{"id":1220,"date":"2016-06-01T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=1220"},"modified":"2017-02-22T09:03:47","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T14:03:47","slug":"bout-a-spoonful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bout-a-spoonful\/","title":{"rendered":"Bout a Spoonful (Davis\/Lipscomb\/Van Ronk)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bout a Spoonful\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bHcgKw3QPp0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Judging by surviving evidence, &#8220;Bout a Spoonful&#8221; was a very popular song throughout the black South in the early twentieth century. In\u00a0<em>Sweet Man<\/em>, a<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1232\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/sweet-man-194x300.jpg?resize=194%2C300\" alt=\"sweet man\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" \/> racial protest novel from 1930, Gilmore Millen named it along with &#8220;Pallet on the Floor,&#8221; &#8220;Stavin&#8217; Chain,&#8221; and &#8220;The Dozens&#8221; as \u201cforerunners of the blues, at least in honk-a-tonk popularity, those old songs crammed with Anglo-Saxon physiological monosyllables and lascivious purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The original honky tonk, juke joint, and barrelhouse versions of these songs were not going to be recorded by commercial record producers in the early 20th century and tended not to be collected even by the most assiduous folklorists. Among the few lyrics that survive, we have one uncensored version of &#8220;Pallet on the Floor&#8221; from Jelly Roll Morton, an uncensored &#8220;Dirty Dozens&#8221; from Speckled Red, and an uncensored &#8220;Stavin&#8217; Chain&#8221; from Mance Lipscomb, but as far as I know, no one has ever found a version of &#8220;Bout a Spoonful&#8221; that includes any of those &#8220;Anglo-Saxon physiological monosyllables\u201d \u2013 a much more colorful and descriptive phrase than \u201cfour-letter words.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1233 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/mance-lipscomb-lp.jpg?resize=225%2C225\" alt=\"mance lipscomb lp\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/mance-lipscomb-lp.jpg?w=225&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/mance-lipscomb-lp.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>Fortunately, the underlying &#8220;lascivious purpose&#8221; survived expurgation in versions by Lipscomb and Rev. Gary Davis, which also provide eloquent testimony to how widespread the song must have been, since Davis was from the Carolinas and Lipscomb was in Texas, but they not only shared some lyrics but played variations of the same guitar accompaniment.<\/p>\n<p>I first heard this song from Dave Van Ronk, and play his guitar part, which he adapted from Davis&#8217;s. It was the first guitar arrangement of his that I worked out from the record, during the year I was studying with him, which meant that when I got it smooth I was able to play it for him&#8230; and he pointed out that I was making it harder by playing the thumb-<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-902 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/No-Dirty-Names.jpg?resize=255%2C255\" alt=\"No Dirty Names\" width=\"255\" height=\"255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/No-Dirty-Names.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/No-Dirty-Names.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 255px) 100vw, 255px\" \/>around-the-neck bass notes for the opening D chord, while he just played open strings. He added, &#8220;It sounds nice that way. Keep it.&#8221; So I have.<\/p>\n<p>Dave only sang four verses, and omitted the key word from the tag line, writing: &#8220;Not everybody knows what a spoonful means. But they know what a pause means.&#8221; John Hurt took a similar approach in his &#8220;Coffee Blues,&#8221; and I&#8217;ve stuck with it here. The rest of the lyric is a mix of Dave&#8217;s verses, a couple from Lipscomb, a couple from elsewhere, and a couple I made up or adapted over the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judging by surviving evidence, &#8220;Bout a Spoonful&#8221; was a very popular song throughout the black South in the early twentieth century. In\u00a0Sweet Man, a racial protest novel from 1930, Gilmore Millen named it along with &#8220;Pallet on the Floor,&#8221; &#8220;Stavin&#8217; Chain,&#8221; and &#8220;The Dozens&#8221; as \u201cforerunners of the blues, at least in honk-a-tonk popularity, those &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bout-a-spoonful\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Bout a Spoonful (Davis\/Lipscomb\/Van Ronk)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bout a Spoonful (Davis\/Lipscomb\/Van Ronk) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bout-a-spoonful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bout a Spoonful (Davis\/Lipscomb\/Van Ronk) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Judging by surviving evidence, &#8220;Bout a Spoonful&#8221; was a very popular song throughout the black South in the early twentieth century. 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(The same thing happened with Woody Guthrie's\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/pallet-on-your-floor-aint-no-telling\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4481,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/coffee-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":1220,"position":1},"title":"Coffee Blues (Mississippi John Hurt)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"November 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Mississippi John Hurt always explained that this song was about coffee; specifically Maxwell House, because it was \"good to the last drop, just like it says on the can.\" He'd say just one spoonful of Maxwell House coffee was as good as two or three cups of any other brand.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Maxwell-House-can.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2975,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/honky-tonk-heroes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1220,"position":2},"title":"Honky Tonk Heroes (Waylon Jennings)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I owe this song and my further acquaintance with Waylon's ouevre -- and much else -- to Peter Guralnick. I first became tangentially aware of Peter when I got into blues as a kid and my mother mentioned that Dr. Guralnick's son wrote about blues. Dr. Guralnick had removed her\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Peter-Guralnick-Lost-Highway-193x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5136,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/alabama-bound\/","url_meta":{"origin":1220,"position":3},"title":"Alabama Bound (Jelly Roll Morton, and many others)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"March 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I've known \"Alabama Bound\" forever, but never worked it up as a performance piece, and am posting it now because I used it as the theme of chapter one of my new book, Jelly Roll Blues, an exploration of Jelly Roll Morton's Library of Congress recordings, the world that nurtured\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Blind-Boones-Southern-Rag-Medley-No-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3173,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/swinging-doors\/","url_meta":{"origin":1220,"position":4},"title":"Swinging Doors (Merle Haggard\/a honky-tonk gig)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"November 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My first trip through the South was in the fall of 1985. I started hitchhiking from Chapel Hill, planning to hug the coast till I reached Mexico. That afternoon I saw my first roadkill armadillo while walking the last five miles into Southport, North Carolina. On the edge of town\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/me-and-merle.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5211,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cigarettes-and-coffee\/","url_meta":{"origin":1220,"position":5},"title":"Cigarettes and Coffee Blues (Lefty Frizzell)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I have Bill Morrissey to thank for turning me into a Merle Haggard nut, and making me realize how close country\u00a0 music -- especially the strain popularized as \"honky tonk\" -- is to blues. Of course, to a large extent it came out of blues; Jimmie Rodgers was primarily a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Leftys-Greatest-Hits.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1220"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1547,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions\/1547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}