Topic: The Ducks Yas yas yas - Tampa red/ stump johnson

[ragebowler]

I have been listening to blues all my life and at this point there is few slang or metaphors i haven't heard.
The Ducks Yas Yas Yas is full of them and I would love to know more about this song.

I certinalyy get the "yas yas yas " bit but,
rooster soup? big white tub? Georgia rub?


Hmm...
Mama bought a rooster, she thought it was a duck
She brought him to the table with his legs straight up
In came the children with a cup and a glass
To catch the licker from the yas-yas-yas

Babe oh babe, have you ever been to Spain
These old voodoo wimmen shakin' their thing
They got rings on their fingers, bells on their toes
What they got, baby, nobody knows

I'm goin' down, Market Street
Where the men and wimmen all do meet
That's where the men do the Georgia Rub
The wimmen fall in line with a big white tub

Me and my gal walkin' down the street
She caught the rheumatism in her feet
She stooped over to pick some grass
And the same thing struck 'r in the yas-yas-yas

You catch the train you call "Forty Nine"
Carries you down to Caroline
You catch the train you call "Forty Eight"
Takes you right in to the Golden Gate


You shake your shoulders, you shake 'em fast
You can't shake your shoulders shake your yas-yas-yas
Drink some rooster soup before goin' to bed
Wake up in the mornin' find your own self dead

Down on Morgan there's a good location
Right there next to a gasoline station
That's where you get your cars oiled and greased
Wimmen cryin' "Honey won't you come in please"

I'm goin' to sing this verse, ain't gonna sing no mo'
Somebody's knockin' on my do'
The people upstairs have gone to bed
I better stop that noise 'fore they crash my head

[Stuart]

From the context, "the Georgia Rub" sounds like he's referring to a dance. Where you have "big white tub," I hear "big wash tub." As for "rooster soup," I found a cleaner version, slowed it down a bit and that's what it sounds like to me--soup made from a rooster. It could simply be another instance of fanciful or nonsensical lyrics. It wouldn't be the first time.

[Blues Vintage]

Georgia Rub - evidently, a term for sexual intercourse, with "washtub" serving as a song euphemism for female genetalia. (Barrelhouse Words, Stephen Calt)

I highly recommend that book along with Robert Cremer's "Secret Language of the Blues" (I was surprised to see it is already out of print)

Welcome to Weenie Campbell.

[Stuart]

Hi Blues Vintage: You very well may be correct, but when I read the lyrics and listened to the song, "Georgia Rub" struck me as more akin to Big Bill's "Saturday Night Rub." Bo used it in "Let's Get Drunk Again," so that's definite evidence with respect to "rub" and "tub," but in this case I'm not 100% certain. It's not the tightest set of lyrics I've heard, so I'm open to various possibilities.

As an aside, a late friend of mine worked as a bartender in a nightclub for several years. He would refer to it as "The Double D Double F Shift," referring to the clientele's favorite activities. --"Drink, Dance, Fight and Reproduce" (Conforming to forum rules)