Black eyed suzie

[Jim Nollman]

I learned this tune years ago from an old Erik Darling banjo album. Now I'm starting to play it again on mandolin. I can see possibilities for a great drone melody on the E string, when played in the key of D.

I went online yesterday, trying to find four or five verses of usable lyrics. The lyrics i found were over-the-top sexist, violent, and praised drunkeness. What i recall from the original lyrics was a young man seeking a wife and finding happiness having two daughters and farming on a plantation.

Any help locating some lyrics I'd actually feel OK about singing, would be much appreciated.

[AlanN]

Sorry, can't help with the lyrics, but check out the triplet Alan Bibey gets in the opening measures of his break on one of the Lou Reid/Terry Baucom recordings. I gave myself a black eye trying to get it http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled program...

[Jim Nollman]

i couldn't find that version on the itunes store.

[morgan]

Here's a few verses I recall from the G-rated version:

All I need in this creation
Is a pretty little girl and a big plantation



All I need to make me happy
Is two little girls to call me pappy


I first heard this song on a solo Jesse Colin Young LP called Soul of A City Boy, which I still have on vinyl. I'll try to remember to listen for some more verses tonight.

[Jim Nollman]

I remember that album. Four in the Morning., What a great song that was. We're both showing our age!!!

[AlanN]

I first heard this song on a solo Jesse Colin Young LP
A great album cover was JCY's 'Elephant Mountain'...ahem...

[Jim Nollman]

Like a lot of high quality albums from yesteryear, none of Jesses' original solo releases is available on the itunes store. You can download a more recent live version of four in the morning, but not Black Eyed Suzie. I lived in Bolinas for a long time, and met Jesse a few times. he came to one of my gigs once. That was a treat.

It's the same problem trying to find songs from another of my all time favorite groups, Amazing Rhythm Aces. Do you remember their tune: Amazing Grace was Her Favorite Song.

[hoffmannia2k7]

a clean black-eyed suzie? Blasphemy!

[morgan]

Here are the rest of the verses from the JCY version -

Up on your creek and down salt water
Some old man gonna lose his daughter


Work all day to earn my money
Somebody home to call me honey


Then we go to the Indian nation
Pretty little girl and a big plantation


It finishes with the "two little boys to call me pappy" verse. #I used to sing it to my two girls when they were little so in my mind its "two little girls."

The album was recorded in 1964, but I'm not that old - I bought the 1974 reissue. #Four in Morning is a great tune, and it was good to pull it out and listen to it again. #The old LPs mostly gather dust. #I'm also fond of "I'll Think I'll Take to Whiskey," if you remember that one. #I saw the Jesse Colin Young band (is that what they were called? I don't think they were the Youngbloods by then) play at Colby College in 1976, by which point they were pretty much of a dinosaur act, but it was a good show nonetheless.

[DryBones]

Ricky Skaggs does a version on the Live at Charleston CD. Saw the Carnegie Hall special and they tore it up on there too...if you like RS,I know some of you don't.

[DryBones]

Sorry, can't help with the lyrics, but check out the triplet Alan Bibey gets in the opening measures of his break on one of the Lou Reid/Terry Baucom recordings. I gave myself a black eye trying to get it http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled program...
this from the Baucom, Bibey, Graham & Haley CD? that triplet is crazy,sounds like a double triplet!

[swampstomper]

Vern Williams has a definitive BG version

I may get drunk, I may get woozy, but I'm going home to black-eyed Susie

I love my wife, I love my baby, love my biscuits sopped in gravy

Hey old man I want your daughter, to chop my wood and carry my water (!! traditional values ??)

All I need to make me happy, is two little boys to call me pappy

Black-eyed Susie went to town, all she wore was a gingham gown [presumably with nothing underneath - ed.]

Have fun!

[AlanN]

...
this from the Baucom, Bibey, Graham & Haley CD? that triplet is crazy,sounds like a double triplet![/QUOTE]
That's the one.

[DryBones]

Black Eyed Susie was long and tall,
Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall

[AlanN]

Black Eyed Susie was long and tall,
Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall
Ida Red was long and tall,
Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall
Ida Red Ida Red
I'm plumb fool about Ida Red

wonder If Ida and Susie were sisters http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[allenhopkins]

Some lyrics, half-remembered from years ago:

All I need in this creation, three months' work without a vacation

All I need to make me happy, two little kids to call me Pappy

One named Bill, the other named Davy, like their biscuits sopped in gravy

Susie and the boys went huckleberry pickin', the boys got drunk and Susie took a lickin'

-- Other than the last one, fairly innocuous...

[Jim Nollman]

Many thanks, guys. i think i have enough material to add the song to my repertoire. This Cafe is a great resource for old timey lyrics.

[Doug Edwards]

Here it is performed by Clear River at one of our Third Friday shows.

http://ntbbluegrass.com/media/criver13.mp3

BTW, the mandolin is the Kentucky KM250S I hot rodded for a benefit raffle last Fall.