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Uncle Bud
Bawdy old-time song, widely known. Popular in Texas and Southeastern US in the 1920’s and 30’s.
ARTIST: George Bernard
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: The melody and form of “Uncle Bud” are based on “Froggie Went A-Courting” songs which first appear in 1549 as Wedderburn's "Complaynt of Scotland." The first recording of Uncle Bud was done in 1926 by Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers.
OTHER NAMES: "O! Bud;" "Uncle Joe;" "Uncle Budd"
RELATED TO: “Birmingham;” “Froggie Went A-Courtin’;”
SOURCES: MWheeler, pp. 95-97, "Uncle Bud" (1 text, 1 tune) Roud #10035
RECORDING INFO: Anonymous singer, "Uncle Bud" (on Unexp1) Grant & Wilson, "Uncle Joe" (QRS, 1929) (Decca, 1938) Booker T. Sapps, "Uncle Bud" (AFS 370 A1, 370 A2, 1935) Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Uncle Bud" (on Columbia 15221-D, 1928) Puckett, Riley. Riley Puckett Story, Roots RL-701, LP (1971), trk# 4 [1924-26] Skillet Lickers. Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, Rounder 1005, LP (1973), trk# 4 [1927/10/31] Kenny Hall;
NOTES: Typical lyrics include Uncle Bud's sexual exploits and anatomy: "Oh, Uncle Bud goin' down the road, Haulin' women by the wagon load, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud."
"Uncle Bud", titled "O! Bud", is found in the 1928 "Six New Negro Songs with Music" article by Nicolas Joseph Hutchingson Smith in the Follow the Drinkin' Gou'd journal of the Texas Folk-lore Society 1928. A six stanza bawdy "Uncle Bud" with music can be found on pgs 249-50 of Roger Abrahams' "Negro Folklore in South Philadelphia" unpublished 1962 dissertation.
Here are two references to Uncle Bud: Hart Stilwell, "Border City" (1945): "He was singing a little ditty about Uncle Bud trying to look like a Jersey bull--a ditty calculated to bring conversation in a mixed crowd to a dead halt in a hell of a hurry."
N.Y. Times, June 1, 1998: "Mr. Wolfe still has to complete the last chapter of his 700-page-plus novel, which only recently was given the title of 'A Man in Full.' The name was inspired by a South Georgia or North Florida folk song, which Mr. Wolfe recited with zest to the conventioneers: Uncle Bud was a man in full. He had a back like a Jersey bull. He didn't like taters. He didn't like pears. He's got a gal that's got no hairs."
Meade lists Uncle Bud as a subtitle under “Froggy Went A-Courtin’.” The Skillet Lickers' 1926 recording and also Kenny Hall’s version both stay close the “Froggy Went A-Courtin’” form and melody:
Where will the wedding supper be? Uncle Bud
Where will the wedding supper be? Uncle Bud
Where will the wedding supper be?
Way down yonder in a Holler tree, Uncle Bud.
The same form is found in the Crawdad/Baby Mine songs. Both Hall and Tanner include lyrics that can be found in the “Foggy” songs and neither version is bawdy with sexual lyrics. The Skillet Lickers version features the fiddle hence the inclusion under “fiddle tunes.”
The song is also found in the African American tradition as a work song with bawdy lyrics and a slightly different form. Many of the African American versions were known as jook songs; songs that were inappropriate for polite company. These versions usually use two lines that rhyme followed by the refrain:
Uncle Bud's got corn that sure needs shuckin'.
Uncle Bud's got gals that sure needs fuckin'
Uncle Bud Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud.
(Zora Neale Hurston’s version American Memory Collection)
A great blues type version can be heard online at The Library of Congress American Memory Collection which features a recording of Zora Neale Hurston singing this song (and the above lyrics). She was already a published novelist, and working for the Federal Writers' Project in Florida when she made this recording in 1939.
Zora Neale Hurston: Uncle Bud is not a work song. It's a sort of social song for amusement, and it's so widely distributed, it's growing all the time by incremental repetition, and it is known all over the South. No matter where you go, you can find verses of Uncle Bud, and it's a favorite song, and the men get to workin' in ev'ry kind o' work, and they just yell down on Uncle Bud, and nobody particular leads it. Ever'body puts in his verse when he gets ready, and Uncle Bud grows and grows and grows.
Several bawdy versions have been recorded, most notably Texan songster, George Bernard (1981 Various Artists 'Just Something My Uncle Told Me: Blaggardy Folk Songs from the Southern United States' Rounder Records O1410) and Gary B.B. Coleman 'Too Much Weekend' Ichiban Records ICH-1140-CD. In Coleman’s version Uncle Bud is even too much for the Devil:
Uncle Bud he died and he went to hell
He grabbed Tom Devil and he fucked him well
All the little devils up beside the wall
[Said] release him, daddy, 'fore he fuck us all.
Currently there are both bawdy and clean versions in both traditions. It apparent by now that there are expletives contained in the notes and lyrics of this song. I apologize to anyone who may be offended and suggest that maybe they should worry about more important things.
Here are the lyrics to Uncle Bud by George Bernard:
UNCLE BUD As sung by a Texan songster, George Bernard, was issued on a 1981 LP produced for Rounder by Mark Wilson and Lou Curtiss: Various Artists 'Just Something My Uncle Told Me: Blaggardy Folk Songs from the Southern United States' Rounder Records O141. Wilson noted: 'George Bernard from Washington, Texas, is in his late sixties and now a Holiness preacher. Hearing Sam Chatmon perform some of his rowdy pieces at the San Diego Folk Festival induced George to come into Lou Curtiss' record shop and announce "OK, I'm going to put all this stuff down for you so you'll have it and then I'm never going to to mess with it no more". And he hasn't'. (Partial lyrics)
Oh Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, you know he's a man like this
Oh Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, you know he's a man like this
You know, he cain't get nothing from the women,
Always could do it to his fist
Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, you know he's a man and a half
Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, you know he's a man and a half
They tell me his nuts hang down just below his ass.
Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, you know he's a man and a half
Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, you know he's a man and a half
You know his nuts hang down, baby, just below his ass.
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