WeenieCampbell.com
Country Blues => Country Blues Lyrics => Topic started by: btasoundsradio on February 02, 2023, 12:02:50 PM
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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.
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I hear "two bullin' freight trains running side by side" in Long Train Blues. The "two" is clearer the second time he sings it.
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I agree with Ian that it is "Two bullin' freight trains runnin' side by side". and it is transcribed that way in Weeniepedia. As to how a single rider could be stolen by two trains at once, I think the implication is that he doesn't know which one she is on.
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Hi all,
In "Sweet to Mama", Frank Stokes sings essentially the same verse as Wilkins' "Long Train Blues" verse, except he makes it "two bullin' steamers" rather than "two bullin' freight trains". The taglines in both songs are the same.
All best,
Johnm
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The bull is the male alligator… sounds formidable, too. There are bull boats, trains and alligators? Someone already pointed out that the gator in the song is referred to as she, so not sure where that leaves us.
“A giant male or "bull" alligator begins bellowing in the spring to attract females and warn other suitors to stay away. For two months every year alligators fight to see who gets to court the female or "sow" alligators. Alligators can be vicious fighters during breading season. Alligators will eat almost anything, including each other; they bite and fight to eat, court, defend, or protect their territory.”
https://www.louisianaalligators.com/alligator-biology-and-behavior.html