Tampa Red and Georgia Tom's 1928 Blues Song "It's Tight Like That" & Comments About The Use Of The Word "Tight" to Mean Something or Someone "Good" or "Cool"

History of Rock Music - Most powerful rock songs. Oct 9, 2017

Pre-rock roll song  "It's Tight Like That" by Tampa Red with pianist Georgia Tom (Thomas A. Dorsey), recorded on October 24, 1928, was a highly successful early hokum record, which combined bawdy rural humour with sophisticated musical technique. With his Chicago Five, Tampa Red later went on to pioneer the Chicago small group "Bluebird" sound, while Dorsey became "the father of gospel music".
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Tight_Like_That for the Wikipedia page about this song.

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/06/its-tight-like-that-videos-lyrics-part.html for Part I of a two part pancocojams series on "It's Tight Like That". Part I is entitled ""It's Tight Like That" (Videos & Lyrics) Part I: Georgia Tom & Tampa Red". The link for Part II focuses upon that song as sung by Clara Smith and as performed by Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly).  

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube sound file of Tampa Red and Georgia Tom singing the hokum Blues (dirty Blues) song "It's Tight Like That". A small portion of the lyrics for that song are also included in this post.

This post also presents excerpts from several websites about the history of and slang meanings for the word "tight"..

The content of the this post is presented for linguistic, cultural, and entertainment purposes only.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Tampa Red and Georgia Tom for their musical legacies. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/02/james-browns-1964-r-song-out-of-sight.html for a closely related pancocojams post entitled "James Brown's 1964 R&B Song "Out Of Sight" and Some History Of The Use Of The Phrase "Out of Sight" With The Meaning "Amazing" Or "Great". "

 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/02/what-does-word-uptight-means-in-stevie.html a closely related pancocojams post entitled "What Does The Word "Uptight" Mean In Stevie Wonder's 1966 R&B Song "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" ".
 
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PARTIAL LYRICS FOR TAMPA RED AND GEORGIA TOM'S BLUES SONG "IT'S TIGHT LIKE THAT"
(composed by Thomas A Dorsey, also known as "Georgia Tom")

Listen here folks
I wanta sing a little song
Don’t get mad, we don’t mean no harm
Y’know, it’s tight like that

Beedle-um-bum
Oh, It’s tight like that
Beedle-um-bum
Oh, ya hear me talkin’ to you
I mean it’s tight like that

[...]

There was a little black rooster
Met a little brown hen
Made a date at the barn about-a half-past-ten.
Y’know, it’s tight like that

[...]

I’ll wear my britches
Up above my knees
Strut my jelly with who I please
Oh, it’s tight like that"...
-snip-
These lyrics are found at http://oldtimeblues.net/lyrics/its-tight-like-that/ Multiple verses for this song could be sung or interchanged for other sometimes improvised lyrics.

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SELECTED ONLINE COMMENTS ABOUT CERTAIN SLANG MEANINGS FOR THE WORD "TIGHT"

Numbers are added for referencing purposes only. The numbers given to these comments don't necessarily conform with their numbers in that particular discussion thread.

Online Excerpt #1
From https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/32826/what-is-the-reasoning-behind-the-urban-slang-word-tight-coming-to-mean-cool "What is the reasoning behind the "urban" slang word "tight" coming to mean "cool/great/slick"?"

1. How and why did the word tight come to be appropriated in this sense, for example as in, "That car is tight, cuh!" ? I mean, one easily extrapolates from the "normal" definition to understand why slang would appropriate tight to mean "close" — as in "Nah, we cool cuz we tight like that" — but this other sense is significantly opaque to me."
-edited Jul 5, 2011, Thursagen

asked Jul 5, 2011, Thursagen
-snip-
This is the way this comment is found in that discussion.

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2. "From thefreedictionary.com:
'Marked by full control over elements or subordinates; firm: tight management; a tight orchestral performance.'

In music it usually means all members of an ensemble are playing together with rhythmic and harmonic precision. I think it's not much of a stretch to work from that meaning to the sense of something being remarkable or "slick"."
- edited Feb 16, 2019,Robusto

answered Jul 5, 2011, Robusto

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3. "There's also to run a tight ship, which superficially alludes to the strict control exercised by the captain, but in practice is often used to call attention to how well organised and functional everything is as a result. –"
-Jul 5, 2011, FumbleFingers

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4. "Based on cultural proximity, I'm relatively certain that the usage in question came from music. However, I'm going to go ahead and suggest that some implied sexuality has brought the term down the ranks."
-answered Jul 5, 2011 theidiotbox

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5. "Doesn't have to be sexual. Consider a tight body—in the sense of fitness rather than need of massage."
-July 5, 2011, Jon Purdy

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6. "Definitely was sexual in my neighborhood."
-July 5, 2011, zenbike

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7. "Tight implies being well-designed. If something is designed to physically be tight, everything is held together firmly. Nothing sloppy. So the use of it to describe cool/great/slick is in reference to it being a good design, be it music, cars, a purse, or even relationships (it's good that those two people are together--they fit together well--they "tight")."
-answered Jan 20, 2016, Thomas

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Online Excerpt #2 
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=151206

1. Subject: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Jun 13 - 02:08 PM

"In that familiar song by Tampa Red, most notably performed by Leadbelly, and reworked by Clutch, what does the title, Tight Like That, actually mean? It is presumably idiomatic, and probably euphemistic, for something or other; most probably with some sort of sexual referent. But I can't find any precise definition or interpretation which would relate it in any way to the various somewhat surreal AFAICS situations and dilemmas rubricated in the various stanzas, and all stated in the chorus to be "Tight Like That". Tight Like WHAT, precisely? And "tight" in what sense.

