What is this blues song?

June 22, 2008 7:58 AM

Long shot - I'm looking for the title/artist/any information for a blues song that I had on a mix cd once. The song may have had "yodel" in the title, but there was no legitimate yodeling in the song. Aw shucks!

The song is a typical blues structure... but every once in a while, it breaks, and the singer says something like

Singer: Go on and yodel for us, [name]
[Name]: I ain't doing it this time!
Singer: Aw come on and yodel.
[Sound of a trombone going wah, wah wah wah]
Singer: Aw shucks!


This happens between every verse, making for a really awesome blues song. What I posted above is not actually a quote, it's just an idea of what they said. I've tried googling fragments of lyrics that I remember, I've checked almost every song on iTunes that comes up when you search "yodel", but I'm fresh out of ideas.

I know it's a long shot, but it's a really awesome song.

posted by thelastpolarbear to media & arts (7 comments total)

You've probably already done this, but did you ask the person that made the mix cd?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:06 AM on June 22

Not enough to work with here. Do you remember any other lyrics?
posted by RussHy at 10:14 AM on June 22

Well, there's no trombone, but Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash did some sessions together in '69, and did a song called "Blues Yodel #4." Bob does a little yodel at the end of each verse, and after the last one says "I ain't gonna do it one more time" and Johnny laughs and says "okay."

Where was you mamma when the train passed a shed
Where was you mamma when the train passed a shed
Standin' in my front door, wishin' to the good lord i was dead

[Bob yodels]

Johnny: "yodel one more time for me bob"

[Bob yodels]

I get my breakfast here, i get my dinner down in new orleans
I get my breakfast here, i get my dinner down in new orleans
Johnny: "right on down through burmingham"
Gonna get me a mamma lord i ain't never seen

[Bob yodels]

Johnny: "carl perkins now"

[guitar solo]

I'd rather drink muddy water, sleep in a hollow log
I'd rather drink muddy water, sleep in a hollow log
Then stay in Atlanta treated like a dirty dog

[Bob yodels]

If the house catches fire, and there ain't no water round
If the house catches fire, and there ain't no water round
Throw my trunk out the window, let the house burn on down

Bob: "I'm not gonna do it another time"
Johnny: "Okay"
"laughter"


It's a bootleg, so not on iTunes. As I say, no trombone, so you'd have to be misremembering pretty strongly for this to be it, but mefimail me if you want me to send you a copy (that goes for anyone reading this thread).
posted by roombythelake at 10:48 AM on June 22

Ah, shoot, now i see that "there was no legitimate yodelling in the song" you remembered. So close and yet so far... Good luck.
posted by roombythelake at 10:49 AM on June 22

I found the mix at my work one day, with little accompanying information. :(

My memory on the lyrics is pretty fuzzy - it may include the standard "woke up this morning, blues all around my bed" .... But when I google that, I come up with bupkiss (it's not Jimmie Rodgers).
posted by thelastpolarbear at 10:51 AM on June 22

Any idea what blues era? Is there electric guitar, or acoustic?
posted by waxpancake at 11:11 PM on June 22

Also, searching for your song led me to this video of Johnny Cash playing with Louis Armstrong on a cover of Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel No. 9." Pretty great.
posted by waxpancake at 11:21 PM on June 22