[Dixielandjazz] lyrics to "Irish Black Bottom"

[Robert Ringwald]

Listmates,

Recently there was some discussion of the lyrics to Irish Black Bottom. 
There were lyrics sung on the early Armstrong recording.  However, Bob (Red) 
Helm is given credit for the lyrics in some fake books.

Below is a reply from Vince Saunders.  For those of you who don't know, 
Vince was the leader of the very fine South Frisco JB for many, many years.

--Bob Ringwald




>  Hi, Bob,
>
>  A song very dear to my heart, so I will weigh in here for all its worth. 
> If anyone has a different story, please let me know for the record.
>
>  I had worked on the lyrics of this tune for many years without success. 
> Finally, played it for my wife Mary, who was very good in interpreting 
> lyrics off of "very old records".  She supplied many of the words that I 
> could not understand, but there were still some missing!  So, I consulted 
> with the master, Brother Red.  He seemed to always come up with the 
> unknown chords, correct notes, and mysterious lyrics, besides being the 
> all-time gentleman of jazz.  He filled in the missing lyrics, and I took 
> his word as the final answer.  I never researched the magic word, 
> "cooies", not having a source for the Irish vocabulary.  I had always 
> given Bob credit for the "hard to understand" vocal of Louis' recording, 
> and, I think that is where the "lyrics by Bob Helm" rumor originated.  The 
> credit for the tune and lyrics composition is given to Percy Venable and 
> Louis Armstrong; again, something I never dug into any deeper, but assumed 
> to be correct.
>
>  The magic lyrics as I, Mary, and Brother Red came up with are as follows:
>
>  Verse:  All you heard for years in Ireland, was the "Wearin' Of The 
> Green", but the biggest change that's come in Ireland I have ever seen. 
> All the laddies and the cooies laid aside their Irish reels, and I was 
> born in Ireland (Ha, Ha), so imagine how I feels.
>
>  Cho.:  Now Ireland's gone Black Bottom crazy, see them dance, you ought 
> to see them dance.  Folks supposed to be related, even dance, I mean they 
> dance.  They play that strain, works right on their brain.  Now it goes 
> Black Bottom, a new rhythm's, drivin' the folks insane.  I hand you no 
> Blarney, when I say that song really goes, and they put it over with a 
> wow, I mean now.  All over Ireland you can see the people dancin' it, 
> 'cause Ireland's gone Black Bottom crazy, now.
>
>  Don't have immediate access to the lyrics in Chuck's fake book, so I 
> can't compare with what he had, but these are the ones "approved" by Mr. 
> Helm.  According to him, "cooies" was the female version of "laddies", 
> from the Irish vernacular.  Never verified this, as I left it to Red's 
> explanation as being the "final word".
>
>  Another of the many jazz stories out of the past.  If anyone has another 
> version, please let me know.
>
>  All the best,
>
>  Vince
>
>