Topic: I Got Mine???

[CF]

Hey gang, I've downloaded a song (don't remember from where) which is a version of 'I've Got Mine' known to many of us as a Frank Stokes song . . . This version is a particulary 'racial' one with the 'N-word' thrown around liberally . . . there is a vocalist (can't tell if he's black or white), a fiddler & a guitarist I believe . . . It sounds like it's from the '20s . . . anyone know who recorded this & when? Thanks.

[Pan]

Hi CF

I think "I Got Mine" is originally an old "coon song" which might explain the N-word and/or any other racist stereotypes in the lyrics. I believe I have seen the original (politically totally incorrect)lyrics somewhere in the internet, but can't remember where.
Maybe Stokes was trying to be sarcastic while performing it?
A white (?) string band called "The Skillet Lickers" recorded a version with a fiddle in the lineup. You can hear a sample at: http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1786535/a/Skillet+Lickers+Vol.+1.htm

Hope this helps

Pan

[CF]

Hey Pan, thanks for the response . . . that isn't the version I have tho' . . . In my search here at Weenie I found mention of a song by the name of 'The Coon Crap Game' by a 'Big Boy' George Owens . . . This could be it but I can't seem to find anything about the song on the internet . . . I've relistened to the song & the lyrics seem to suggest, perhaps, that the vocalist is white & he's trying to outsmart the black men & 'get his' (I Got Mine). Pretty crude stuff. It may be a banjo & not a guitar on the song as well . . . oh yeah & I found the song & lyrics you mentioned by an Eric Blair which is lyrically real close to this version but it says it was recorded in the 50s whereas the one I'm talking about is more certainly a '20sish tune . . .

Edited to add:
Just listened to George Owens' version on amazon & it's not that one either!!

[dj]

Fiddlin' John Carson, perhaps?

[CF]

Ok, more searching here on Weenie revealed a mention & transcription of an I Got Mine, Coon Song (in the Frank Stokes lyrics thread) by a Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress in 1925 . . . The transcription by Alexi MacDonald is from the sheet music & is very close to the recorded version I have, but are still not the song I have . . . Fiddlin' John Carson? Will look into it, thanks . . .

[CF]

Dj, unless Carson recorded a later version than his '23/'24 one, it's not him either!! I'm gonna try an mp3 here (if that's alright?) & maybe that'll help . . .

[Bunker Hill]

To follow up on Pan's observations, on a historical note Newman Ivey White in American Negro Folk Songs (Harvard UP, 1928) on pages 194-198 cites numerous black versions of I Got Mine/Coon Crap Game collected between 1915-16 in Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina.

[banjochris]

Cheapfeet -- I'm 99% sure you have the Chitwood/Landress recording. I looked up "I Got Mine" in the Gus Meade hillbilly discography that organizes things by song, and the only one there that fits the instrumental description, fiddle and banjo, is that one. Bolstering that theory is the recording quality -- according to this it was recorded 11/21/24, and both Chitwood and Landress were members later of the Georgia Yellow Hammers -- the fiddling and singing on those is very similar, although they didn't record "I Got Mine."
Chris

[Rivers]

A look at B&GR left me with nothing to add other than the interesting fact that William Moore recorded I Got Mine, January '28. It was unreleased. I don't know if the masters for that session were ever found.

[CF]

Yeah Banjochris, I think it's Chitwood & Landress too having heard sound samples of them on some sites . . . sounds like same vocalist & fiddling style . . . . thanks.
Hey while we're playing 'Name That Song' I have another Stokes-like tune & I just don't know who it is . . . a wild singer, primitive & Stokes-sounding guitar part & the tune starts out like it could be a version of 'Mama Don't Allow' but the singer keeps saying 'Hey, Mama won't you take me back . . .'

[banjochris]

can you post it or a snippet of it?
Chris

[CF]

BChris I don't know how to post snippets but I can give the first lyric

'Said it makes no difference what mama don't 'low
We goan have a good time right (?) anyhow
Hey, mama don't have it here'

I know, not much help . . .
The guitar acc. is particularly Stokes/Saneish, almost like he was a part of their scene or . . . Dan Sane didn't do any solo work did he? 

[CF]

Hey all, I think I found out what tune it is . . . William Harris' 'Hot Time Blues' . . . thanks . . .