This song is known by several names and different pronunciations (kind of like listening to a speech by former President Bush). In Morgantown, it's known as "Raise a Rough House Tonight" but others know it as "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" Ruckus can be pronounced so that it rhymes with "Duck Us" or with "Kook Us."
One of the fellows in Mudcat.org says that the
song dates to at least the early 19th century in the form of a slave
song. To me this is very plausible based on the structure of the song
and the leader/response pattern of singing the lyrics. A slave version
of the song found its way into print in 1922 (Thomas W. Talley's Negro
Folk Rhymes, published in 1922, p. 90. This doesn't even come close to
being politically correct, however, as the N-word is used throughout.
The East River Band version, like the Talley version, tells the grim story of a slaveowner woman who promised to set her slaves free upon her death, and one of the slaves got tired of waiting and took matters into his own hand. One could not understand "Mistress" to be the fellow's wife or girlfriend, but almost certainly a slaveowner. The lyrics appended below allude to the same story, though the Mistress is replaced by a Master.
The East River Band version, like the Talley version, tells the grim story of a slaveowner woman who promised to set her slaves free upon her death, and one of the slaves got tired of waiting and took matters into his own hand. One could not understand "Mistress" to be the fellow's wife or girlfriend, but almost certainly a slaveowner. The lyrics appended below allude to the same story, though the Mistress is replaced by a Master.
The image of a boat floating down a river suggests that a version of this song may have been popular in minstrel shows, some of which were held on the riverboats. It's easy to imagine that Raise a Ruckas may have been performed in Minstrel shows on the riverboats, but I have found no direct proof of that.
John Heneghan and Eden Brower and the East River Band perform this version, with Robert Crumb on the lefty mando (strung for a righty no less!), Dom Flemons (Carolina Chocolate Drops) and Joe Lauro (Lone Sharks).
Blues musician Buster Brown (not the kid who lives in your shoe) recorded a New Orleans version in 1960.
Best of all, Uncle Earl has a version of this song, which you can find here:
Blues musician Buster Brown (not the kid who lives in your shoe) recorded a New Orleans version in 1960.
Best of all, Uncle Earl has a version of this song, which you can find here:
Uncle Earl is an all-female band, not the least of whom is Rachel Eddy Herner of Morgantown (now Stockholm). Speaking of Uncle Earl, one of the past members is Rayna Gellert, the daughter of Dan Gellert, who is a very talented fiddle player who occasionally drops in at the Trolley Stop in Dayton. How about that?
Raise a Ruckus
(choice of Jesse Fuller in Something to Sing About! - The personal Choices of America's Folk Singers, collected and arranged by Milton Okun, McMillian, 1968, pp 63-67.)CHORUS:
(A) Come a-long, lit-tle chil-dren come a-long
(A) While the moon is shin-ing (E) bright.
(A) Get on (A7) bo-ard,- (D7)down the ri-ver float,
(A) Raise a (E7) ruck-us to- (A) night!
VERSE:
(1) (A) Love my wife, I love my ba-baby,
Raise a (Bm) ruck-us to- (A) night.
(A) Love my bis-cuits pick-led in gra-vy,
Raise a (E) ruck-us to- (A) night.
(A) Save me the ham-burg,
give me the gra-vy, (Bm) Raise a ruck-us to- (A) night.
(A) Love my gis-cuits sopped in gra-vy,
Raise a (E7) ruck-us to- (A) night.
(2) My old master said to me,
Raise a ruckus tonight,
When he'd die he's set me free,
Raise a ruckus tonight.
He lived so long his head got bald,
Raise a ruckus tonight,
He got out o' the notion of dying at all,
Raise a ruckus tonight.
(3) Old hen sitting on a fodder stack,
Raise a ruckus tonight,
Hawk came along and struck he in the back,
Raise a ruckus tonight.
Old hen flew and the biddies too,
Raise a ruckus tonight,
What in the world is the rooster gonna do?
Raise a ruckus tonight.
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