[Dixielandjazz] Lyrics to "Gimme a pigfoot and a bottle of beer"

[Stan Brager]

One of the definitions of "gate" was that it was a form of responding to anyone who was listening to her recording. In other words, Bessie was speaking each of us.

Stan
Stan Brager
stanbrager at gmail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: John Shillito [mailto:jnshillito at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2019 4:58 PM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Lyrics to "Gimme a pigfoot and a bottle of beer"

Bessie Smith - Gimme a pigfoot and a bottle of beer 

Songwriter is recorded as Wesley Wilson. These are the lyrics - (as I heard and learned them many years ago...)

Spoken intro:

“Twenty-five cents? Ha! No, no, I wouldn't pay twenty-five cents to go in nowhere.   'Cause listen here…”

Up in Harlem every Saturday night, when the high browns get together it's just too tight


They all congregate at an all night strut - and what they do is tut, tut, tut...

Old Hannah Brown from ‘cross the town gets full of corn and starts breaking 'em down And at the break of day, you can hear old Hannah say....

Gimme a pigfoot and a bottle of beer! Send me, Gate*, I don't care!

I feel just like I wanna clown. Give the piano player a drink because he's bringing me down

He's gotta rhythm, yeah, when he stomps his feet, he sends me right off to sleep, Check all your razors and your guns, we gonna be arrested when the wagon comes

I wanna pigfoot and a bottle of beer! Send me 'cause I don't care, 

Play me 'cause I don't care

Trumpet solo....... (Frankie Newton?)

Gimme a pigfoot and a bottle of beer! Send me, Gate*, I don't care, 

I feel just like I wanna clown. Give the piano player a drink because he's bringing me down

He's got rhythm, yeah, when he stomps his feet he sends me right off to sleep.

Check all your razors and your guns. Do the shim-sham shimmy 'til the rising sun

Give me a reeefer and a gang of gin. Play me 'cause I'm in my sin.

Play me 'cause I'm full of gin.

 

*“Send me, Gate” sounds like a reference to Louis Armstrong, who accompanied Bessie on some earlier sessions, although I believe the trumpeter on the recording from which I’ve transcribed the lyric was, I believe, Frankie Newton.



Best regards, cheers and good wishes, John Shillito