This is my second attempt at a song of the month for August! The first one I picked had already been covered expertly by banjochris in a previous SOTM posting. Last month?s posting was a piano blues posted by thomas8, and I promised him there?d be more piano this month. so here goes:
Now, I?m not one for smutty songs (honest), but the dozens is such an important feature of the tradition we all love that not only does it have it?s own Wikipedia page (here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dozens), but it also has devoted to it an excellent and very learned book by Elijah Wald (http://www.elijahwald.com/dozens.html).
Some of the versions I unearthed are not fit for a polite audience (which I know you to be), but knowing also that you can be slightly impolite if pressed, the following performances, in no particular chronological order, may be of interest.
Let?s start with Specked Red, who featured this number in his performances throughout his long career:
Memphis Minnie could perform a raunchy song with the best of them. Here is her performance from 1930:
The same year, Lonnie Johnson recorded this version, enhanced by his superb guitar playing and by slightly incongruent vocal harmonisations:
Calvin Frazier had this version in Detroit:
And over in Chicago at round about the same time, Kokomo was playing and singing it like this:
Finally for this initial post, let?s hear from Johnny Jones and Billy Boy Arnold.
Sorry for the brevity of this, but it?s my second attempt today, and anyway I know you?ll have fun exploring the other versions out there!
Cool, there are quite a few of these I haven't heard! (And that was quick, Scratchy!)
I won't post them here, but it's worth listening to Speckled Red's unexpurgated versions from the '60s -- I believe titled "The Dirtier Dozens" and "The Dirtiest Dozens." Chris
Maybe it isn't her slickest track but "New Dirty Dozen" has always been on of my favorite Memphis Minnie numbers. Something about the way she really leans into the main riff just floors me.
Censorship in art is generally a bad thing, but there's something to be said for it here. A key element in Dozens the game is the aggressively cruel aim of insulting your opponent and his immediate family until he loses his temper, (The default assumption is that the players are male.)
Part of what makes Speckled Red's song so great is that he edits out the anger, letting us enjoy the humour and just a hint of the obscenity. The other thing he did was to create a great tune.
Prof Scratchy ? or someone of the same name ? has uploaded to YouTube Jelly Roll Morton's uncensored musical impression of the Dozens. It's interesting, but not really appealing. And Morton's basic tune does no more than carry the lyrics. By contrast, Speckled Red's tune stands up as a solo piano piece. Search out for Count Basie's record.
I'm a big fan of three self-censored allusions to the Dozens. They are
Sam Chatmon God Don't Like Ugly
Quote
Say boy, where you from? You's the natural born ugliest man I ever seen. I wish I could play the dozens, but I didn't learn to count to twelve. Else I'd play the dozens with you.
I don't play no dozens Cause I didn't learn to count to twelve They tell me God don't like ugly So boy your home's in Hell
I'd like to see your mammy Your pappy too Say how come when you was born They didn't send you out to some zoo
Little Hat Jones Kentucky Blues
Quote
Well, I don't play the dozen and neither the ten 'Cause you keep on talkin', I leads you in Well you keep on talkin' till it makes me mad Well I'll tell you 'bout some mothers that your father had 'Cause I don't play the dozen, I declare man, and neither the ten
Robert Wilkins Old Jim Canan's
Quote
I'm going uptown : buy me coke and beer Coming back : and tell you how these women is They drink their whiskey : drink their coke and gin When you don't play the dozens : they will ease you in
« Last Edit: August 05, 2018, 09:32:28 AM by DavidCrosbie »
Part of what makes Speckled Red's song so great is that he edits out the anger, letting us enjoy the humour and just a hint of the obscenity. The other thing he did was to create a great tune.
Even Red's obscene versions are pretty funny. Chris
Hi all, Many thanks to Prof Scratchy for his Song of the Month choice and his initial post, setting the ball rolling, as well as making such a seamless adjustment. I've been off at Blues Week, which was a good time as always, and have yet to listen to all the posted versions, and I'll look forward to hearing them. Thanks to all who posted other versions, too. Here is one from George Mitchell's recordings, by Will Shade, which struck me as a memorable version when I first heard it.
I'd just note that Sam Chatmon's "God Don't Like Ugly" is pretty coy, professing in the refrain not to play the dozens, and then spending the remainder of the song doing precisely that! All best, Johnm
I'd just note that Sam Chatmon's "God Don't Like Ugly" is pretty coy, professing in the refrain not to play the dozens, and then spending the remainder of the song doing precisely that!
It's the coyness of 'I don't play the Dozens but...' that's always appealed to me, John.
