Annotation:Lazy John

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X:1 T:Lazy John N:From a 1990 concert recording at Berea College of fiddler N:Clyde Davenport, b. 1921, Monticello, Wayne County, south-central Ky. M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel/Song Q:"Moderately Quick" D:https://soundarchives.berea.edu/items/show/513 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G [G,2D2]-|[G,D]EG2+slide+[A3A3]A|(A/B/A) G2[GA]-[G2B2]G|D-EG2 [A2A2]A(A/B/|A)GEG [GA]-[G3B3]| DEG2+slide+[A3A3]A|(B<A) G2[GA]-[G2B2]G|D-EG2 [A2A2]A(A/B/|A)GEG [GA]-[G3B3]|| |:A-Bd2 d-e2d|edB2 +slide+[A4A4]|(DE)GG A2AB|A-GE-G [GA]-[G3B3]:|]

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LAZY JOHN. American, Reel and Song (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. A tune/song from the playing of Monticello, Kentucky (on the Cumberland Plateau), fiddler Clyde Davenport [1] (b. 1921), and a largely different tune (and song) from the similarly titled "Sleepy John/Sleepy-Eyed John," with only small similarities in the chorus.

Clyde Davenport

Davenport told interviewer Dr. Jeff Titon that he learned the tune from the radio, possibly, notes Titon, from the western swing band version by Texas musician Johnny Lee Wills, who recorded a song called Lazy John on the Decca label in the 1940's. Wills was the brother of fiddler Bob Wills, and was one of the original Texas Playboys. Clyde Davenport's lyric goes:

I've got a gal, she lives by the road,
Her eyes is crooked and her legs are bowed;
But she sure is a lot of fun,
Why don't you go away Lazy John.

Cho:
Lazy John, Lazy John,
Why don't you get your day's work all done;
I'm in the shade and you’re in the sun,
Why don't you go away Lazy John.

I'm gonna dance Saturday night,
Work on the dance till the broad daylight;
Then I'll take my sweetie back home,
Why don't you go away Lazy John.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources:

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