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Give Me Back my Fifteen Cents
Old-time Breakdown and Song; Georgia/Southern Appalachians
ARTIST: Dixie Clodhoppers Victor V-40048; March 1929
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: March 1929
RECORDING INFO: Dixie Clodhoppers Victor V-40048-1929; Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers. Nashville Early String Bands, Vol. 1, County 541, LP, cut# 9; Watson, Doc and Merle. Down South, Sugar Hill SH-3742, LP (1984), cut# 1 (Fifteen Cents); Norman Blake: Give Me Back My Fifteen Cents;
OTHER NAMES: Fifteen Cents;
SOURCES: Honkingduck (on-line); Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc);
NOTES: Key A or D; Form AABB Tune sung to the A part. Earl Johnson (Dixie Clodhoppers) was born in August 24, 1886 in Gwinnett County, Georgia. He learned violin techniques under the tutelage of his father and a correspondence course and formed his first group with his brother and sister (guitar and banjo). When both his brother and sister died in 1923, he played second fiddle with the then well known Fiddlin John Carson and his band the Virginia Reelers, and reportedly even played with the popular Georgia Yellow Hammers on occasion. Eventually, he joined up with brilliant guitarists Byrd Moore and banjoist Emmet Bankston to form his own group, the Dixie Entertainers. When Lee "Red" Henderson replaced Byrd Moore as the guitar player, the group became known as the Clodhoppers. They recorded some of the wildest and most exciting versions of standard breakdowns that have ever been released. Later sessions employed his wife Lula Bell and guitarist Bill Henson.(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
LYRICS:
Instrumental
Give me back my fifteen cents
Give me back my money,
Oh give me back my fifteen cents
And I’ll go home to Mammy.
Instrumental
I left my home in Tennessee,
I though I’d learn to travel
And I fell in love with a pretty little girl,
And then I played the devil.
Instrumental
I loved that girl and she loved me
And I thought we’d live together,
Then we tied that fatal knot
And now I’m gone forever.
Instrumental
I want to see my mother-in-law
I want to see my granny.
So give me back my fifteen cents
And I’ll go home to Mammy.
Instrumental
Give me back my fifteen cents
Oh give me back my money,
Give me back my fifteen cents
And I’ll go home to Mammy.
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