Does the phrase appear in any other context that anyone knows? I couldn't find it by googling any dictionary of idioms, or any other examples of its use in any dictionary of quotations.

It comes over to me as not a million miles from a nonsense verse without even any internal rationale.

Anybody help?

 Sorry if any previous threads on this - ie the meaning, not just the lyrics. I tried but couldn't locate one."

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2. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 17 Jun 13 - 02:01 PM

"Have a look in Stephen Calt's book "Barrelhouse Words" (University of Illinois Press, 2009, p.247 for Tampa Red's explanation."

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2. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 18 Jun 13 - 11:05 AM

"This is the reference in Calt. (Sorry, but it was Georgia Tom, and not Tampa Red, who gave the following.)Henry Hill was, according to Calt, an "avid consumer of Race Records" and was inteviewed by Calt. The quote to "O'Neal and van Singel" refers to Jim O'Neal & Amy van Singel "The Voice of the Blues: Classic Interviews from Living Blues Magazine". London, Routledge, 2001. Here is the entry:

It's tight like that, beedle um bum
Don't you hear me talkin' to you,
Know it's tight like that.
- Tampa Red & Georgia Tom, "Tight Like That", 1928.

A Chicago superlative recounted by Tom Dorsey ("Georgia Tom"), who helped parlay it into a best selling rece record. "there used to be a phrase they used around town, you know, folks started saying, "Ah, it's tight like that! Tight like that!" (O'Neal & van Singel). Although the term had no express sexual connotations, it would be misconstrued as a reference to "tight pussy" by record consumers such as Henry Hill, probably on the basis of the adjacent phrase "beedle um bum". This sense is only evident in the following example, remarking on infidelity:

Now Lucy came home, with a big excuse
She left here tight, but she come back loose.
- Blind Ben Covington, "It's a Fight (sic) Like That", 1928.

Michael, if you are wondering why the phrase "beedle um bum" should make Henry Hill think of sex, then here is Calt's entry for "Beedle um bum":

Oh, my beedle um bum
Come and see me if you ain't had none
It makes a dumb man speak, makes a lame man run
You'll miss something if you don't get none
- The Hokum Boys, "Beedle Um Bum", 1928.

A slang term for "pussy" current among female partygoers in Chicago during the 1920's (Tom Dorsey). It seems to have arisen from "Beedle Um Bo", a l908 ragtime piano composition by Chales L. Johnson that probably bore no sexual connotation.

Michael, you mention that you are not particularly interested in the blues, but if, as I suspect, you are interested in the English language, then you will find Calt's book of interest. I know that I do."

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3. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: Noreen
Date: 18 Jun 13 - 08:16 PM

Maybe irrelevant to this discussion, but 'that's tight' when I was growing up in Liverpool, meant something was unfair, mean, rotten, just not right- which seems similar to the meaning above."

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4. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,Ebor_Fiddler
Date: 04 Jul 13 - 04:07 AM

"Louis Armstrong also recorded it."

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5. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: BroadBottomSheik
Date: 04 Jul 13 - 09:31 PM

"In 1930 the Memphis Jug Band used a lyric "She's not too thin, not too fat but everything about her is tight like that" in the song Everybody's Talking About Sadie Green. I take it to mean just right or double entendre for sexually just right particularly in Tampa Red's versions of It's Tight Like that numbers 1,2 and 3.'

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6. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Jul 13 - 12:55 AM

"I might be stating the obvious, but nowadays in American slang "tight" (except in reference to economics like "times are tight") means exceedingly great and awesome, man!"

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7. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,Pete Taylor
Date: 17 Jul 13 - 06:40 AM

"Ascribing one meaning to the phrase is almost certainly impossible - as with many phrases in the English language. Even in the same song it can, and was probably intend to have two (or more meanings) at the same time. Eg Charlie Spand's "She's got good stuff." (c 1930)

"Comes a tripping down the street like a Maltese cat

She's got good stuff and it's tight like that."

I think the song is all about drugs, but at the same time much of it could and probably was about sex."

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8. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,thriftylefty
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 01:37 PM

"The term "tight" is still used in the African American community sometimes to refer to something that is cool"

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9. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,Fred Edwords
Date: 30 Jan 17 - 06:21 PM

"In country & western usage, "getting tight" means getting drunk. But such a meaning doesn't seem to fit any version of the song "Tight Like That."

