ARF LOGO
ABSOLUTELY FREE

 Big Leg Emma

Notes and Comments
Previous entry This Album Refs Global N&C Refs Songs Index Next entry
  This song wasn't a part of original LP. It was a flip side of MOI single Verve VK 10513 released 04/10/67, The A-side featured Why Don't You Do Me Right.
  Big Leg Emma was added to CD releases of Absolutely Free. Rykodisc RCD 10093 01/23/89.
  See FZ's own comments on early MOI singles here Burnt Weenie Sandwich. Valery.
 
There's a big dilemma
About my Big Leg Emma, uh-huh-huh, oh yeah
There's a big dilemma
About my Big Leg Emma, uh-huh-huh, oh yeah
She was my steady date
Until she put on weight
  Subject: The original "Big Leg Emma"?
From: Biffyshrew <biffyshrew@aol.com>
  Lyrics to "Big Leg Emma's," recorded by Jack Dupree on the King label, ca. 1956.
  (Songwriter: Lucille Dupree)
  [Any errors in transcription are mine]
I went down to Big Leg Emma's house to get myself a drink of gin
'fore I got in the house good, the law walked in
I was standin' in the floor, beginnin' to think
He done caught me here and I ain't even had a sip of my gin
I say it's a low-down, a low-down dirty shame
It's a low-down dirty, a low-down dirty shame
(It really was, I ain't kiddin')

Now all of a sudden, the lights went blink
The law caught Big Leg Emma pourin' the whiskey down in the sink
He stopped her in her tracks, and I just began to sink
Lookin' at all that good corn liquor flowin' all down in the drink
I say it's a low-down, a low-down dirty shame
It's a low-down dirty shame, the way they treat a man

Now the law was pourin' out the whiskey, whiskey flowin' all down the
street
'stead of goin' down my throat, it was soakin' all under my feet
I said it's a low, a low-down dirty shame
(It really was a shame to look at that good stuff rollin' away)
It was a low-down dirty shame, the way you folks treat a man.
From: Patrick Neve <splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
  Great Scot! Three conceptual continuity clues in one song! Could this be the Lucille that messed up Joe's mind? And just what was Dupree's Paradise? The bar she owned that gave Joe's band their start?
From: TONY BURKE <tony@bluestb.demon.co.uk>
  Jack Dupree cut Big Leg Emma's for King (King 4938) on September 15th, 1955 in New York with Micky Baker on guitar, Lloyd Trotman in bass and Cliff Leeman on drums, the flip side Mail Order Woman was cut on June 27th of the same year.
  Not one of Jack's biggest hits, but as FZ was a knowlegable R&B collector perhaps this is where he got the title from.
From: Patrick Neve <splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
  Could Jack and Lucille have been the parents of Fifi Dupree?
Previous entry This Album Refs Global N&C Refs Songs Index Next entry
SOVA NOSE Any proposal? I'd like to hear!
Provocation, compilation and design © Vladimir Sovetov, 1994-2004
You could download, copy and redistribute this material freely as long as you keep copyright notice intact and don't make any profite on it.