[Dixielandjazz] Yellow Dog

[Mike Durham]

In answer to Stan Brager's queries, I can clear up a couple. "The smoke was 
broke" simply means "The black man had no money", as confirmed by the line 
"Not a jitney on him" - a jitney was 20's slang for a nickel. As to "Every 
kitchen is a cabaret" etc., this is also pretty simple, I think - it 
probably means (ironically) that this is a kind of heaven for people of 
colour, the kitchen where they work being transformed into a cabaret and the 
boll weevils (which ruined many a cotton crop and caused great hardship to 
sharecroppers) doing all the work, while they play. "Bam" is indeed Alabama, 
as in "That Bam Bam Bammy Shore", just a further contraction of Alabam'. And 
lastly, the Yellow Dog lyrics are an "answer" to an earlier blues song about 
Miss Susan Johnson and her Jackie Lee, entitled "I Wonder Where My Easy 
Rider's Gone Today?", according to the internet: try a google search on 
Yellow Dog Blues, you'll find out more about early railroads than you ever 
wanted to know!

Toot toot,

Mike D.

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