If I Call You Mama

DESCRIPTION: When singer calls his lover she won't call back. She brags about her looks ("brick house") and she "hauls" (ashes) for "two high yellows." He asked her for "whisky" got "gasoline." He's going home to New Orleans.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex bragging farewell parting drink bawdy nonballad lover
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - The Volstead Act estabishes prohibition of "intoxicating liquors" to carry out the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1933 - The 21st amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends prohibition.
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Luke Jordan, "If I Call You Mama" (on StuffDreams1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Got the Jake Leg Too" (Prohibition alcohol surrogates) and references there
cf. "Clarksdale Moan" (Son House) (Prohibition alcohol surrogates)
cf. "Old Rub Alcohol Blues" (Dock Boggs) (Prohibition alcohol surrogates)
cf. "Canned Heat Blues" (Tommy Johnson) (Prohibition alcohol surrogates)
cf. "Alcohol and Jake Blues" (Tommy Johnson) (Prohibition alcohol surrogates)
NOTES [201 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
I assume "gasoline" was slang for poison in 1929 and not the alcoholic drink it is now. Or is this not about drink at all? Tommy Johnson sings "I'd asked (her) for water, (she) give me gasoline" ("Cool Drink of Water Blues" (Victor 21279, 1928)). See the rubbing alcohol (Son House and Dock Boggs), jake and canned heat (Tommy Johnson again) prohibition-time songs for poisonous whisky surrogates. As a market for ethanol, some gasoline-ethanol blends were sold during prohibition, so this may add to the already bitter sarcasm.
On the other hand, if the "gasoline" line started with Tommy Johnson, he claimed "that this song was based on an actual experience. He was walking along a railroad track and met a woman whom he asked for a drink of water. She gave him gasoline instead," and continued telling how the whole recording was based on a set of actual happenings, according to Evans. But, Evans continues, "This makes a nice story but it is almost certainly untrue or highly exaggerated." (David Evans, Big Road Blues (Boston: Da Capo Press, 1987), pp. 134-135). But, "sometimes a cigar...." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcIICYM

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