.02 Myers, Clem. Clem Myers. Northeast Regional Oldtime Fiddle Champion 1967..., Fretless FR 103, LP (1974), trk# A.06 Rector, Red. Red Rector, Old Homestead 90023, LP (1973), trk# 10 Skyles, Bob; and his Skyrockets. Operators' Special, String STR 807, LP (1979), trk# A.08 [1938/04/04] Walker, Wiley; and Gene Sullivan. Wiley and Gene. Radio Favorites, Vol 1., Old Homestead OHCS 188, LP (1988), trk# 15 [1939/09/05] (Little Rubber Dolly) Wanzer, Loyd. Famous Country Fiddling, American Heritage AH-401-19C, LP (197?), trk# B.01 White, Bob; and Clyde Brewer. Seven Come Eleven, Stoneway STY 141, LP (197?), trk# B.01
RELATED TO: “Rubber Doll/Dolly (Rag);” “My Creole Belle/Belles;” "My Bucket's Got a Hole In It"
OTHER NAMES: Rubber Doll/Dolly (Rag) My Creole Belle/Belles
SOURCES: Charley Hughes (New York State, 1973) [Bronner]. Bronner (Old-Time Music Makers of New York State), 1987; No. 40, pgs. 146-147 (includes variations). Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989; pg. 37. CMH Country Classics 9027, Johnny Gimble- "Texas Fiddle Collection," 1981. Disc D110, Woody Guthrie- "Hard Travellin.'" Old-Timey LP-101, Uncle Bud Landress "Old Time Southern Dance Music." Old-Timey LP-105, Harry Choates- "Western Swing."
NOTES: Back Up Push and Rubber Dolly evolved from the melody of Jens Bodewalt Lampe’s piano rag with song lyrics, “My Creole Belles” which was published in Detroit, Michigan by Whitney-Warner in 1900. It was the melody to the second strain by J. B. Lampe (1869-1929) that became popular during the early 1900’s.
Georgia Yellow Jack hammers, “Rubber Dolly Rag” set the standard for other versions to follow: “Ironically, Landress chose not to play his fiddle at what turned out to be a high profile recording when it was reissued more than half a century later on an anthology entitled Folks, He Sure Do Pull Some Bow!: Vintage Fiddle Music 1927-1935. Instead, a guest fiddler named Andrew Baxter who happens to be black is featured, while Landress stands around making mock radio announcements. Since this collection is a study of early black country fiddlers, it would have been inappropriate for Landress to play, although nobody could have predicted that at the time. Nobody needed to predict such a seperation, anyway--as a white band from Gordon County, North Georgia, the Georgia Yellow Hammers full well knew about the formal segregation of white and black bands. This recording is considered one of the rare documentations of these two worlds entering each other's forbidden zones, even if Landress did happen to leave his fiddle in his lunchbox that day.
Landress has achieved fame on many other levels. His interpretation of "Rubber Dolly Rag", a fiddle tune that for many represents the essence of nostalgia for the good old days, is considered the standard, at least to the point where it is Landress that grabbed songwriting credit for the piece when it was covered by country stars such as western swing bandleader Bob Wills or guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins. Merle Haggard wrote a song about the song, "Uncle John", and Captain Beefheart liked "Rubber Dolly Rag" so much that the original recording made it onto a compilation entitled Gimme Dat Harp Boy which purports to be a flattened, miniaturized vision of Beefheart's Desert island jukebox.”
From Ceolas: RUBBER DOLLY (BREAKDOWN) [1]. AKA - "Rubber Dolly Rag." AKA and see "Back Up and Push." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Texas, Arkansas, North Carlolina, Virginia, New York State. C Major (Phillips): A Major (Bronner). Standard or AEAE (for A Major version). AA (Bronner): AA'BB' (Phillips). The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.
RUBBER DOLLS [2]. American, Two-Step (?). USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard. AA'BB'. The 'B' part is recognizably the main phrase of the standard "Rubber Dolly" tune. Source for notated version: John Filby (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1947; learned from fiddler "Tunge" Everly, Greene County) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 125, pg. 69.
RUBBER DOLLY [3]. Canadian, Reel. A Major. Standard. AA'BC. A mish-mash of a tune incorporating "Fireman's Reel" ('A' part), the first phrase of "Rubber Dolly" ('B' part), and a tune similar to the 'B' part of "Woodchoopers Reel" ('C' part). Source for notated version: transplanted French-Canadian fiddler Omer Marcoux (Concord, N.H.), learned from his brother in Montreal [Miskoe & Paul]. Miskoe & Paul (Omer Marcoux), 1994; pg. 8.
Bronner also says the tune has a similarity to an older British Isles melody called "Lord Alexander's Reel/Hornpipe," though he must have consulted other versions of the melody for his sources' version is somewhat obscure. It has been a favorite Texas or western swing piece in the 1930's and 40's, and has also been collected in the northeast. Source for notated version:
ORIGINAL LRYICS by J.B. Lampe:
I love her well,
Around my heart she cast a spell
When stars do shine
I call her mine
My dusky baby, my Creole Belle.
From Ceolas: According to Bronner (1987), "Rubber Dolly" was first collected as a Anglo-American children's game with the following words or variants (which may have come from a music-hall song of the 1890's):
Lyrics to: Ella Fitzgerald's "My Wubba Dolly"
My mommy told me if I was goody
That she would buy me a wubba dolly.
So don't you tell her I kissed a feller
Or she won't buy me that wubba dolly.
I know I've been up to tricks.
Ooh, oh, I'm in a fix.
I want that dolly. Indeed I do.
But what a feller! I want him, too.
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