Traveler Into The Blue, Nov 2, 2011
Luke Jordan............Pick Poor Robin Clean....
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part V of a multi-part pancocojams series on the pre-Blues song "Pick Poor Robin Clean".
This pancocojams series presents selected online excerpts and comments about the overall meaning(s) of the song "Pick Poor Robin Clean". The sound file that is embedded in this post showcases Luke Jordan. African American vocalist and guitarist Luke Jordan was the first person to record the song "Pick Poor Robin Clean" in 1927. This song may have been sung by Luke Jordan and/or by other people before that date. Interest in this old song has been revived by its inclusion in the 2025 hit Ryan Coogler movie Sinners.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/05/geeshie-wiley-elvie-thomas-pick-poor.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases the 1931 recording of "Pick Poor Robin Clean" by Geechie Wiley and Elvie Thomas.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/05/larry-johnson-pick-poor-robin-clean.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post showcases the 1970 recording of "Pick Poor Robin Clean" by Larry Johnson.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/05/ryan-cooglers-2025-sinners-movie.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post showcases the version of the song "Pick Poor Robin Clean" that is part of Ryan Coogler's 2025 movie Sinner.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Luke Jordan for his musical legacy and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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COMMENTS ABOUT THE OVERALL MEANING(S) OF THE SONG "PICK POOR ROBIN CLEAN'
The sources for these quotes are given in no particular order and are numbered for references purposes only.
Source #1- https://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=7159.0
Meaning of Geechie Wiley lyrics
[Pancocojams Editor's Note- These letters are assigned to selected comments from that weenie campbell.com source for referencing purposes but aren't the same as the numbers that are given in that discussion thread.
I've usually presented these comments in this compilation without any quotes that were given which they are replying to. When a quote is given, I added [end of quote] in brackets and in italics to indicate that fact.]
a)
Stumblin
Re: Meaning of Geechie Wiley lyrics
December 29, 2010, 06:14:42 AM »
I'm intrigued by the origins of Pick Poor Robin Clean, it's
a great tune and the refrain seems to hint at quite a deep ancestry - to my way
of thinking anyway.
Or, it could be about the logical response to a ludicrously
undersized festive avian sacrificial meal.
Thoughts?
**
b)
dj
Re: Meaning of Geechie Wiley lyrics
December 29, 2010, 07:27:25 AM »
Quote
Or, it could be about the logical response to a ludicrously
undersized festive avian sacrificial meal.
[end of quote]
Mance Lipscomb, in I Say Me For A Parable, talks about
hunting robins and other songbirds in the winter when there wasn't much else to
eat. I've always assumed that hunting
and eating robins was, in fact, one of several layers of meaning in the song.
**
c)
Chezztone
Re: Meaning of Geechie Wiley lyrics
December 30, 2010, 01:04:25 PM »
…Re: "Pick Poor Robin Clean"...Almost all songs
are about people, even when they seem to be about animals. Sure, there could be
more than one meaning, and people have eaten robins if they managed to catch
them. But the primary meaning of this lyric (as my friend and colleague Lauren
Sheehan, who also sings this song, first explained to me) is probably about a
john (or a mark, if a man is singing it) named Robin. The protagonist wants to
pick poor Robin clean, not leave a cent on him.
**
d)
dj
Re: Meaning of Geechie Wiley lyrics
December 31, 2010, 06:06:10 AM »
"Absolutely. But why
Robin? Why not Sammy or Arthur? I think that what made the image so strong to
an audience in the days before songbirds were protected from hunting was the
memory of being poor, having no other source of protein, and picking every
morsel of the scarce meat off a songbird."
**
e)
uncle bud
Re: Meaning of Geechie Wiley lyrics
December 31, 2010, 09:03:05 AM »
"
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Source #2
https://www.elijahwald.com/songblog/pick-poor-robin/ Pick Poor Robin Clean (Larry Johnson) June 6, 2016 Elijah Wald
..."As for the song itself, there seems to be a good deal of
confusion and disagreement about what it means. The original ad for Jordan’s
version in the Chicago Defender suggests it’s about gambling, and he certainly
refers to “gambling for Sadie,” but then there’s the recurring refrain about
“I’ll be satisfied having your family” and the verse that is mistranscribed in
that ad, which is an obvious example of the dozens, the Black tradition of
verbal battling that often involved insults directed at mothers and other
female relatives:
If you have that gal of mine, I’m gonna have your ma
Your sister, too; your auntie, three
If your great-grandmammy do the shiveree, I’m gonna have her
four…”
In my book about The Dozens, now titled Talking ‘Bout Your
Mama, I note this theme and suggest that the reference to picking poor robin
clean may be similar to the French “Alouette,” which uses the metaphor of
picking feathers from a bird as a stand-in for disrobing a woman… but that’s
just a guess."...