As for Louis Armstrong's December 1928 version, called "Tight Like This," he doesn't sing enough in the way of lyrics to make the words anything more than a jazz expression of no particular meaning."

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10. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,Fred Edwords
Date: 30 Jan 17 - 06:57 PM

"Then again, Pete Taylor's point that the expression can have different meanings in the same song seems to be borne out in Tampa Red's 1929 version, where some verses seem sexual, some seem to talk about hard times or bad luck, but this verse may actually mean getting drunk."

Say you got a dollar, I got a dime.
Let's go down the alley and buy some wine.
tight like that, reedipbeedo
Oh, doo doo doo doo
Baby but it's good.
Honey and it's tight like that."

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11. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,drWord
Date: 30 Jan 17 - 07:11 PM

"Yet another: "Billy and me are tight, man."

= we've got one another's backs; we're close. [citation needed]

alternative fact {?}, not applicable to the song ... but I absolutely agree that double-entendre|end run around would-be censors is implicit, as in so much classic blues."

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12. Subject: RE: Folklore: Tight Like That - meaning?
From: GUEST,miguel invierno
Date: 27 Jan 19 - 04:27 PM

"I just transcribed the library of congress recording Lomax did of Ledbetter, where they discuss "tight like that". it was in reference to dancing:

Lomax: What does that mean by that, Huddie, really I mean tell us confidentially what that means by “Tight Like That”?

Huddie Ledbetter: “Tight Like That” it means when you got your partner grab her and hug her tight, and keep it going, but when he sometimes a boy grab his partner and grab her and giving a hug he says, “tight like this.” It was tight like this but it’s not as tight like this and the boy’d be jumping on “Tight Like That” "

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Online Excerpt #3
WARNING: Some definitions in that seven page urban dictionary discussion includes profanity and sexually explicit references.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tight
1. "Tight

The late 90's/2000 term for something that is cool.

Friend: "Dude, i got a new computer for christmas"

Me: "Tight, dude!" "
by thatguyfromthestore3 February 17, 2010
-snip-
This is the top definition in a seven page discussion as of Feb. 14, 2024 at 12:19 PM EDT

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2. "Tight

looking top of the line. exceptionally good

that sh-t* is tight!
by bajan gal February 1, 2003

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3. "Tight

1) Cool or good.

2) Angry or Frustrated.

3) In a bad situation or screwed. (comes from the term "tight situation")

1) Damn, that album is tight!

2) Mike: "Who the hell stepped on my shoes!?"

 Andy: "Oh, he's getting tight."

3) Mike: "Yo, my mom caught me watching Porn."
Andy: "Ah, ya tight!" "
by n00bslama June 18, 2009
-snip-
Here's a comment from page 5 of this 7 page discussion thread https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=That%27s%20tight&page=5 

"tight

this idiotic "slang" word that refuses to die.

"that was hecka tight!""

by sleepisbetter July 19, 2003

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Visitor comments are welcome.

Big Maceo Merriweather -"Worried Life Blues" (information, sound file, lyrics, & comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases the Blues standard* "Worried Life Blues" as performed by Big Maceo Merriweather.

Information about Maceo Merriweather is also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Big Maceo Merriweather for his musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of the two YouTube sound files of this song.

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INFORMATION ABOUT BIG MACEO MERRIWEATHER
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Maceo_Merriweather
"Major "Big Maceo" Merriweather (March 31, 1905 – February 23, 1953)[1] was an American blues pianist and singer, active in Chicago in the 1940s.[2]

Career
Born in Newnan, Georgia,[1] he was a self-taught pianist. In the 1920s, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, to begin his music career. He moved to Chicago in 1941, where he made the acquaintance of Tampa Red.[3] Red introduced him to Lester Melrose of RCA Victor and its subsidiary label Bluebird Records, who signed Merriweather to a recording contract.[4]

His first record was "Worried Life Blues" (1941), which became a blues hit and remained his signature piece.”...

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From https://blues.org/blues_hof_inductee/big-maceo-merriweather/
Big Maceo (Merriweather)
"Big Maceo Merriweather was one of the most prominent blues recording artists of the 1940s, famed not only for his powerful piano work but for his expressive singing on hits such as Worried Life Blues. Although he had only a short career, his music had a strong influence on the Chicago pianists who followed, especially Otis Spann and Little Johnnie Jones.

Born Major Merriweather on March 21, 1905, near Newnan, Georgia, Maceo and his family lived on a farm until they moved to nearby Atlanta in 1920. There the left-handed Maceo took up the piano, developing a pounding style with, naturally, a prominent left hand that would later distinguish his recordings. In 1924 he moved to Detroit, where he began playing the house party circuit which was the bread and butter of piano players in prewar blues. He also worked the night clubs of Detroit and, during the 1940s and ’50s, Chicago after he moved to the Windy City.

