Junker/Junko/Junco Partner

[Wilson Gray]

Isn't that "Junker'_s_ Blues"? In one version, Champion Jack sings
that the police "took my _reefle_ out my hand." OTOH, there's an old
R&B song in which the leader of the group sings of "roaches (insects)
on my tabre." Duelling reanalyses.

-Wilson

On Jan 20, 2008 1:14 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Junker/Junko/Junco Partner
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jan 20, 2008 2:06 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I was surprised to come across mention of this song in Linguist List.
> > Since this is pretty much a folk song, it has a wide variety of words.
> > So, FTHOI, I thought that I'd just throw some others into the pot. The
> > words below are the oldest that I know of, as I was able to understand
> > them from a lo-fi, ca.1949, 78rpm recording by Vic Damone, back in the
> > day. It was the B-side of "Vagabond Shoes."
>
> Wilson, are you sure Vic Damone recorded this? I haven't been able to
> find any mention of it. "Vagabond Shoes" was released in 1950 with "I
> Hadn't Anyone Till You" on the flip side (Mercury 5429). The earliest
> recorded version of "Junco Partner" I can find is from 1951, by James
> "Wee Willie" Wayne (b. James D. Waynes, c 1923, Texas). More on
> Wayne(s) here:
>
> http://www.blackcat.nl/references/messages/james_wayne.htm
>
> Richard Hayes and Louis Jordan both recorded the song in 1952.  I'm
> wondering if the version Wilson remembers might be the one by  Hayes,
> since he was a Brooklyn-born pop vocalist like Damone and also
> recorded for Mercury.
>
> (BTW, Champion Jack Dupree recorded "Junker Blues" in 1941, but it
> doesn't appear to be the same song.)
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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