Yes, Yes, Yes

DESCRIPTION: Mother buys a rooster, thinks it's a duck, roasts it, sis gets gravy from its "yas, yas, yas." A rooster taken for a hen, does not lay eggs from his.... Sister should stop waving her.... Dance: if you can't shake your shoulders shake your....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Stump Johnson)
KEYWORDS: dancing bawdy scatological chickens animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Yes, Yes, Yes" (on WIHIGGS01)
(James) Stump Johnson, "Duck's Yas Yas" (Paramount 12842, 1928); on "James 'Stump' Johnson 1929-1964," Document Records DOCD-5250 CD (1994)) as "The Duck's Yas-Yas-Yas"
Tampa Red and Georgia Tom (Thomas A Dorsey), "That Duck's Yas Yas Yas" (Vocalion 1277, 1929); on "Tampa Red, Volume 2" Document Records DOCD-5074 CD (1991)) as "The Duck Yas-Yas-Yas"
Dave Van Ronk, "Yas, Yas, Yas" (1991, on "Dave Van Ronk The Folkways Years 1959-1961," Smithsonian Folkways SF 40041)
NOTES [217 words]: In the liner notes to the Smithsonian-Folkways CD Van Ronk says, "I think I learned this from a record by the Spirits of Rhythm. In any case, various versions of it were kicking around the jazz scene when I was. Some of the raunchier verses were omitted in deference to the tender sensibilities of the folk audience."
Of Stump Johnson's 8 verses only three used "yas yas yas." Other verses were just good rhyming double couplets. A fair question is, "What did Johnson sing when he wasn't bound by recording standards?" For example, here is one of Johnson's (and Tampa Red's) verses: "Down on Morgan there's a good location, Right there next to the gasoline station That's where you get your car's oil and grease All the women crying honey won't you come in please." Here's Dave Van Ronk's (and Blind Blake's): "Mr Dillinger rode up to a gasoline station, He says this looks like a pretty good location. The attendant says do you want some gas? Well it's either your gas or your yas yas yas."
As it turns out, the Tampa Red and Georgia Tom track is a cover of Stump Johnson's track, verse for verse, down to the humming introduction. All of the six Van Ronk verses are included in Blind Bllake's eleven, though the words vary. They cover two of Johnson's verses, not counting the verse cited above. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcYeYeYe

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