{"id":897,"date":"2016-04-15T07:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T11:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=897"},"modified":"2021-04-29T09:38:15","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T13:38:15","slug":"salty-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/salty-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Salty Dog (John Hurt\/Papa Charlie Jackson)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Salty Dog\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CidqrqaDAjw?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>A hit in 1924 for Papa Charlie Jackson, the New Orleans banjo player who was the first male recording star of the first blues boom, &#8220;Salty Dog&#8221; was popular throughout the South, with black and white musicians alike, in numerous versions &#8212; and I&#8217;m sure the ones that got recorded were considerably expurgated and bowdlerized, compared to what was being<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-899 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Best-of-Mississippi-John-Hurt.jpg?resize=275%2C275&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Best-of-Mississippi-John-Hurt.jpg?w=275&amp;ssl=1 275w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Best-of-Mississippi-John-Hurt.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/> sung in barrelhouses. I first heard it from Mississippi John Hurt, and still play pretty much his version, though I seem to have picked up some vocal inflections from Lead Belly, and wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if Jack Elliott gets in there as well.<\/p>\n<p>According to Steve Calt&#8217;s glossary of blues language, the use of &#8220;salty&#8221; to describe a female dog in heat can be traced back to 1603, and by the late 18th century it had acquired the more generalized meaning of &#8220;lecherous&#8221; &#8212; though it clearly retained the canine association.<\/p>\n<p>As to that bowdlerization, this is one of many recorded blues songs that were obviously based on unrecorded, and at the time unrecordable, lyrics. Jackson&#8217;s version, instead of referring to <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2768 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Papa-Charlie-Jackson.jpg?resize=231%2C267&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"267\" \/>&#8220;my buddy&#8221; as the person who caught the singer kissing his wife, refers to &#8220;Uncle Bud,&#8221; a legendary figure of black folksong, and &#8220;kissing&#8221; would not have been the word used in barrelhouse performances. Zora Neale Hurston sings a common variant of &#8220;Uncle Bud&#8221; on a Library of Congress recording, and a typical verse goes:<\/p>\n<p>Uncle Bud&#8217;s got corn that&#8217;s never been shucked,<br \/>\nUncle Bud&#8217;s got daughters that never been fucked.<\/p>\n<p>Or, in some versions:<br \/>\nUncle Bud&#8217;s got corn that&#8217;s never been shucked,<br \/>\nUncle Bud&#8217;s got daughters that never been to Sunday school.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure Lead Belly had some similarly filthy verses to this one, and I&#8217;m guessing John Hurt did as well&#8230; but they are, alas, lost in the mists of history, and we have to make do with what we&#8217;ve got.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A not-very-double-entendre ragtime-blues from John Hurt, Lead Belly, and Papa Charlie Jackson, with some discussion of etymology and censorship (warning! uncensored).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Salty Dog (John Hurt\/Papa Charlie Jackson) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A naughty ragtime-blues from John Hurt, Lead Belly, and Papa Charlie Jackson, with some discussion of etymology and censorship (warning! 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