Lyr Add: Willie's Dog (Jerry Rasmussen)

Subject: ADD: Willie's Dog (Rasmussen)
From: Wolfgang
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 01:44 PM

That was the most difficult song from Jerry Rasmussen for me to transcribe. I sometimes had to put in dialect expressions and I'm not good at American dialects. Jerry has helped me with a part of the lyrics when I was completely stuck, but I expect a couple of mistakes in the remainder. The song is autobiographical Jerry says on the record sleeve, but he might tell you more if he finds this thread.

Wolfgang

WILLIE'S DOG
(Jerry Rasmussen)

Willie found a dog, 'bout half grown
Poppa raised the devil when Willie brought him home.
Willie never paid his Poppa no mind
He told him that the dog just tagged along behind.

Poppa told Willie, the dog's no good
Take him to the pond(?) but Willie never would
'Cause Willie never had a dog of his own
And even though he tried he couldn't leave the dog alone.

So Willie kept the dog and he named him Fred
And he slept at night at the foot of all his bed.
And early in the morning when Poppa was asleep
Willie and the dog would go swimming in the creek.

Willie grew up and the dog grew lame
And the Old Man harbored with a walking cane.
Willie found a wife she calls him Bill
The dog and the old feller live together still.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 01:51 PM

I like it! Is it to the tune of anything I might know?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 02:04 PM

Not bad, Wolfgang. Pond = pound (dog pound) where strays are corraled. Harbored is probably labored. Jerry will probably be along to correct any others.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 02:08 PM

Just a guess here...(until Jerry comes along) should that be "hobbled" instead of "harbored" in the second line of the last verse?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 04:24 PM

Good work, Dicho and Mary... "took him to the pound," is right.. The "pound", Wolfgang, is the dog pound, where people take stray dogs. "And the old man hobbled" with a walking cane." No wonder you couldn't figure that one out, Wolfgang. In Colonial times, when livestock weren't always fenced in, they put wooden hobbles around the legs of the animals... kinda like putting chains around the leg of a convict. Someone who walks like they're hobbled would be taking small, tentative steps.

When I was about 12 years old, I befriended a mongrel (not purebred) dog on the way home from school. We hit it off, right away, and it didn't take much to lure him home. He was hungry, so when we got home I fed him and he made hmself comfortable. When my Dad came home from work, he told me that we'd have to get rid of the dog, but I fell on his mercy. Besides, my Father was a hunter, and I think he sensed that the dog would be a good hunting dog. And she was.

Don't ever get me started on songs about dogs. I could do a full album of them.

Mrrzy... I could hum the tune for you... the tune isn't one I've consciously heard before, but my muse lives down there in Kentucky, the next holler over from Mary, so it would song familiar to you. The song is on the last album I did, Handful of Songs. I still have a few hundred thousand copies available.

If anyone ever wants to reach me more directly, I think that my e-mail address is posted somewhere around here. It's [e-mail].

Thanks again, Wolfgang.

After Christmas, I'll send you some more stuff.

And a Merry Christmas to all..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 04:37 PM

Now Jerry, you're probably confusing Wolfgang with all this "holler" talk! And I'm confused about your muse.

(Eastern Kenucky is quite mountainous, and the terrain is referred to as "hills and hollers" (holler=hollow). People living there have settled along the creeks, and the creek forms a "holler" winding through the mountains. It's common for folks around there to give directions by saying, "just up the holler a piece" or "over in the next holler" etc.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 05:20 PM

O.K., I'm not really from Kentucky... I grew up in southern Wisconsin. But, if you are what you eat, then you must also be what you lisen to. I awoke every morning to the melodious sounds of pigs squealing, when they gave the morning Hog Reports on the radio. Not implying that I became a pig... But I grew up in a small town with "hollers" of our own... my father went coon hunting in Happy Hollow. I've always loved southern mountain music, and it's as much a part of me as if I'd grown up there. As is rhythm and blues, even though I didn't grow up on the streets of New York City. And jazz, even though I didn't grow up in New Orleans. We are all shaped by the music we love, and you can hear the south in my music. I've even had people who were "experts" on dialect insist that I'm from the south. A year ago, someone overheard me talking somewhere and said that he could tell where anyone grew up, just by listening to them speak. He said that he'd been listening to me, and trying to place where I was from, and he proudly said, "You're from Kentucky,aren't you!" When I told him that he was right, that I grew up in the south... southern Wisconsin, he was crushed and turned and walked away.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 07:06 PM

That's an odd observation from your friend, Jerry. I think Kentucky has more different accents than any other state. I can often identify different regions in Kentucky when given that the person is from Kentucky, but I have a hard time distinguishing...say the pocket in Southwestern KY from an Alabama accent, and the Louisville accent from a cosmopolitan one (except when they say Louavull.) About the only people around here that have drawls are politicians! Then we won't get into the Eastern KY accent...or rather the phrasing. It really paints some unique pictures.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 07:38 PM

'Tweren't a friend. A total stranger. Some folks just get puffed-up about how good they are. I was a weather man on the radio for seven years, and someone called up claiming that it had never rained on his birthday, and wanted me to prove it to his friends. After I had found three of the last six years when it had rained on his birthday, he started yelling at me that it hadn't, and then hung up. Funny thing about accents is that if we live in different parts of the country, and also get a higher education, most of our accent wears off. My accent comes out more when I am singing than wehn I am talking. Interesting subject... might have to start a thread on it..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Willie's dog
From: Wolfgang
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 05:02 AM

Thanks for the corrections. I could have guessed 'hobbled' in theory (from reading German stories about the Wild West), but 'pound' was beyond my ability.

Wolfgang

Subject: Lyr Add: WILLIE'S DOG (Jerry Rasmussen)
From: Wolfgang
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 05:07 AM

now the corrected version for the sake of the harvesters:

WILLIE'S DOG
(Jerry Rasmussen)

Willie found a dog, 'bout half grown
Poppa raised the devil when Willie brought him home.
Willie never paid his Poppa no mind
He told him that the dog just tagged along behind.

Poppa told Willie, the dog's no good
Take him to the pound but Willie never would
'Cause Willie never had a dog of his own
And even though he tried he couldn't leave the dog alone.

So Willie kept the dog and he named him Fred
And he slept at night at the foot of all his bed.
And early in the morning when Poppa was asleep
Willie and the dog would go swimming in the creek.

Willie grew up and the dog grew lame
And the Old Man hobbled with a walking cane.
Willie found a wife she calls him Bill
The dog and the old feller live together still.