In Chicago Maceo often teamed with guitarist Tampa Red, both on record and in clubs such as the H&T. Maceo recorded for Bluebird and RCA Victor under the supervision of Lester Melrose from 1941 to 1947, establishing himself as a major name among blues record buyers. The first song he recorded, the poignant Worried Life Blues, is considered such an essential blues work that it was elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in the first year of the Classics of Blues Recording balloting, years before Maceo himself was inducted as a performer. Other highlights of his recorded repertoire include Things Have Changed, a hit on Billboard‘s “Race Records” jukebox chart in 1945, County Jail Blues and its flip side Can’t You Read from 1941, and his 1945 instrumental masterpiece Chicago Breakdown..

A stroke in 1946 cost him the use of his right hand, although he continued to sing and play one-handed, sometimes employing a protégé such as Johnnie Jones or Eddie Boyd to play the keys, or at least the treble notes. He never regained the strength or stature he had once enjoyed, though, and, like a number of top blues recording artists of the era, was never able, even at his peak, to translate his fame into a successful touring career. Blues promoters, agents, and clubs were only beginning to coalesce into what we know as the chittlin circuit, and the big theater circuit was the domain of jazz and swing bands and uptown blues shouters and crooners. Big Maceo made his final records for Specialty in 1949 and Fortune in 1950, in addition to an unissued session for Mercury in 1952 . He died of a heart attack on February 26, 1953, in Chicago."

— Jim O’Neal

November 10th, 2016

www.stackhouse-bluesoterica.blogspot.com"

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INFORMATION ABOUT "WORRIED LIFE BLUES"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worried_Life_Blues
"Worried Life Blues" is a blues standard and one of the most recorded blues songs of all time. Originally recorded by Big Maceo Merriweather in 1941, "Worried Life Blues" was an early blues hit and Maceo's most recognized song. An earlier song inspired it and several artists have had record chart successes with their interpretations of the song.

Background[edit]
"Worried Life Blues" is based on "Someday Baby Blues" recorded by Sleepy John Estes in 1935.[1] Estes' song is performed as a vocal and guitar country blues, whereas Maceo's is a prototypical Chicago blues.

[...]

Composition and recording
Big Maceo recorded "Worried Life Blues" June 24, 1941, shortly after arriving in Chicago.[3] Lester Melrose produced the song and it became Maceo's first single on Bluebird Records. The song is a moderate-tempo eight-bar blues, with Maceo on vocal and piano, accompanied by frequent collaborator, guitarist and fellow recording artist, Tampa Red and Ransom Knowling on bass. Music writer Keith Shadwick identifies it a major hit[3] and blues historian Jim O'Neal notes that it "eclipsed the song ['Someday Baby'] that inspired it".[1][4] Several other renditions soon followed, including those by Bill Gaither (1941), Sonny Boy Williams (1942), and Honeyboy Edwards (1942). In 1945, Maceo recorded a second version with additional lyrics, also accompanied by Tampa Red. Titled "Things Have Changed", it reached number four in the Billboard's Race Records chart.[5]

[...]

Recognition and influence
"Worried Life Blues" became an early blues standard[6] and was among the first songs inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1983 as a "Classic of Blues Recordings".[1] In 2006, the song received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.[7] Over the years numerous artists have covered "Worried Life Blues" or some mixture of it, "Someday Baby Blues", and other elements,[8] making it one of the most recorded blues songs of all time.[3] When Charles Brown reworked it as a West Coast blues number titled "Trouble Blues", it was one of the biggest hits of 1949 and spent 15 weeks at number one on Billboard's Race Records/Rhythm & Blues Records chart.[9] In 1955, Muddy Waters recording of it as "Trouble No More" in a Chicago blues style reached number seven on the R&B chart.[10] Junior Parker recorded the song in 1969 and it appeared at number 34.[11] B.B. King had a number 48 charting single in 1970 with "Worried Life" (originally recorded as "Someday Baby" in 1960).[12][13]:...
-snip-
"Worried Life Blues" is considered a "Blues standard". Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia page about Standard (music) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_(music)
"In music, a standard is a musical composition of established popularity, considered part of the "standard repertoire" of one or several genres.[1][2] Even though the standard repertoire of a given genre consists of a dynamic and partly subjective set of songs, these can be identified by having been performed or recorded by a variety of musical acts, often with different arrangements. In addition, standards are extensively quoted by other works and commonly serve as the basis for musical improvisation.[3] Standards may "cross over" from one genre's repertoire to another's; for example, many jazz standards have entered the pop repertoire, and many blues standards have entered the rock repertoire."...

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LYRICS: "WORRIED LIFE BLUES"
(composed by Maceo Merriweather) [?]

