Annotation:Up Jumped the Rabbit
X:1 T:Up jumped the Rabbit N:From the playing of the Lowe Stokes & His Georgia Pot Lickers M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel/Song Q:Quick N:Play AA'VocalB D:Yazoo CD 2202, Georgia Pot Lickers - The Stuff that Dreams are D:Made of (2000). D:Brunswick 595, Georgie Pot Lickers (1930) D:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UWExJaxVgE D:https://www.slippery-hill.com/content/jumped-rabbit Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:C [de]-|S[ee]dcA GECD|EGA(c [e3e3])[de]-|[ee]dcA GECD|1EGAd c3:|2EG A2 c4|| P:Vocal c2 c A G E C D|E2G2c4|e2c2 AG3|A d3 c4| e2c2 G2 E E|GA3 c3 c|e2c2A2GG|Ad3 c4|| e ae|g2g2- geae|g2g2-g2 ae|g2c'-a gedc-|c2g2- geae| g2g2 geae|g2g2 geae|g2c'-a gedc-|[M:2/4]c2cdS||
UP JUMPED THE RABBIT. American, Reel and Song (cut time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). "Up Jumped the Rabbit", a reel and song, was recorded in Atlanta, Ga., in November, 1930, by fiddler Lowe Stokes along with various members of the Skillet Lickers constellation of musicians, calling themselves the Georgia Pot Lickers. A month after the recording session Stokes had his hand amputated after a hunting accident; remarkably, he was playing again within a year, with his bow hand fitted out with a hook fashioned by Skillet Lickers fiddler Bert Layne and a mechanic friend. Brunswick did not release the songs/tunes recorded that day until 1932, during the Depression, and they did not sell well.
A copy of the original recording, in mint condition, was sold for $10,126.05 in an eBay auction in 2005. According to collector Richard Nevins [1]. a copy of the record surfaced in a Nebraska junk shop that year, from a woman who had dropped off some furniture and records. The storeowner passed the records along to a silverware dealer to sell on eBay, and, in communicating with Nevins was able to 'discover' it among the less valuable 78's.
The words go:
Up jumped the rabbit with a great big smile,
A hound dog running was on his mind;
His foot slipped and he said, Oh, me,
I know right now that the joke's on me.
Skeeter and the bumble bee playing Seven Up,
Skeeter won the money but afraid to pick it up;[2]
Went around the mountain and over the hill,
And the last we heard he's going still.
Old mister rabbit your eyes are mighty round,
Suggest by gosh I'm ahead of the hound(??);
I tell you what and you know it's true,
Old mister hound it's me and you.
- ↑ NPR music interview 4.22.2006, "A Blues and Country Collection for Collectors" [3]
- ↑ See note for "Nigger and the White Man."