Don't Let Your Deal Go Down

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Been all around this whole round world... Anyplace I hang my hat/Feels like home to me"; "Left my little girl a'crying"; "Where did you get your high-top shoes" Chorus: "Don't let your deal go down/Till your last (g)old dollar is gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Charlie Poole)
KEYWORDS: gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," "More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 tunes plus text excerpts, both of which have verses of this song)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 182-183, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 70, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #131, "Don't Let the Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 285, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 144, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text)
DT, DEALDOWN*
Roud #4854
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (OKeh 45096, 1927)
Lake Howard, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Perfect 13151, 1935)
Dick Justice, "Old Black Dog" (Brunswick 395, c. 1929)
Kessinger Brothers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Brunswick 411, 1930)
Sam & Kirk McGee, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on ClassOT)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1) (NLCR12)
W. Lee O'Daniel & the Light Crust Doughboys, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Vocalion 03471, 1937)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues" (Columbia 15038-D, 1925; on CPoole01, CPoole05); (Columbia 15184-D, 1927)
Riley Puckett, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Columbia 15448-D, 1929) (Bluebird B-6067, 1935)
Mike Seeger, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on MSeeger01)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (OKeh 45054, 1926)
Stoneman Family, "The Black Dog Blues" (on Stonemans01)
Fields Ward, Glen Smith & Wade Ward, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on HalfCen1)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Don't Let the Deal Go Down" (Vocalion 05282, 1939; Columbia 37739, 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Pines" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Last Gold Dollar
High Top Shoes
NOTES [82 words]: The phrase "let your deal go down" refers to the Georgia Skin Game, a card game popular among gamblers in the first half of the 20th century. - PJS
There is a 1900 popular song, "Any Old Place I Can Hang My Hat Is Home Sweet Home to Me," words by William Jerome, music by Jean Schwartz. They are definitely not the same, but it looks as if one of them influenced the other. Perhaps someone heard one song (I don't know which), remembered only a few words, and built a new song out of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW182

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