I was listening to Gus Cannon's "Poor Boy, Long Ways From Home" and was struck by the way the melody of the song switches in its last three verses to follow the widespread and well known tune "My Buckets Got a Hole In It".
Thinking about Gus' choice of this tune led me to wonder about the origins of this melody and how it ended up being almost ubiquitous in American vernacular music. It's the sort of song that is usually credited as a "traditional" and various sources have attached it to near-mythical figures like Buddy Bolden. It seems that the earliest known written or recorded version of the melody, but not the particular set of words, is a piece of sheet music from 1914 by J. Paul Wyer and H. Alf Kelley entitled "The Long Lost Blues." The second theme of the song (starting at about :36s in the youtube version) lays out the familiar melody and changes.
As far as I can tell this is the same song that was later recorded by Alura Mack and her accompanists (anyone have the discographical info for this one?)
To add another wrinkle, at some point the tune was also associated with another set of floating lyrics: "You Keep Knocking But You Can't Come In". The "You Can't Come In" lyric has a history all its own, and its not clear to me how/when it got mixed up with "My Buckets Got a Hole In It" or whether they were always attached as floating verses sung against the same (or related) melodies. In 1911 the Journal of American Folk-Lore published Howard Odum's transcription of a song he collected called ?I Couldn?t Get In? that seems to have some of the essential phrases that would show up in later versions, but its unclear what tune it might have been set too. Variations of the ?Bucket? melody certainly show up in recordings with ?Can?t Get In? in the title such as Sylvester Weaver?s 1924 recording ?I?m Busy and You Can?t Come In?:
Irene Gibbons and the Clarence Williams Jazz Band recorded another version with ?Can?t Come In? lyrics over the ?Bucket? chorus melody. Incidentally, many later records credit Clarence Williams as the writer on ?My Buckets Got A Hole In It? despite the earlier recordings. He?s also given writing credit on this song:
Also in 1928, Bert M Mays recorded a similar version singing and accompanying himself on piano:
In the same year, Tampa Red?s Hokum Jug Band recorded it as ?You Can?t Come In?
There are also instrumental recordings by early jazz bands built around the same or very similar melodies such as Louis Dumaine?s Jazzola Eight?s ?To-Wa-Bac-A-Wa? and the New Orleans Rhythm ?She?s Crying For Me Blues?, which are easy to find on youtube but I?ll omit here as I?m already crowding this post with embedded videos.
There are also examples of the ?Can?t Come In? lyric that stray further from the ?Bucket? melody, like James ?Boodle It? Wiggin?s 1928 ?Keep A Knocking? An You Can?t Get In?, which is built around a driving boogie woogie piano and seems to presage the Little Richard version. Continuing in this vein is Kokomo Arnold?s 1935 ?Busy Bootin?
The danger in conflating these tunes and sets of related lyrics is that it doesn?t reflect that several artists recorded both ?Bucket? and ?Can?t Get In? and must have viewed them as seperate songs. As mentioned above, Clarence Williams recorded each one and claimed songwriting credits on both. Alura Mack, mentioned early in the post for her recording of ?Lost Love Blues? also recorded ?I?m Busy, You Can?t Come In? accompanied by Herve Duerson on piano. Lil Johnson recorded both at separate sessions in 1935 and 1937:
By the time of Lil Johnson?s sessions, ?Keep Knockin? had made it?s way into Western Swing and been recorded by Milton Brown and HIs Brownies in 1936 and Bob Wills in 1938.
In 1939 Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five recorded it in a smooth Jump Blues style:
Speaking of late ?30s versions of these tunes, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the 1937 Washboard Sam recording of ?Bucket? with Punch Miller on trumpet:
I won?t attempt to document or even list all the subsequent recordings from 1940 onward, as that?s a bit of a monumental task. ?Bucket? and ? Can?t Come In? will probably forever be associated in the public consciousness with the 1950s recordings by Hank Williams and Little Richard respectively, and most of the subsequent recordings of these songs followed in the molds they set. The speculation around William?s version is that he might have learned it from a black shoe shine man called ?Tee Tot? who influenced his early guitar playing and singing. Little Richard?s version initially credited him as the writer but was later amended to Bert M Mays and Mayo ?Ink? Williams. His rollicking boogie rock version sort of splits the difference for me between ?Boodle It? Wiggins take and Louie Jordan?s more sedate later rendition.
I typed this all up a bit hastily this morning so I?ll go back and edit as I notice the errors, but I apologize for the rambling nature of the post. There?s a lot of ground to cover with these two songs! I?ll also try to work up a version and make a video if I get the time, and I look forward to other versions from anybody who has the time to record one.