Whoa, Lordy, Lord
Oh Lordy, Lord
It hurts me so bad
For us to part
But someday, baby
I ain't gonna worry my life any more

So many nights
Since you been gone
I been worried' an grievin'
My life alone
But someday, baby
I ain't gonna worry my life any more

So many days
Since you went away
I had to worry
Both night an day
But someday, baby
I ain't gonna worry my life any more

'No boy, I ain't gonna worry my life no more! '

'Yeah, yeah'

(piano & guitar)

You on my mind
Ev'ry place I go
How much I love you
Nobody knows
But someday, baby
I ain't gonna worry my life any more

So that's my story
This is all I got to say to you
Goodbye, baby
An I don't care what you do
But someday, baby
I ain't gonna worry my life any more.
-snip-
Source: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/big_maceo/worried_life_blues.html
"Worried Life Blues 2: 54 Trk 1

Big Maceo - vocals & piano
W/Tampa Red - guitar & vocal, Ransom Knowling - string bass.
Recorded Tues. June 24, 1941
Chicago, ill. Rca Studio C
Album: Bluebird Recordings Big Maceo 1941-1942
Rca #66715-2

Note: Bluebird Notes state that.. 'Worried Life Blues'
Maceo's first solo was an adaptation of
Sleepy John Estes 'Someday Baby'."

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SHOWCASE SOUND FILES
Sound File #1: Big Maceo-Worried Life Blues (1941) HD



Vws Vas Published on Jan 31, 2015
-snip-
As of the publishing date of this pancocojams post, this sound file has no comments [?!?]

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Sound file #2: Big Maceo Merriweather - Worried Life Blues



Citizenmichail, Published on Jun 1, 2009

Big Maceo Merriweather - Worried Life Blues from the album The Best of Big Maceo (1992)
-snip-
selected comments from this sound file's discussion thread; numbers assigned for referencing purposes only:
Chris, 2011
"This song is said to be the most covered blues song of all time. 11,000 views, I am disappointed! :( Good song."

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jay1beaux, 2011
"A masterpiece"

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Karl Maurer, 2013
"Thanks for sharing. Big Maceo was 6 feet tall and weighed 250. Is this Tampa Red playing guitar? Sounds like it. So much soul and emotion in these old 78s."

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Reply
supermabel1, 2013
"Yes, Tampa Red on guitar, recorded 1941."

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Renny Shelton, 2015
"Is that Tampa Red on guitar?"

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Reply
Emmett Stephens, 2016
"+Renny Shelton yes"

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Reply
oker59, 2016
"+Renny Shelton Tampa Red's best stuff is with Big Maeco, imo."
-snip-
Here's information about Tampa Red from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Red
"Tampa Red (January 8, 1904[1] – March 19, 1981), born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an American Chicago blues musician.
Tampa Red is best known as an accomplished and influential blues guitarist who had a distinctive single-string slide style. His songwriting and his silky, polished bottleneck technique influenced other leading Chicago blues guitarists, such as Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Nighthawk and Muddy Waters, and many others, including Elmore James and Mose Allison.[2] In a career spanning over 30 years he also recorded pop, R&B and hokum songs"

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Sir Cuss, 2016
"weakapedia claims this song was first recorded by merriweather, when, clearly note for note and word on word,the song was first recorded by the willfully forgotten Bill Gaither ( as glaring an omission from the blues history as Buddy Moss ). " worried life" By Bill Gaither, the great Honeyboy Edwards assisting on piano. but since merriweather is already iconocized in the " music" hall of fame, do you think this fact will ever be admitted? oh yeah, another famous omission, is Little Willie John, the first person to record " fever " the song Peggy Lee is most famous for. ah, good old militaryindustrialcomplex " history", for your eyes only. Little Willie John died alone in jail after being framed for a murder he ( by all witness accounts ) didn't commit. why doesn't hollywood give me some crocodile tears for that story? oh right, because none of the major labels own his material, so since they can't profit off due credit, they create their own credit line and like usual, what you don't know will haunt you like a specter and milk you like a cow. so, why would Bill Gaither be ignored so intentfully?, because they've already written their" rolling stone" moss gathering tripe, and the Robert Johnson story is already a big winner why mess with success.
keep on buyin' what they sell and the rockefeller snake oil salesman makes out pretty well.
peeeeeaaaacey greeazzzzy."

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Sir Cuss, 2016
"as an aside, i think this is a great recording, not trying to diss the man's work with my rant, just clearing some air."

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Michael Packwood, 2016
"Some good comments here. Interested in Sis Cuss' information. I first heard this on 'Animal Tracks' Eric Burdon. (I still have my original vinyl version) And that was a very relevant version which shouldn't be dismissed just because it isn't 'authentic - it was the 60's bands like the Animals et al that introduced many of us baby boomers to this amazing genre. Even so, over those early years of my listening to the blues (which I do not do much these days as I have a huge catalogue of the romantic and post-classical and 20th C symphonic orchestral repertoire to explore) I encountered earlier versions such as this one., which is just so good. Love YouTube for the instant access to so much of this stuff! Thanks."

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Thomas Hennessey, 2017
"Maceo was a pianist who helped established pre-electric early chicago style city blues in the 1930s-40s. It was also known as the Bluebird beat because it was on RCA's cheaper Bluebird label. Tampa red is the guitarist in the 1941 sessin with Ranson Knowling on bass according to several sources. guitarist-vocalist Honeyboy Edwards recorded this tune in 1942."

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Tampa Red - "Uncle Bud (Dog-Gone Him)" sound file & lyrics

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases a sound file of the song "Uncle Bud (Dog-Gone Him)".

