Old Joe Shuffle
DESCRIPTION: "Old Joe Shuffle, he walked with a limp, Old man Shuffle he walked with a stick... For he limped, and he kicked at a wheel." He was a potter, and "loved his corn likker" that he put in his own jug. He died at a wheel, seeing snakes, killing his own drakes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: work death drink disability
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (no author listed), "Old Joe Shuffle," Vol. V, No. 1 (Jul 1957), p. 6, "(Old Joe Shuffle he walked with a limp)" (1 text)
NOTES [45 words]: It's not clear, from the song, if Josiah Wedgwood Sheffield, "Old Joe Shuffle," died of delirium tremens, but it certainly sounds like a possibility. Why this made him worthy of a song I am not sure. It doesn't seem as if it circulated outside his immediate region. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF5106
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