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Cedar Creek Sheik Lyrics

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Johnm:
Hi all,
Philip McCutcheon, the "Cedar Creek Sheik", recorded "Watch The Fords Go By" on June 15, 1936, at a productive session in Charlotte, NC that yielded 10 titles.  The song is a waltz, and McCutcheon backs it in C position, standard tuning, with a simple "boom-chang-chang" accompaniment.  McCutcheon's songs are quirky enough that it seems a bit amazing that they were commercially recorded.  His lyrics offer some insight into his private universe, in which he resided, equally obsessed with Fords and Miss Etta Prince.  He is simultaneously nutty (I would say knowingly so) and droll.  The way he works actual words into the phonetics of his yodeled refrains is really clever.  I'd venture to say his use of the word "piazza", pronounced "pie-as-uh", is its only appearance in Country Blues or Old-Time lyrics.  All of the Cedar Creek Sheik's titles can be found on the second JSP set of the Complete Blind Boy Fuller.  Here is "Watch The Fords Go By":

 

   Rock-y-bye, little baby
   Come close your pretty blue eyes
   Set up in your cradle
   And watch the Ford go by
   REFRAIN:  Oh-de-lay-di-ay, de-lay-di-oh, de-lay-ee

   Some folks prays to the altar [SPOKEN: Where you pray?]
   I pray in the middle of the road
   I ask the good Lord from Heaven,
   "Lord, give me a John Henry Ford."
   REFRAIN:  I want a vee-eee-eight, vee-eee-eight, right now, please

   If I ever gets any money
   And get my record all straight
   I'm gwine to put my money
   In one o' these Ford V-8s
   REFRAIN:  I want a vee-eee-eight, vee-eee-eight, right now, please

   Now, Sue's somewhere in Charleston
   And I know she 'bout to be convinced
   If the Lord in Heaven would let me
   I'd married Miss Etta Prince
   REFRAIN:  She's a lay-eee-ay, de-la-dy-oh, de-la-dy

   I'm goin' right to Mr. John Henry [SPOKEN: Mr. John Henry Ford!]
   And get right down on my knees
   I'm gwine ask the captain,
   Please hire me, if you please.
   REFRAIN:  Sing on the ra-di-o, ra-di-o, ra-di"

   Now, rock-y-bye, little baby
   Won't you close your pretty blue eyes
   Now, set up in your cradle
   And watch the Ford go by
   REFRAIN:  Oh-de-lay-dee-oh, de-lay-dee-oh, de-lay-ee

   Now, listen to me, mother
   My loved one, now don't you cry
   Stay right in your piazza
   And watch the Ford go by
   REFRAIN:  Oh-de-lay-dee-ay, de-lay-dee-oh, de-lay-ee

All best,
Johnm
   
   
     

dj:
What's with "Mr. John Henry Ford"?  He came up recently in an Ed Bell lyric.  Mr. McCutcheon uses the name in other songs.  It's always referring to Henry Ford who, as far as I can find out, didn't have a middle name and went by just "Henry Ford".  Is it just a conflation with John Henry, or is something else at work there? 

Johnm:
I know what you mean, dj.  I recall the Ed Bell lyric in which he talked about John Henry Ford, and it being on a particularly whupped recording, "Rosca Mama Blues".  If nothing else, the Cedar Creek Sheik's use of the same name for Ford would seem to corroborate your hearing of "John Henry Ford" in the Ed Bell lyric.  As for it's significance or origin, I don't really have a clue.
All best,
Johnm

Rivers:
Probably a private joke  8)

uncle bud:
The Cedar Creek Sheik tracks are also on the Document set "Never Let the Same Bee Sting You Twice". The notes mention that there has long been debate about whether McCutcheon was black or white, with the notes and Blues and Gospel Records (by including him) siding on the black side of the debate. He sure sounds white to me. Has any further evidence ever turned up?

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