Annotation:Hop Up Kitty Puss (3)
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HOP UP KITTY PUSS [3]. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Missouri. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Little relationship to Thede's "Hop Up Kitty Puss (1)," or Buddy Thomas's tune of the same name. Source Bob Holt said this was his father's favorite tune, and remembered him singing the lyric:
Hop up, Kitty Puss, hop up higher,
Hop up, Kitty Puss, your tail's on fire.
Poor little Kitty Puss, poor little fella,
Poor little Kitty Puss, died in the celler.
Holt thought the lyric was associated with a play-party game, an assumption corroborated by the North Carolina-collected play party "Poor Little Kitty Puss" (see The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, V, p. 78) [Beisswenger].
Source for notated version: Bob Holt (1930-2004) [Beisswenger & McCann].
Printed sources: Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Music), 2008; p. 62.
Recorded sources: Rounder CD 0432, Bob Holt - "Got a Little Home to Go to" (1998).