I don't know if this has been discussed before but I've been curious about Robert Wilkins potentially interchangeable use of the words "Bullin'" or Bull an'.
In Alabama Blues he sings 2 lines:
"The bullin' alligator, she's doing the shivaree" which could be just a filler word like a sanitized expletive perhaps shortened from "bullying"? He refers to the gator as "she", so it doesn't seem like 2 different things.
He then sings:
"Tell me friend ever since that, bullin' stack been made, Kansas City Missouri been her regular trade"
Again he refers to the Stack river boat as she/her, so it's one thing which makes me think he's using the word the same way as the previous line.
In "Long Train Blues" he sings:
"It's the Bull an' freight train, runnin' side by side"
This one is different and sounds like 2 separate things. The Bull AND freight train. I always interpreted The Bull, as the Railroad Bull, or railroad cop or dick and he's following the train to apprehend it's hobo. They didn't have radios back then to talk to the conductor so he would have to follow the train as long as he could. Robert uses train/hobo/railroad lingo a lot and this wouldn't surprise me to be the correct interpretation.
But he could be using in a way I don't understand, but if it was just an expletive, it wouldn't be runnin' side by side. He ends with "THEY done stole my rider and I guess THEY satisfied". If they are different, they happen to be sang in the same cadence.
There's another example from at least one other artist that is slipping my mind right now. Maybe someone else can help me with it.
In Alabama Blues he sings 2 lines:
"The bullin' alligator, she's doing the shivaree" which could be just a filler word like a sanitized expletive perhaps shortened from "bullying"? He refers to the gator as "she", so it doesn't seem like 2 different things.
He then sings:
"Tell me friend ever since that, bullin' stack been made, Kansas City Missouri been her regular trade"
Again he refers to the Stack river boat as she/her, so it's one thing which makes me think he's using the word the same way as the previous line.
In "Long Train Blues" he sings:
"It's the Bull an' freight train, runnin' side by side"
This one is different and sounds like 2 separate things. The Bull AND freight train. I always interpreted The Bull, as the Railroad Bull, or railroad cop or dick and he's following the train to apprehend it's hobo. They didn't have radios back then to talk to the conductor so he would have to follow the train as long as he could. Robert uses train/hobo/railroad lingo a lot and this wouldn't surprise me to be the correct interpretation.
But he could be using in a way I don't understand, but if it was just an expletive, it wouldn't be runnin' side by side. He ends with "THEY done stole my rider and I guess THEY satisfied". If they are different, they happen to be sang in the same cadence.
There's another example from at least one other artist that is slipping my mind right now. Maybe someone else can help me with it.