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Characterized as a "Negro Shout" on this Columbia cylinder, recorded around 1898 and kept in the catalog for many years thereafter, this number was Billy Golden's signature piece and proved to be one of his biggest
sellers. The tune was published as an instrumental by Otto Bonnnell, though its roots go back to the 1830s when it was called "Old Zip Coon" (more info can be found about that at the
Stephen Foster website, thanks to Alethea Drexler for the info), and it is not known who wrote this set of lyrics. Billy Golden recorded
it many times, for both disk and cylinder, and he does his own spoken introduction on this one. The surface of this particular copy gets noisy toward the end, but it's still enjoyable. (It must be remembered that this
sort of racial stereotyping was very big entertainment a hundred years ago, and appreciated in that context.)
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