“Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice)”

Description

"Got no sugar baby now...got no use for your red rocking chair...who'll rock the cradle, who'll sing the song...all I can do, fuss, eat, sleep with you/send you to your mama next payday" -- floating verses all.

Notes

This is a white blues, but it powerfully resembles an improvised African-American blues lyric, composed mostly of floating verses. -PJS

Cross references

• cf. "Pay Day" (floating lyrics)
• cf. "Rain and Snow" (floating lyrics)
• cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (floating lyrics)

Recordings

• Clarence Ashley, Clint Howard et al, "Honey Babe Blues" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
• Dock Boggs, "Sugar Baby" (Brunswick 118B, 1927; on Boggs2, BoggsCD1, AAFM3)
• Roscoe Holcomb, "Got No Honey Baby Now (Honey Babe Blues)" (on Holcomb2)
• Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Little Turtle Dove" (1928; on BLLunsford01; a composite of all sorts of floating verses, a few of which may be from here)
• Charlie Monroe & his Kentucky Pardners, "Red Rocking Chair" (RCA Victor 21-0145, 1949)
• New Lost City Ramblers, "Red Rocking Chair" (on NLCR03)
• Frank Proffitt, "Got No Sugar Baby Now" (on FProffitt01)

References

1. Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 82 "Sugar Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 34, "Red Rocking Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. Silber-FSWB, p. 175, "Red Apple Juice" (1 text)
4. Roud #7695
5. BI, ADR82