[Dixielandjazz] Hand Me Down My Walking Cane (was Without My Walkin' Stick)

[Bill Haesler]

Pat Ladd wrote:
> ....in spite of what the learned and respected Bill Haesler suggests I 
> have always thought that tune to have gospel overtones, not C and W. 
> The last line of the quatrain is `Hand me down my walking cane, I`m 
> leaving on the midnight train, and all my sins are taken away` and 
> that sounds like gospel to me.
 
Dear Pat,
I have no doubt that you are right that it started out as a 'negro 
spiritual' (the term 'gospel' is of later origin) and was perhaps 
corrupted and adapted by C&W influeces.
Here is what I have:

Hand me down, my walkin cane,
Hand me down, my walkin cane,
Hand me down, my walkin cane, I'm gonna leave
on the midnight train,
All my sins are taken away

Hand me down, my bottle of corn,
Hand me down, my bottle of corn,
Hand me down, my bottle of corn, gonna get
drunk, sure as you're born,
All my sins are taken away.

I got drunk and thrown in jail,
I got drunk and thrown in jail,
I got drunk and thrown in jail, c'mon mamma won't
you go my bail.
All my sins are taken away.

If I'da listened to what mamma said,
If I'da listened to what mamma said,
If I'da listened to what mamma said, I'd be home
in a feather bed,
All my sins are taken away.

Hand me down, my walkin cane,
Hand me down, my walkin cane,
Hand me down, my walkin cane, I'm gonna leave
on the midnight train,
All my sins are taken away.

To prove your point, the following is an extract from a review by Art 
Rosenbaum of a CD by the Double Deck String Band:
"The Double Deckers sing a few songs reflecting various southern 
religious attitudes. ............."Mary, Don't You Weep," adapted from 
a recording by the Georgia Yellowhammers, is a different matter: the 
verses mix the religious with the comic and ironic, much like the 
Skillet Lickers' "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" and like the latter may 
have evolved as a white parody of Negro spirituals. The early white 
singers probably felt uncomfortable with the intensity and pain of the 
African-American spirituals, and needed to modify them with secular and 
humorous elements."

Kind regards,
Bill.