Dialect variation in the Times

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 22, 2011, at 2:30 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 7:17 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>> William Charles Segar in 1940
>
> That's the guy who drew "Popeye," right?
>
> And who knew that the song was so recent?
>
> Are the words to the Broonzy version those that Segar wrote? The words
> to the Walter and the Derek versions differ  both from Broonzy and
> from each other. And Walter sings "I've" and not "I"." I regret the
> error.

And while their versions all have something like the following for the second and fourth lines of the opening verse,

I got the key to the highway,
Billed out and bound to go.
I'm gonna leave here running;
Walking is most too slow.

B. B. King's apparently (if the web can be trusted) has "Feel I got to go" and "Walking is both too slow" respectively.  I suspect the latter is a mishearing, but…youneverknow.  ("most too slow" is pretty interesting as it is).

LH
>
> As it happens, I've actually heard only Walter's version and the
> mistitled "Keep" version. It has, needless to say, words different
> from those of all other versions. IMO, the differences are all too
> trivial to be worth citing.
>
> Sadly, only the version attributed to Broonzy mentions Texas in its lyrics.
>

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