Note that this is a relatively clean example of an "Uncle Bud" songs. Many of those folk songs/Blues are quite "bawdy" (contain profanity and sexual explicit references).

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Tampa Red for his musical legacy. Thanks also to the transcriber of this song, to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FOLK CHARACTER "UNCLE BUD"
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=78973
Lyr Add: 'Uncle Bud' Obscene Southern US Song

[WARNING: That Mudcat discussion thread includes examples of dirty (profanity and sexually explicit)versions and examples of clean versions of Uncle Bud songs.

comment posted by Barry Finn, 01 Dec 06 - 03:52 PM
" "Uncle" Bud Russel was the "Transfer Man" for the Texas Prison System for 40 yrs starting in 1912. He had already beem in the employ since 1908 as assistant transfer agent. The transfer wagon was called originally the Black Maria, "We call Uncle Bud's old wagon Black Betty". "Then one morning I heard chains rattling down the corridor of the jail & somebody hollered that Uncle Bud had come & Black Betty was waiting" (290-291, The Land Where the Blues Began-Allan Lomax), Black Betty would take you there but it wouldn't take you away. Bud Russel would travel around picking up the convicted prisoners from around the different counties & bring them to Huntsville (also called "The Walls") which I believe would've been the "new man house" from there the "cons" or "victs" would be eventually be transfered to other state prisons or farms. When Bruce Jackson was collecting in the mid to late 60's "Bud Russel's name was still used throughout the system: 'We'll, let's go go get Uncle Bud's cotton,' or 'Let's get some a Uncle Bud's cows' Whatever it might be, it's still uesed"(p. 290-291 Wake Up Dead Man-Bruce Jackson). Bruce Jackson says that Bud's wagon was also called Black Annie.
[as examples, Barry Finn cites lines from these Blues songs that mention Uncle Bud: "The Midnight Special", "Go Down OLd Hannah", and "Sure Make A Man Fell Bad"]

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comment posted by Jim Dixon, 03 Dec 06 - 07:40 PM
"The Library of Congress American Memory Collection, has a recording of Zora Neale Hurston singing this song. She was already a published novelist, and working for the Federal Writers' Project in Florida when she made this recording in 1939. Here's my transcription:

[Spoken:] UNCLE BUD is not a work song. It's a sort of social song for amusement, and it's so widely distributed, it's growing all the time by incremental repetition, and it is known all over the South. No matter where you go, you can find verses of UNCLE BUD, and it's a favorite song, and the men get to workin' in ev'ry kind o' work, and they just yell down on UNCLE BUD, and nobody particular leads it. Ever'body puts in his verse when he gets ready, and UNCLE BUD grows and grows and grows.

Q. ...is it sung before the respectable ladies?

A. Never! It's one o' those jook songs, and the woman that they sing UNCLE BUD in front of is a jook woman.

Q. Of course, you've heard it....

A. (Laughs) Yes, I've heard it from....
-snip-
This post continues with some bawdy "Uncle Bud" verse that Zora Neale Huston sung."

"jook" = another term for "juke" as in "juke joint"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juke_joint
"Juke joint (or jook joint) is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly.[citation needed] A juke joint may also be called a "barrelhouse".

Classic juke joints found, for example, at rural crossroads, catered to the rural work force that began to emerge after the emancipation."...

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From http://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1960s/1960_unexpurgated_folksongs_of_men_(PB)/1960-unexpurgated-folk-songs-of-men-booklet.htm the unexpurgated folk songs of men
... an informal song-swapping session with a group of Texans, New Yorkers, and Englishmen exchanging bawdy songs and lore, presented without expurgation . . .

COLLECTED BY MACK McCormick Recorded in Texas, 1959.
A review of the song "You Be Kind To Me" indicates that "the last two verses are usually sung about the lecherous "Uncle Bud.".

A long entry about Uncle Bud includes information that is given in the first Mudcat post that is quoted above, along with excerpts of various songs including "Salty Dog"*. The author of that article suggests that the lecherous description of Uncle Bud may have developed as a way of mocking notorious Texan [prison] transfer man Bud Russell.

That may be so, but it seems to me that Uncle Bud became an anti-hero, a man that other men looked up to because of his sexual prowess and his disregard for and flaunting of society's rules.
-snip-
Information about "Salty Dog" from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_Dog_Blues
""Salty Dog Blues" is an early 1900s[1] folk song. It is in the public domain.[2][3] It has been recorded by blues, jazz, country music, bluegrass groups and other styles. The oldest recordings of the song credit Papa Charlie Jackson, who adapted the song directly from the African-American traditional for Paramount and for Broadway in 1924.[4] According to Jas Obrecht, "Old-time New Orleans musicians from Buddy Bolden’s era recalled hearing far filthier versions of 'Salty Dog Blues' long before Papa Charlie’s recording."[5] Similar versions were recorded by Mississippi John Hurt and Lead Belly.[4]"...

