[Dixielandjazz] All the Girls Go Crazy

[Stephen G Barbone]

Who among the old timers was an accurate source and not a storyteller,  
or an old guy with a fading memory? Or a musician who took a tune like  
the old cow (if it really existed) and copyrighted it under the name  
Muskrat Ramble? If Barker did not remember it, perhaps it is a figment  
of some else's imagination, or perhaps because by the time Barker  
became aware of the tune, it was called Muskrat Ramble..

Like you, I agree that we have to take what any old timer says about  
events occurring in the past with a grain of salt. Whether it was  
Barker, Bechet, Ory, Armstrong, Morton, Johnson, or whomever.

I am just pointing out that there was published anecdotal evidence  
about "all the whores" in existence and as far as I'm concerned,   
Hardie has every right to rely on that as you have every right not to  
rely on it.

As we both know, there is a lot of mis-information out there. Even the  
Red Hot jazz site in its bio of Barker says: "Danny was often found  
cutting school and following many bands around town witnessing some of  
the finest New Orleans had to offer including bands led by Buddy  
Bolden . . ."

That, of course, would have been hard to do for a guy born in 1909. As  
would remembering "The Old Cow Died" because Ory claimed to have  
written Muskrat Ramble in 1921 when Barker was 12. From that moment on  
IMO, the song would have only been known as Muskrat.

Cheers,
Steve

On Oct 28, 2011, at 12:23 PM, tyleman wrote:

> The only problem with using Danny as source is, he didn't hear Bolden,
> and he was a well-known storyteller. So for me, that's not a
> particularly accurate source. As a matter of fact, I asked him in the
> 1990s when I worked with him in New Orleans, if he remembered the tune
> "The Old Cow Died and Old Brock Cried," that was purported to have
> been played by Bolden. He gave me a look as though I was speaking a
> foreign language, and said he'd never heard of it. So I tend to be
> VERY skeptical of anything Danny related - and that includes most of
> what was written in the book. Makes for good reading, though.
> Regards,
> Chris
>