Another singer who plays with the idea is Big Bill, heading the State Street Boys. He shares Little Hat Jones's conceit of not playing the Ten. I guess his audience would catch on to 'Put you int the Dozen if you call my name' and 'Now you keep on talking' till you make your daddy mad' with its bowdlerised rhyme 'Talk about the people both good and bad'.
Quote
Me and my baby taking a trip up North On the way we met the hail and frost Don't play the Dozen, Mama don't you ease me in
See me comin' out in the rain Put you in the Dozen if you call my name Don't play the Dozen, Mama don't you ease me in
Now I don't play the Dozen and I don't play the Ten Keep on talkin' till I ease you in Don't play the Dozen, Mama don't you ease me in
Now I can I can a drive a wheel mama and I can change a plough Been on the levee since I don't know how Don't play the Dozen, Mama don't you ease me in
Now the men on the levee hollerin' 'Way! Ho! Gee!' Women in the bottom hollerin' 'Don't you murder me!' Don't play the Dozen, Mama don't you ease me in
Now you keep on talking' till you make your daddy mad Talk about the people both good and bad Don't play the Dozen, Mama don't you ease me in
(As best I can tell, there's a subtext about an unsophisticate from the South ? where they play the Dozens. Why else 'Now I can I can a drive a wheel mama and I can change a plough' if not to poke fun at someone who's confused?)
« Last Edit: August 05, 2018, 11:07:15 AM by DavidCrosbie »
I've a feeling I may have a dumb question though, possibly due to the sheltered life I've led. When Little Hat Jones sings "Now I don't play the Dozen and I don't play the Ten" What's 'the Ten' ? A shorter version of the Dozens? And again excuse my ignorance here, but how did it get to be known as 'The Dozens' ?
The Wikipedia article contains some theories on the origins of the Dozens, but no one seems to know for sure. The Tens? Haven?t found any information on that, but assume from the context that it may have been another word game?
I've a feeling I may have a dumb question though, possibly due to the sheltered life I've led. When Little Hat Jones sings "Now I don't play the Dozen and I don't play the Ten" What's 'the Ten' ? A shorter version of the Dozens? And again excuse my ignorance here, but how did it get to be known as 'The Dozens' ?
I always assumed that The Ten was a joke. It has no more obvious meaning than The Dozen(s) does, and it rhymes with ease you in. Perhaps it suggested 'You and I know what play the Dozen means, but don't tell the Man'.
Elijah Ward discusses various theories about the origin of the name The Dozen. Most are guesses by scholars, and some were probably guesses by players who didn't actually know either.
It did come to be associated with dice, and some have used the term shooting the dozen ? in a game where double-six is the worst score. And some New Orleans kids have been heard to speak of playing the doesn'ts ? as in At least my mother doesn't .... Others claimed that the original game consisted of twelve insults by one player against twelve insults by his opponent. Speckled Red told Bob Koester that
Quote from: Koester
the dozens originated when he was a kid, that it was a kid's game: I insult twelve of your relatives, you insult twelve of mine, back and forth. The first guy who throws a punch loses.
Yet another theory claims that it refers to a slave-auction practice of selling less useful individuals in job lots of twelve.
But in each cases, the supposed 'evidence' could be just an inference from the name.
Mack McCormick did a huge amount of research then didn't publish most of it, so there may have been more evidence than we can know of to his theory of the Bible dozen. Still, two scraps of evidence make an attractive combination:
1. A rhyme for remembering the Bible ? of a type which McCormick reckons goes way back
Quote from: scrap 1
Book of Genesis got the first truth God Almighty took a ball of mud to make this earth
2. A remembered minstrel routine.
Quote from: scrap 2
FIRST PERFORMER: Book of Genesis got the first truth... SECOND PERFORMER: No you ugly thing, I got the first truth. Somebody kicked a ball of mud to let you loose
Wald sees a possible link between this and Speckled Red's God made an elephant verse and two of Sam Chatmon's verses
Quote from: God Don't Like Ugly
God took a ball of mud when he got ready to make you. When he went to make you, partner, ugly as you is, I believe it slipped out of his hand
Adam named everything they put out in the zoo I'd like Adam to be here, see what in the hell he'd name you
There are lots of song lyrics that count up to twelve. Pete Wheatstraw's One To Twelve (Just As Sho') makes the connection
Quote from: Peetie Wheatstraw
Just as sure As five and five is ten Baby I don't play no dozen Ooh-well-well And please don't ease me in
Just as sure As six and six is twelve If you ease me in the dozen Ooh-well-well I'm bound to ease you in Hell
Wald adds his own suggestion. Long before any mention of the game or the song, the phrase the dirty dozen was use for notorious army units and disreputable families. So the dirty dozen may have originally referred to the family whose members you were insulting one by one.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2018, 03:34:59 AM by DavidCrosbie »