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Hound Dog Song (Gotta Quit Kickin My Dog Around)
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown; US.
ARTIST: From Ozark Folksongs, Randolph. CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: Late 1800’s. Popularized in 1912 as a campaign song.
RECORDING INFO: Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Ya Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Aroun'" (Columbia 15084-D, 1938). Thomason, Ron. Mandolin and Other Stuff, Kanawha RT-3, LP (198?), cut#B.04; Golden Ring. Golden Ring. A Gathering of Friends for Making Music, Folk Legacy FSI-016, LP (1964), cut# 4
OTHER NAMES: Gotta Quit Kickin My Dog Around; You Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around; Every Time I Go To Town
RELATED TO: “Sally Ann;” “Great Big Taters in Sandy Land”
SOURCES: Randolph 512, "The Hound Dog Song;" Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 81. Lomax-FSNA, "The Hound Dawg Song;" AKA and see "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land." Darling-NAS, pp. 253-254, "The Hound Dog Song;"
NOTES: This was the campaign song of Champ Clark, senator from Missouri, during his campaign for President of the United States. He lost. As a matter of fact, James Beauchamp "Champ" Clark was never even nominated for the Presidency, though he came very close. As Congressman from Missouri, he had been a leader in the fight to strip the Speaker of the House of his dictatorial powers in that chamber. This made him an obvious candidate for the Presidency in 1912. But the Democratic Party required that candidates receive two-thirds of the votes of the delegates, and Clark -- though he was the clear favorite among the candidates -- never did gain that many votes (this was in the days when most delegates were chosen by caucus). Eventually his support started to fail, and a series of deals made Woodrow Wilson the Democratic nominee. With the Republican Party split between the factions of Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, the Democratic nominee's election was assured. Thus Clark was only a rule change away from being elected President -- but not a single person ever voted for him in a national election. Randolph heard a story which based this on a pre-Civil-War incident in Forsyth, Missouri. Proof is, of course, lacking.
From Russel Nye, The Unembarrassed Muse: The Popular Arts in America, New York, 1978, p. 314: "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1878) alone was enough to place Bland with the popular immortals... "They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Aroun'" was a comedy favorite for years. When Bland's troupe visited London in 1884, he stayed there to enjoy a highly successful career on the English stage. When he returned twenty years later the minstrel shows were nearly gone and he could not write what vaudeville wanted. Like Foster, he died broke and alone in 1911.”
"They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Aroun'" was a comedy favorite for James Bland’s minstrel troupe. The melody of "The Hound Dog Song" is the similar to “Sally Ann” and “Great Big Taters”.
Hound Dog Song
Chorus: Well, everytime I go to town,
The boys keep kickin' my dog around.
It makes no difference if'n he's a hound,
Tthey've gotta quit kickin' my dog around.
Well, me & Lem Briggs and ol' Bill Brown,
We took us a little old walk to town
My old Jim dog, ornery cuss,
He just naturally follered us.
They tied a can to old Jim's tail; An' run him a-past the county jail;
That just naturally made us sore, Lem, he cussed an' Bill he swore.
Chorus:
As we passed by Johnson's store, a passel of yaps came out the door.
It made my Jim hide under a box, with all of them fellers a throwin' rocks.
Me an' Lem Briggs an' old Bill Brown, Lost no time a-gittin' down;
We wiped them fellers on the ground, For kickin' my old Jim dawg around.
Well, Jim seen his duty there and then,
He lit into those gentlemen.
He sure messed up the courthouse square,
With the rags and the meat and the hide and the hair.
Chorus:
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