Jelly Roll Morton Honky Tonk Blues
Well, the girls’d start. They’d say, “Play me something
there, boy, play me some blues.” So they’d start
playin’ in this way:
Honky Tonk Blues
[inaudible comments]
I could sit right here, think a thousand miles away,
Sit right here, think a thousand miles away,
Since I had the blues this bad, cannot remember the
day.
Tell me, baby, what you got on your mind,
Tell me, baby, what you got on your mind,
I’m eating here and drinkin’, havin’ a lovely time.
Let me be your wiggler, till your wobbler comes,
Let me be your wiggler, till your wobbler comes,
You tell your wobbler, what your wiggler done.
I never believe in havin’ one woman at a time,
I never believe in havin’ one woman at a time,
I always have six, seven, eight or nine.
She said, “Babe, oh, baby,
Babe, oh, baby,
You bound to set your sweet papa cra . . . crazy.”
Sometimes they’d have good lookin’ . . . good lookin’
women of all kinds. Beautiful women, some was ugly,
very ugly. Some looked like they had lips . . . lips
looked like bumpers on a boxcar.
[laughs]
I’m tellin’ you they had all kind of ‘em dressed up.
Rags . . . rags looked like ribbons on some of ‘em.
Some of ‘em with big guns in their bosoms. It was the
law in New Orleans that anybody could carry a gun if
they wanted — almost. ‘Course it was just about a ten-
dollar fine, er, didn’t make very much difference. And
if they found you ten dollars . . . why, your sentence
would be thirty days in jail. And possibly they’d put
you in the market to clean up the market in the
mornin’. And most of the prisoners would always run
away.
