Old Blue or You Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around

Published by Toronto Mike on October 27, 2009 @ 15:54 in Music

musicBack in '92, I was listening to the debut album from House of Pain. Snicker if you will, but I dug that album, and I still spin it now and then.

One of the songs I enjoyed was "Put on Your Shit Kickers" and it included this folksy verse that stuck in my head. Here's that part of "Put on Your Shit Kickers".

Every time I go to town
People start kickin' my dog around
It makes no difference if my dog's a hound (hound)
You better stop kickin' my dog around

I've always loved that part of "Put on Your Shit Kickers", which I later came to understand was an old bluesy folk tune called "Old Blue". I heard it recently at the beginning of Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project when I heard Harry Dean Stanton singing it. That reminded me of how much I love the tune, so I hit the web to learn more about it.

Firstly, I don't think it's called "Old Blue". Google searches seem to suggest the song is called "You Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around" or variations on that theme. Here's the Skillet Lickers singing it in 1926.

Can anyone tell me about the song I thought was called "Old Blue"?

Update: I found some info here. Some seem to call it "The Hound Dog Song" or "You Gotta Quit Kicking My Dawg Around".

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3 Responses to "Old Blue or You Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around"

Anonymous
January 25, 2010 / 13:03

Tom Russell "Old Blue"

Lincoln Cromwell
June 15, 2010 / 07:22

Hi, The first time I remember hearing the tune it was on a compilation of old 78's focusing on rural Tennessee string bands. It is titled "Rural String Bands of East Tennessee", I think. The band that plays it on that disc is the Binkley Bros. I think they claim to have written it. I don't remember for sure. There is a New Binkley Bros. on myspace, which includes a relative of one of the original Binkley Bros. Do you know whether the song is copywrited? I began a search to find out that and your blog was the first site listed.

leslie piper
January 16, 2011 / 17:16

I knew an old guy who had been a hot fiddle player in Kansas city in about 1906...Scotty used to come over and I'd strum guitar chords for him. I learned the chorus..."Every time I go to town...etc Gotta stop kickin' my dog around..."

That was probably '55, maybe '54. I was in jr. hi; we were members of the same church.

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