Topic: White Dog Imagery?

[harriet]

Hi,

I've been working on Fred McDowell's "All the Way from East St. Louis" and I was wondering if anyone knows if  "my white dog" in the first verse is a symbol or represents something - like a companion? The lyrics are below

Me and my white dog started walking out in Jackson Park
Me and my white dog started walking out in Jackson Park
Takes a man's appetite lord hear my white dog bark
Guitar...
Hear my ...
Hear my white ...
Hear my white dog


I walked all the way from East St Louis to town
I walked all the way from East St Louis to town
Babe I did not have but  one poor lousy dime
Lord I did not
Did not have ..
But that one...
One poor lous....


Lor I believe my baby trying to slide me down
Well I believe my baby trying to slide me down
Every time I see her Lor all time doggin me round
Guitar...
Doggin me...
Doggin...
Guitar..

Thank you,
Harriet

[btasoundsradio]

i always thought it was
me and my wife done...
but I guess white dog makes more sense

i just assumed, if you hear your dog bark, it means some one's sneakin around

[harriet]

Thanks Powerline Horizon for your response. I was hoping the phrase "white dog" showed up in other blues than this and in his "You're Going to Be Sorry." but I can't find anything online about it more than those 2 examples.

[banjochris]

The Jackson Park verse shows up (probably for the first time) in Lemon's "Weary Dogs Blues," but in this case it's weary dogs instead of a white one, and probably referring to Lemon's feet.
Chris

[harriet]

http://weeniecampbell.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weary_Dogs_Blues

Thanks Banjochris,striking similarities - hard to know with Fred if he's using a lyric from someone else that he heard wrong or if he had a private meaning, or was using a lost colloquialism. His repetoire included Charley Patton and  Blind Willie Johnson, snatches  I associate with Son House so he may have heard Blind Lemon - perhaps I should take a closer look at BLJ's lyrics,

[banjochris]

It is interesting, and of course probably most Southern cities had a Jackson Park somewhere, so I'm not sure how much that helps. And of course even if Lemon originated the lyric (which I think is likely), Fred may have heard it second-hand. But the way Lemon sings "weary" I could see how it could be misheard or misremembered as "white."

[harriet]

The BLJ definitely sounds like "white dog" as you noted Banjochris and to strengthen the case for this I found the liner notes for the "Alan Lomax Recordings" and a reference to BLJ - so perhaps its imagery by misunderstanding.

http://www.culturalequity.org/ce_images/features/McDowell/GJ1007_FredMcDowell_Booklet.pdf

"At the time Fred was in his teens and had just begun playing guitar, picking out the notes one string at a time on borrowed instruments, to songs he heard locally and on records by artists like Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson."

Thanks,
Harriet