Duck-Foot Sue

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to sing to you About a girl I love so true, She's chief engineer with the White Star Line, And her name is Duck-foot Sue." He details her odd looks ("teeth like bits of pipe"), her proposal "if you don't marry me I'll bust," and her appetite.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Australia US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 227, "Duck-Foot Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 129-130, "Duckfoot Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 155, "Duckfoot Sue" (1 short text)
Roud #9553
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sluefoot Sue
Slufoot Sue
NOTES [113 words]: John Collins of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, sends me a version which he learned around 1935. Reportedly "a friend's father sang [this] to his dogs. It drove them batty and they 'san'" along with him."
There once was a girl I knew
Her name was Slufoot Sue
She was chief engineer at a shirttail factory
Down by the riverside zoo
Her face was all she had
She had a shape like a softshell crab
Every night she had a tussle
With a patent leather bustle
GEE but she was BAAAD
I begin to think there must be a music hall origin to the song, although I haven't yet found it.
There are a number of old-time country recordings; almost all seem to be by Bob Miller under different names. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA227

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