Annotation:Take Your Foot Out of the Mud
X:1 T:Take Your Foot out of the Mud (and put it in the Sand) M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel D:Victor V-40117 (78 RPM), McLaughlin's Old Time Melody Makers (1930) N:The third part, in the key of 'C', was played twice in the middle of the piece, N:followed by a return to the first two parts. Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G BA|GEDE D2G2|GABG A2BA|GEDE D2GG|FGAF G2BA| GEDE D2G2-|GABG A2BA|GEDE D2GG|FGAF G2:| c|dBGB dBGB|dBGB d2Bc|dBGB dBGB|cA2BA2Bc| dB2c dBGB|dB2c d2Bc|dBGB dBGB|cA2B G2 || K:C |:c2AG EDCD|E2 ED E2CD|EA-AG A2AG|EAAG A2AB| c2AG EDCD|EAGE C2CD|FA-AAd2A2|B2A2G2 AB| c2AG EDCD|EAGE C2CD|EA-AG A2AG|EAAG A2AB| c2c2d2e2|c2A2GGAB| cAGE C2D2| C6 (3GAB:|
TAKE YOUR FOOT OUT OF THE MUD (AND PUT IT IN THE SAND). American, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Take your foot out of the mud (and put it in the sand)" was first recorded in a raucous, blazingly fast version by Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters in Atlanta, Ga., in March, 1928, featuring calls for a square dance. A more sedate version, with a singing break, was recorded two years later by McLaughlin's Old Time Melody Makers in Memphis. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from the playing of Ozarks Mountains fiddlers in the early 1940's. The Barney Rude sang on the McLaughlin's group recording:
Take your foot out of the mud, and put it in the sand,
Take your foot out of the mud, and put it in the sand;
Take your foot out of the mud, and put it in the sand,
Take your foot out of the mud, and put it in the sand.
I'm as happy as a cricket, happy as can be,
I'm as happy as a baby on its mother's knee;
I'm as happy as a cricket, happy as can be,
I'm as happy as a baby on its mother's knee.
The group consisted of fiddle, piano, guitar, banjo and double bass, and McLaughlin was the name of the group's banjo player, although little more is known of the band.
