Annotation:Hop High Ladies

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HOP HIGH LADIES (THE CAKE'S ALL DOUGH). AKA and see "McCloud's Reel," "Miss McCloud's Reel," "Mrs. MacLeod of Raasay," "Miss McLeod's Reel (1)," "Miss MacLeod's Reel (1)," "Did You Ever Go to Meetin' Uncle Joe Uncle Joe?" "Did You Ever See the Devil Uncle Joe?" "Uncle Joe," "Hop Light Ladies," "Green Mountain (1)," "Knickerbocker Reel," "Billy Boy (2)," "Sally's Hornpipe," "Walk Jaw Bone (1)," "Whitewash Station." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Widely known. G Major (usually - Thede published an odd version in G ['A' part] and D ['B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. An American 'old-time' version of the Scottish "Miss McCloud's/Miss McLeod's Reel," the main difference being that the old-time version resolves to the tonic on the cadence, while the Scottish tune generally ends on the dominant. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Wade and Fields Ward (Galax, Va.) recorded the tune on guitar and banjo in 1937 for Alan Lomax (AAFS #1363). The Lomaxes included a transcription of the tune (under the title "Hop Up, My Ladies") in their book Our Singing Country, where it is proximate with the version of "Bonaparte's Retreat" printed a few pages later. "Hop Light Ladies" was in the repertoire of fiddler S.S. Ransdell (Louisburg, Granville, County, N.C.) who competed in 1905 in the Raleigh, N.C., fiddler's convention, as recorded by the old Raleigh News and Observer. Various lyrics to the tune go:

Hop high ladies for the cake's all dough (x3)
I don't mind the weather so the wind don't blow

The cow kicked Nelly in the belly in the barn
The cow kicked Nelly in the belly in the barn
The cow kicked Nelly in the belly in the barn
And another little snort wouldn't do us any harm

Did you ever see the devil, Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe (3x)
Well, I don't mind the weather if the wind don't blow.

Did you ever go to meeting, Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe (3x)
Well, I don't mind the weather if the wind don't blow.

How'd ya like the weather, Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe (3x)
Huh? What'd you say?

Hop high ladies and the cakes all dough (3x)
I don't mind the weather if the wind don't blow.

Tennessee entertainer Uncle Dave Macon did not always sing the three repeat lines of the chorus, "Hop High Ladies, (for) cake's all dough," but sometimes substituted instrumental fragments to hold the rhythm. Tom Paley says that Macon's last line occasionally went something like (it is not clear on the recording):

How I get enough time, my Lord, I never will know.

These words are from the Memphis Jug Band (who called the tune "Whitewash Station"):

If you want to go to heaven
I tell you what to do
You put on your sock, a boot or a shoe
You place a bottle of corn in your right hand
That'll send you right over to the Promised Land

And if you meet the Devil
You ask him "How'd ya do"
"I'm on my way to heaven don'tcha wanna go too?"
You know there's a place
That'll do just as well
It's called a Whitewash Station
Ten miles from hell.

Source for notated version: W.S. Collins (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma) [Thede].

Printed sources: Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 13, p. 6 (appears as "Don't You Want to Go to Heaven, Uncle Joe?"). Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; p. 99.

Recorded sources: Biograph Records LP 6003, "The Bog-Trotters: 1937-1942." Folkways FA 2494, "Sing Songs of the New Lost City Ramblers" (1978). Philo 1042, Boys of the Lough (with old-time mandolinist Kenny Hall) - "The Piper's Broken Finger" (1976). Vocalion 5154 (78 RPM), Uncle Dave Macon.

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