Shinbone Alley (Stay a Little Longer, Long Time Ago)

DESCRIPTION: "You ought to see my blue-eyed Sally, She lives way down in shinbone alley, No number on the gate, no number on the door, Folks around here are gettin' mighty poor." Unrelated verses about southern life, disasters, prison, rising creeks, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes poverty prison flood
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 422, "Shinbone Alley" (1 fragment)
MidwestFolklore, Frances Boshears, "Granddaddy Roberts," Volume 3, Number 3 (Fall 1953), p. 153, "(Fished all night, Fished a little longer" (1 text)
~~~~~
Sources for "Stay All Night," the Bob Wills song (Roud #32099) by Bob Willa and Tommy Duncan:
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #2 (1974), p, 1, "Stay All Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11769
RECORDINGS:
cf. Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Stay a Little Longer" (Columbia 37097, 1946)
NOTES [150 words]: The notes in Brown describe this as common, but cite only one possibly-traditional version (in Odum and Johnson).
The problem in fact is very complex: What is the relationship of this traditional song to Bob Wills's "Stay a Little Longer"? The one verifiable traditional collection is Brown's, which came a few years after the Wills recording, but is significantly different -- some lyrics Wills didn't use, added chorus, etc. Similarly the MidwestFolklore fragment: printed a few years after Wills, doesn't mention Shinbone Alley, doesn't say "Stay all night," but looks very closely related.
Paul Stamler thinks they're the same. I waver, since there are are few printed fragments which seem to predate Wills by many decades. Roud gives them separate numbers. For the moment, I'm still listing this under Brown's title, but listing the Wills version as a likely by-blow or perhaps even a source. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Br3422

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