Track 9: Yellow Dog Blues

Posted by Benson

Railroads have always been an integral part of the blues; not only in inspiring the boogie rhythms of countless rural guitarists, barrelhouse pianists and horn blowers, but also the lyric content of the blues singer.  On track 9, Tuba Skinny performs a song that features one of the most famous southern railroads: Mississippi’s so-called “Yellow Dog”.  Yellow Dog Blues was written by W. C. Handy, the Father of the Blues, and recorded by Bessie Smith in 1925.

According to Handy, in 1903 he heard a lean, raggedy, black guitarist playing in railroad depot in Tutwiler, Mississippi.  Handy heard the man singing of going to the place where the “Southern cross the Yellow Dog”.  For those of you that don’t know turn of the century railroad slang, the “Southern” was the Southern Railway which began operations in 1894.  The "Dog" was the Yellow Dog, a vernacular name for the Yazoo Delta Railroad.  “Dog” or “short-dog” was railroad slang for a local or branch line.  Handy’s story about how the Yazoo Delta railroad acquired the name “Yellow Dog” goes something like this:

When a black trackside worker was asked what the name of the railroad was, the man looked up at a nearby locomotive and, seeing the initials “Y.D.” on the tender, replied, “Yaller Dawg, I guess.”

Unfortunately, Handy’s anecdote never explained why the worker’s best guess was “Yaller Dawg,” but we can take a guess.  The Yazoo Delta was, in fact, a branch line, or “Dog” in the local slang, and it turns out that the Yazoo Delta locomotive was yellow.  In other words, hanging around a Yazoo Delta rail line in 1903, the initials “Y.D.” could as easily have stood for Yaller Dawg as Yazoo Delta.

It also turns out that the Southern railroad did indeed cross the “Yellow Dog” in the town of Moorhead, Mississippi in the Yazoo River Delta, making Moorhead the place where the “Southern cross the Yellow Dog.”

Written for the vaudeville stage, the song I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone? was first popularized by Sophie Tucker.  The lyrics tell of a woman named Susie Johnson who bets on a horse race using a tip from a swindler named Jockey Lee, who subsequently runs off with her money.  It is most noted for its performance in a 1933 movie, She Done Him Wrong, in which it was sung, quite suggestively, by Mae West.

Miss Susie Johnson is a crazy as can be

About that easy riding kid they call Jockey Lee

Now, don't you think it's funny, only bets her money

In the race friend Jockey's goin' to be

There was a race down at the track the other day

And Susie got an inside tip right away

She bet a hundred to one that her little Hon

Would bring home all the mon

When she found out Jockey was not there

Miss Susie cried out in despair....

I wonder where my easy rider's gone today

He never told me he was goin' away

If he was here he'd win the race

If not first, he'd get a place

I never saw that Jockey trailing anyone before

I'm losing my money, that's why I am blue

To win a race, Lee knows just what to do

I'd put all my junk in pawn

To bet on any horse that Jockey's on

Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone

Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone

He went to put my brand new watch in pawn

I see him comin' round that turn

What a trail that man can burn

He's gonna win because my dough is on the nose

Just watch my Jockey's easy rider stance

He'll hit that home stretch, win it by a mile

I want him to win this spree

And keep a-goin' till he comes to me

Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone

Oh! I wonder where my easy rider's gone

In 1915, W.C. Handy wrote an answer song to I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone? which he called Yellow Dog Rag.  Unfortunately for Handy, Yellow Dog Rag sold poorly, so in 1919, he retiled it Yellow Dog Blues to take advantage of the explosion blues popularity.  After the song was renamed, it started selling rather well, and became a classic of the genre.

 

As an answer song, Yellow Dog Blues explains what became of Jockey Lee.  Bessie Smith recorded Yellow Dog Blues in 1925, and Erica sang a wonderful version of it at the crawfish boil.

Ever since Miss Susan Johnson lost her Jockey, Lee,
There has been much excitement, more to be;
You can hear her moaning night and morn.
She wondering where her Easy Rider's gone?

Cablegrams go of inquiry,
Telegrams go off in sympathy
Letters come from down in "Bam"
And everywhere that Uncle Sam
Has a rural delivery.

All day the phone rings, it's not for me,
At last good tidings fill my hearts with glee,
This message came from Tennessee.
Dear Sue your Easy Rider struck this burg today,
On a south-bound rattler beside the Pullman car.
I Seen him here an' he was on the hog

Easy Rider's gotta stay away,
He had to vamp it, but the hike ain't far.
He's gone where the Southern cross' the Yellow Dog.