a winin' boy brings food and drinks to the prostitutes in the Fauberg district of old New Orleans..first brought to our attention by Jelly Roll Morten in his song "Winin' Boy Blues"...Ian Buchanon did a wonderful rendition of this tune on guitar for the Blues Project (Electra Records, 1967)..in which he capos up on the 3rd fret and plays in the c position(basic E-flat Major)..chezztone does this song using the naughty lyrics of Morton, but uses his own arrangement..take care..richd
a winin' boy brings food and drinks to the prostitutes in the Fauberg district of old New Orleans..first brought to our attention by Jelly Roll Morten in his song "Winin' Boy Blues".
This song was a must learn back in the '60's among the bunch of guitar pickers I hung with then and one of the better pickers sited Morton as the source. It was understood that piano often served as the model for guitar arrangements among that group. Made for some dern tough pieces back then.
Just going back to the debate over the origins of the phrase "winin' boy", I recently picked up "Jelly Roll Morton Library of Congress Recordings Vol 2 - Anamule Dance" at a used shop, and in the notes by James Dapogny there's another explanation (of sorts) of winin' boy.
"...he explained that this 'smutty' set of lyrics was there partly to make clear that although he played piano, which some in his youth said was a lady's instrument, he was no sissy. And perhaps the fact the his friend and idol Tony Jackson was homosexual had something to do with it too. 'Windin' Ball', another sexual reference, was Morton's earlier alias, before he came to be called 'Jelly Roll', and it's a short leap of New Orleans pronunciation from 'Windin' Ball' to the more cryptic 'Winin' Boy'."
So there you go. Winding Ball, just to complicate things.
BTW, the four-part version of Make Me a Pallet on the Floor included in these recordings would make Lucille Bogan blush. I mean, it's rude.
BTW, the four-part version of Make Me a Pallet on the Floor included in these recordings would make Lucille Bogan blush. I mean, it's rude.
And I guess as would the rendition of Winin' Boy transcribed on pages 169-70 by Paul Oliver in his chapter The Blue Blues in his book Screening The Blues.
Sheeesh. I'm posting something new to this 11 years after the initial discussion...
...But I'd like to add to the confusion about the possible etymology of "Winin' Boy".
I remember reading quite a long time ago that this was actually a variation (or corruption) of the term "Winning Boy". I also vaguely remember that it had something to do with piano players employed in Storyville brothels to provide musical accompaniment to, well, the "act", these players being located in a small area of the "crib" separated by a wall. The player would look through a peephole and try to provide appropriate music for what was happening at any given time. I don't recall why these musicians were called "Winning Boys", but JRM was employed as one early in his musical career. I also don't remember why or how the term got corrupted to "Winin'".
Caveat: Just want to state here that I'm almost positive I have some (maybe almost all) of this wrong, but I'm almost sure the etymology of the term is discussed in Lomax' bio on JRM, Mister Jelly Roll--which is a great read. So if you stumble across this and your interest in piqued, check out the source.