Stella Johnson, "Don't Come Over", (Decca), 1936

[George Thompson]

The "Sweet Violets" &c chain reminded me that I have had this tucked away
for some time, intending to post it for the edification of you uns.

I first heard it on WHVW (950 am), but it's also on the net.

http://www.we7.com/track/Dont-Come-Over?trackId=2730002&m=0



Stella Johnson, "Don't Come Over", (Decca), 1936, with Dorothy Scott's
Rhythm Boys.  (app. also available on Blue Ladies, 1934-1941 CD)


The refrain is:

Don't come over to my flat, I have somebody home with me.

Don't come over to my flat, I be as cool as cool can be.



This is joined to  the following couplets:

Now you think you are really slick, you turned out to be a no good ...

I took you in, tried to teach you some class, you got drunk and showed your
natural ...

Showed me the place where you could bring me some luck, you and your family
aren't worth a ...

Your mammy and sister putting on a front, and all the boys know they're
crazy about ...

If you bother me I'll turn you up to the cops, because you tried to make
yourself some ...

Now run along, I'm doing swell, just take your rags and go to ...

Got another man, he's calm as a lamb, when he starts to loving, says, ooh
god ...



 I thought it was odd that the taboo on the unsung rhymes got weaker as the
song developed: form prick, ass, fuck and cunt to ??? (hops = hop =
cocaine?), hell and damn.

The boys know that mammy and sister are  "crazy about cunt"; I suppose this
means that they are readily available to the boys.  If so, then an odd
reversal from the word I would expect here: crazy about cock (in the
Connecticut River Valley sense of "cock", not the Yazoo River Valley sense).


GAT


--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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