Pete
Thinking about Gus' choice of this tune led me to wonder about the origins of this melody and how it ended up being almost ubiquitous in American vernacular music. It's the sort of song that is usually credited as a "traditional" and various sources have attached it to near-mythical figures like Buddy Bolden. It seems that the earliest known written or recorded version of the melody, but not the particular set of words, is a piece of sheet music from 1914 by J. Paul Wyer and H. Alf Kelley entitled "The Long Lost Blues." The second theme of the song (starting at about :36s in the youtube version) lays out the familiar melody and changes.
As far as I can tell this is the same song that was later recorded by Alura Mack and her accompanists (anyone have the discographical info for this one?)
To add another wrinkle, at some point the tune was also associated with another set of floating lyrics: "You Keep Knocking But You Can't Come In". The "You Can't Come In" lyric has a history all its own, and its not clear to me how/when it got mixed up with "My Buckets Got a Hole In It" or whether they were always attached as floating verses sung against the same (or related) melodies. In 1911 the Journal of American Folk-Lore published Howard Odum's transcription of a song he collected called ?I Couldn?t Get In? that seems to have some of the essential phrases that would show up in later versions, but its unclear what tune it might have been set too. Variations of the ?Bucket? melody certainly show up in recordings with ?Can?t Get In? in the title such as Sylvester Weaver?s 1924 recording ?I?m Busy and You Can?t Come In?:
Irene Gibbons and the Clarence Williams Jazz Band recorded another version with ?Can?t Come In? lyrics over the ?Bucket? chorus melody. Incidentally, many later records credit Clarence Williams as the writer on ?My Buckets Got A Hole In It? despite the earlier recordings. He?s also given writing credit on this song:
Also in 1928, Bert M Mays recorded a similar version singing and accompanying himself on piano:
In the same year, Tampa Red?s Hokum Jug Band recorded it as ?You Can?t Come In?
There are also instrumental recordings by early jazz bands built around the same or very similar melodies such as Louis Dumaine?s Jazzola Eight?s ?To-Wa-Bac-A-Wa? and the New Orleans Rhythm ?She?s Crying For Me Blues?, which are easy to find on youtube but I?ll omit here as I?m already crowding this post with embedded videos.
There are also examples of the ?Can?t Come In? lyric that stray further from the ?Bucket? melody, like James ?Boodle It? Wiggin?s 1928 ?Keep A Knocking? An You Can?t Get In?, which is built around a driving boogie woogie piano and seems to presage the Little Richard version. Continuing in this vein is Kokomo Arnold?s 1935 ?Busy Bootin?
The danger in conflating these tunes and sets of related lyrics is that it doesn?t reflect that several artists recorded both ?Bucket? and ?Can?t Get In? and must have viewed them as seperate songs. As mentioned above, Clarence Williams recorded each one and claimed songwriting credits on both. Alura Mack, mentioned early in the post for her recording of ?Lost Love Blues? also recorded ?I?m Busy, You Can?t Come In? accompanied by Herve Duerson on piano. Lil Johnson recorded both at separate sessions in 1935 and 1937:
By the time of Lil Johnson?s sessions, ?Keep Knockin? had made it?s way into Western Swing and been recorded by Milton Brown and HIs Brownies in 1936 and Bob Wills in 1938.
In 1939 Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five recorded it in a smooth Jump Blues style:
Speaking of late ?30s versions of these tunes, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the 1937 Washboard Sam recording of ?Bucket? with Punch Miller on trumpet:
I won?t attempt to document or even list all the subsequent recordings from 1940 onward, as that?s a bit of a monumental task. ?Bucket? and ? Can?t Come In? will probably forever be associated in the public consciousness with the 1950s recordings by Hank Williams and Little Richard respectively, and most of the subsequent recordings of these songs followed in the molds they set. The speculation around William?s version is that he might have learned it from a black shoe shine man called ?Tee Tot? who influenced his early guitar playing and singing. Little Richard?s version initially credited him as the writer but was later amended to Bert M Mays and Mayo ?Ink? Williams. His rollicking boogie rock version sort of splits the difference for me between ?Boodle It? Wiggins take and Louie Jordan?s more sedate later rendition.
I typed this all up a bit hastily this morning so I?ll go back and edit as I notice the errors, but I apologize for the rambling nature of the post. There?s a lot of ground to cover with these two songs! I?ll also try to work up a version and make a video if I get the time, and I look forward to other versions from anybody who has the time to record one.
Pete