Definition of "salty dog" from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_dog_(slang)
..."Another meaning of the term "Salty Dog" comes from the archaic practice of rubbing salt into the coat of one's favorite dog as a flea repellent. Therefore, one's "salty dog" is one's favorite person, best friend, etc... This is the meaning of the line in "Salty Dog Blues": "Let me be your salty dog, or I don't wanna be your man at all." The phrase could also have a sexual meaning. The lyric "Honey, let me be your salty dog" could also be translated to mean "Let me be your sexual partner.""

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SHOWCASE EXAMPLE: Tampa Red, Georgia Tom - Uncle Bud (Dog-Gone Him)



Nico Fournier, Published on Sep 28, 2014

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LYRICS: UNCLE BUD (DOG-GONE HIM)
As sung by Tampa Red on "Tampa Red Vol. 2 (1929)" (2005).

1. They told me Uncle Bud was a mighty good fella
But my … boys, you will all know better.

CHORUS: Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud,
Uncle Bud, dog-gone him, Uncle Bud.

2. Let me tell you boys what Uncle Bud will do:
Steal your jelly, make a monkey of you.

3. Now I took Uncle Bud to be my right-hand friend.
He stole my jelly 'n' in my face he grinned.

4. He ain't got no sense 'cause he didn't go to school,
But the women all thinks he's a jelly-beatin' fool.

5. Now I ain't two bits; don't talk about my friend.
Gonna kill him if I catch him at my house again.

6. Now Uncle Bud's old lady, she's a good old soul,
But I just can't stand her; she's 'most too old.

7. You might think he's all right but don't pay him no mind.
He's a-whippin' your jelly 'most all the time.

8. Boy, if you catch him at your house, don't do him no harm.
Just ask the old man to be a-moving along.

9. He's built like a tadpole, shaped like a frog.
When he love your woman, she'll holler "Hot dog!"

10. Just keep it, young lady; Tampa Red don't want it.
Uncle Bud done had his ol' paws all on it.
-snip-
In the context of this song, "jelly" means your woman (your sexual partner). By extension, "jelly beating" means to engage in sexual activity. The women are praising Uncle Bud when they think is a jelly beating fool. In other words, they think that he is "very good in bed".

Source: Subject: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=78973
Lyr Add: 'Uncle Bud' Obscene Southern US Song, posted by Jim Dixon 09 Oct 12 - 10:55 AM

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/01/folk-songs-blues-childrens-rhyme.html for a pancocojams post on "Folk Songs, Blues, & Children's Rhyme Examples Of The Verse "Never Went To College, Never Went To School"...
That verse is given as #4 above.

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"It's Tight Like That" (Videos & Lyrics) Part I: Georgia Tom & Tampa Red

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on renditions of the 1928 Blues song "It's Tight Like That". Part I of this post features a sound file & lyrics of this song as sung by the song's composers Thomas A. Dorsey (Georgia Tom) & Hudson "Tampa Red" Whittaker. This post also includes a sound file and lyrics of the song as sung by Tampa Red alone.

Part II of this post includes sound files of and lyrics for this song as performed by Clara Smith and as performed by Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly). Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/06/its-tight-like-that-videos-lyrics-part_03.html for Part II of this post.

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners.

My thanks to the composers and performers of this music. My thanks also to the producers of these sound files and uploaders of these featured videos

My thanks also to those whose transcription work I quoted in this post.

FEATURED SOUND FILES AND LYRICS

Sound File #1 -Tampa Red & Georgia Tom - It's Tight Like That - Vocal Piano Guitar RARE 78rpm record



Uploaded by xodusattack on Sep 9, 2010

LYRICS:

Listen here folk, wanna sing a little song
Don't get mad, we don't mean no harm

Chorus:
You know it's tight like that, beedle um bum
Boy it's tight like that, beedle um bum
Oh you hear me talking to ya,
I mean it's tight like that

There was a little black rooster met a little brown hen
Made a date at the barn about a half past ten

Chorus

I went to see my gal all across the hall
Found another mule kickin' in my stall

Chorus

Now the gal I love she's long and slim
When she whip it it's too bad, Jim

Chorus

Now the rooster crowed and then hen looked rind (?)
And bom bom billy got to carry me to time

Chorus

Mamma had a little dog his name was Ball
If you gave him a little taste he want it all

Chorus

Spoken: awww folks that's tight like that
What are we gonna sing this time (?) Red?
Red: come play it for me

Uncle Bud and aunt Jane went to chenkapane hun(???)
Aunt Jane fell down Uncle Bud's idea

Chorus

If you see my gal tell her to hurry home
I ain't had no bread since she's been gone

Chorus

I wear my britches up above my knees
Strut my jelly with who I please

Chorus

Uncle bill came home about a half past ten
Put the key in the hole but he couldn't get in

Chorus

Me and my brother was up in the law
We seen uncle bill when he broke it all
-snip-
[Added May 18, 2017]
With the exception of the chorus, the lyrics to this version of "It's Tight Like That" are two line "floating" verses (verses that are found in various early 20th century Southern African American folk songs, particularly the obscene "Uncle Bud" songs.