-snip-
This post refers to a portion of a Victor Record ad about Luke Jordan singing "Pick Poor
Robin Clean. That ad is partly shown in that post and includes an illustration of two birds on either side of a dead bird (presumably a robin) laying on the ground. The birds are eating the entrails of that bird.
The ad includes these words, some of which are lyrics from Luke Jordan's version of that song and some of which are comments about that song:
.
“I picked his head. I picked his feet, I would have picked his body, but it
wasn’t fit to eat.”….
Everybody knows some snappy version of this roving song of the gambler.
“Now if you have it gentlemine, I’m gonna have your mon’…
Luke Jordan sings the rollicking words with that careless abandon the song
needs.
A deep voiced guitar rolls along in accompaniment”.
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Source #3
http://uncensoredhistoryoftheblues.purplebeech.com/2007/07/show-28-weird-lyrics.html Uncensored History of the Blues - A discussion of the best in early recorded blues.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Show 28 - Weird Lyrics
"I thought I'd take a look at a few songs that I don't really
understand but that I find very intriguing. Some of these are songs that seem
to be from the minstrel tradition and they use lyrics with meanings that are
lost to time or at least lost on me. Or maybe the songs were just always weird,
even at the time they were made.
[…]
Luke Jordan's “Pick Poor Robin Clean” features music and
lyrics, particularly the lyrics with what we now consider racist language
reveal the probable minstrel show origin of the song:
Get off my money and don't get funny
'Cause I'm a ni-ger*, don't cut no figure
Gambling for Sadie, she is my lady
I'm a hustling coon that's just what I am
But it's the chorus that features the lyrics that confuse
me:
You better pick poor robin clean
Pick poor robin clean
I picked his head, I picked his feet
Would have picked his body, but it wasn't fit to eat
You'd better pick poor robin clean
Pick poor robin clean
But I'll be satisfied having your family
It seems picking the robin is a metaphor, but I'm not sure
for what. The song was also recorded by the female duo Geeshie Wiley and Elvie
Thomas and it almost seems to take on a different meaning being sing by a
woman.”…
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in that post.
[Pancocojams Edtor's Note: That post continues with a discussion of other songs.
Comments about this post are noted using letters from the alphabet. Times but no dates are given for these comments. Presumably, they are from the same year as that post.]
a)
"Anonymous said...
Hi Mike,
Great podcast, as always.
Re: Pick Poor Robin Clean - I don't think there's a metaphor going on here... I think it's just a reference to eating birds. This seems to have been fairly common in the south; Mance Lipscomb mentions doing so in his biography.
2:59 PM"
b)
"Anonymous said...
I've puzzled over Pick Poor Robin Clean too, and came across
this post while Googling it. So, rather late in the day, here's my contribution
to the debate!
The way I see it, the speaker is gambling to get even with
someone who stole his woman (Sadie). There's plenty of overt threats
being made: "get off my money"; "don't act funny";
jaybird
suggesting the speaker is a jailbird, etc. "Pick poor Robin clean" is another,
metaphorical threat to ruin his opponent financially.
I suspect "You better pick..." is a garbled
version of what should be "You bet I'll pick...".
"I picked his head, I picked
his feet" could mean the speaker won his opponent's shoes
and hat. That the body
"wasn't fit to eat" wryly suggests he has no use for his opponent's
body
- though he'll happily take his opponent's female relatives!
6:37 PM"
c)
"
Thanks for this great post! About poor robin: check out
Ralph Ellison's great novel Invisible Man, which spends some time on this song.
After being hustled, the narrator puzzles over the song, and ultimately comes
to imagine himself as the robin being picked clean. First mention page 193 in
chapter 9.
9:04 AM"
**
d)
"Ed said...
The book "The Dozens" by Elijah Wald claims that the metaphor in "Pick Poor Robin Clean" is the same as in the French "Allouette". Picking the feathers from the bird is like removing the clothes from a lady, piece by piece.
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This concludes Part V of this pancocojams series.
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