"Keep on Truckin'"

[Fred Shapiro]

The OED, in one of its weaker entries, has a 1972 first use for the phrase
"keep on trucking."  R. Crumb used it, of course, in Zap #1 (1968).  I am
trying to see how far back it goes in blues music.

The earliest confirmed usage I have found is in the lyrics of Blind Boy
Fuller's 1937 song "Truckin' My Blues Away #2."  Is anyone able to tell me
whether "keep on truckin'" appears in Fuller's original "Truckin' My Blues
Away" (1936), or in any earlier song?  There is said to have been a song
called "Keep on Truckin'," but I don't know the date.

I am aware that Barry Popik posted a 1935 song called "Truckin'" that
includes the words "keep truck, truck, truckin' along!"

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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