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Sound File #2: Tampa Red - (Honey) It's Tight Like That [1929]



Uploaded by DutchBluesfan on Jun 9, 2010

LYRICS: Tampa Red - (Honey) It's Tight Like That [1929]

I woke up this morning at the break of day
had my head on the pillow my baby’s leg
Oh it’s tight like that, reedipbeedo
It’s tight like that, reedipbeedo.
Baby but it’s good.
Honey and it’s tight like that.

Aunt Jane had a boy his name was Snow.
Broke all the locks off of the hen house door.
It’s tight like that.
it’s tight like that, reedipbeedo
It’s tight like that, reedipbeedo.
Baby but it’s good.
Honey and it’s tight like that.

Poor little spider goin' up the wall,
He's goin' up there to get his ashes hauled.
it’s tight like that, reedipbeedo
It’s tight like that, reedipbeedo.
Baby but it’s good.
Honey and it’s tight like that.

Momma and Papa down in the cell* [*cellar]
What she doin down there it awful hard to tell.
it’s tight like that, reedipbeedo
It’s tight like that, doo doo doo doo doo.
Baby but it’s good.
Honey and it’s tight like that.

Guitar break

The reason my grandma loves grandpa so
She shake up to him like she went before [?]
it’s tight like that, reedipbeedo
It’s tight like that, doo doo doo doo.
Baby but it’s good.
Honey and it’s tight like that.

Sam and ole Henry were two good pals
Till Sam caught Henry kissin his gal.
it’s tight like that, reedipbeedo
It’s tight like that, reedipbeedo.
Baby but it’s good.
Honey and it’s tight like that.

I looked at the clock. The clock struck one.
Looka here baby, let’s have some fun.
it’s tight like that, reedipbeedo
It’s tight like that, reedipbeedo.
Baby but it’s good.
Honey and it’s tight like that.
Say you got a dollar, I got a dime.
Let’s go down the alley and buy some wine.
it’s tight like that, reedipbeedo
Oh, doo doo doo doo
Baby but it’s good.
Honey and it’s tight like that.

[Transcription by Azizi Powell, 6/3/2012, from the sound file. The word followed by a question mark in brackets means that I'm unsure of that transcription. Corrections to this transcription are welcome]

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THE MEANING OF "IT'S TIGHT LIKE THAT" IN THESE RECORDS
The phrase "it's tight like that" in Thomas A. Dorsey's (Georgia Tom) & "Tampa Red" Whittaker's late 1920s song of that name and in other versions of that song definitely have sexual connotations. However, there's plausible deniability that no sexualized meaning at all is intended by that title or those verses. For instance, "it's tight like that" could be said to mean something like "That's the way it is" ("It bes that way some time.). Or "It's tight like that" could be said to mean "Times are bad." (as in "Money is tight").

While the first "clean" meaning I suggested might be the meaning of some of the lyrics in versions of "It's Tight Like That", I'm not sure that the second "clean" meaning was ever intended in any of those song's verses. There's no a doubt in my mind that, with the exception of Leadbelly's version, most of the lyrics of the "It's Tight Like That" song are meant to be risque.

It bes that way sometime.

RELATED LINKS

Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokum for information about Thomas A. Dorsey and Tampa Red Whittaker. Here's an excerpt from that page:

"The bottleneck guitarist Tampa Red was accompanied by Thomas A. Dorsey (performing as "Barrelhouse Tom" or "Georgia Tom") playing piano when the two recorded "It's Tight Like That" for the Vocalion label in 1928. The song went over so well that the two bluesmen teamed up and became known as The Hokum Boys. Both previously performed in the band of the Mother of the Blues Ma Rainey, who had traveled the vaudeville circuits with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels as a girl, later taking Bessie Smith under her wing. The Hokum Boys recorded over 60 bawdy blues songs by 1932, most of them penned by Dorsey, who later picked up his Bible and became the founding father of black gospel. Dorsey characterized his hokum legacy as "deep moanin', low-down blues, that's all I could say!" "
-snip-
Dorsey is best known for the gospel songs "Peace In The Valley" and "Take My Hand, Precious Lord".
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/12/lead-belly-dig-hole-put-devil-in-its.html for a recording of Lead Belly singing "It's Tight Like That" in a 1940 recorded interview. In that interview Lead Belly indicated that this song was sung by enslaved African Americans.

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Click http://www.heptune.com/lyrics/itstight.html for two additional transcriptions of "It's Tight Like That"

Lyrics of "It's Tight Like That" by Dorsey & Whittaker, transcribed from McKinney's Cotton Pickers, vocals by George Thomas and Dave Wilborn; recorded 11/23/1928 and Transcribed from vocals by Zack Whyte's Chocolate Beau Brummels, recorded February 26, 1929, From Richmond Rarities: Recorded in Richmond, Indiana, 1927-33; Jazz Oracle, BDW 8008.
For the most part, those transcriptions have very similar lyrics to those found above. Another verse given for that second transcription is:

"My baby says she likes her lovin' done
Early in the morning before the rising sun,
'Cause it's tight like that!
Yes, sir,
'Cause it's tight like that!
Yes, sir, mmmm,
'Cause it's tight like that!"

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