CAN I DO IT FOR YOU

Created on 24/06/2008
Latest update on 18/07/2023

Artist: Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe
Author: Lizzie Douglas/Joe McCoy
Label: Vocalion
Year: 1930

Joe fails to impress Minnie by promising her "a watch and chain", "a house and home", "a strip of land", "a diamond ring", "a wooden cove", "children's clothes" and finally "a Chevrolet". A car as the ultimate dowry in the first year of the Great Depression.

Covers:

1959:

Young Brothers [as Chevrolet; same melody + part of the lyrics: "I'll buy you a watch and chain", "...a diamond ring", "...a Chevrolet" (see footnote)]

1965:

Donovan [as Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness); starts with promissing his girlfriend to buy a Chevrolet, a Ford Mustang, a Cadillac and if that doesn't work, "a sugar cube"]

1966:

Animals [as Hey Gyp]

1967:

Jim Kweskin Jug Band [as Chevrolet]

1967:

Them [as Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness); when Van Morrison left the band the remaining members recorded it again as Them Benfast Gypsies]

1968:

Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation [as Watch 'n Chain]

1971:

Taj Mahal [crediting The Young Brothers]

1978:

Foghat [as Chevrolet]

1992:

Ramon Pipin [as La Porte du jardin]

1995:

Robben Ford & The Blue Line [credited to Ed & Lonnie Young]

1998:

Geoff Muldaur [in medley with jazz pianist Don Pullen's Big Alice, riding on that same Hambone rhythm pattern]

2006:

Derek Trucks [as Chevrolet]

2007:

Mungo Jerry [as Hey Gyp, Dig The Slowness]

2019:

Raconteurs [idem]

The Young Brothers, alias Lonnie & Ed Young + Lonnie Jr., were part of Alan Lomax's 1959 fieldtrip through the South, his first with ambulant stereo equipment (a Nagra prototype). See also: Hambone and Wild Ox Moan. The rich harvest of this extensive trip was first released on seven Atlantic lp's, reissued on the Sounds Of The South cd box set and extensively displayed in the Southern Journey series on Rounder. Lomax counted the Young family in particular and north Mississippi fife & drum in general as probably his major discovery on this journey. The sheer size of these family members, the way they danced and their use of musical instruments (cane flute & drum), always made him think of pygmees and no doubt: these small people had suffered massive transportation from West Africa to America in slavery days; small enough to stockpile in the belly of a ship, too weak to survive in captivity, but once escaped, small enough to hide!

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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