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A Song Through Time – ‘Bottle Up And Go’

by

Mat Walklate

‘Bottle Up And Go’ is a traditional Blues song, with roots extending back in to the
19th Century. It was recorded many times between the 1930s and the 1960s, by a

diverse range of Blues musicians.

It has a 12-bar form, but not the typical AAB lyric, instead being a ‘chorus’ song with
a repeated refrain over bars 5–12, preceded each time by a different couplet in the

first four bars.
Identifiable precursors are ‘Hesitation Blues’ and ‘The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas’.

‘Hesitation Blues’ shares the same couplet and chorus form. A version was
published by W. C. Handy and it was first recorded by the Victor Military Band in

1916. Leadbelly and Reverend Gary Davis both recorded the song, and Jim
Jackson’s 1930 recording is particularly good.

Jim-Jackson-Hesitation-Blues-Clip
Later versions by Dave Van Ronk, Janis Joplin and Hot Tuna use a lyric shared by
many iterations of ;

‘Bottle Up And Go’: ”A nickel is a nickel…”

‘The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas’ is an 8-bar Blues that contains the line, ”Mama bought a
rooster, thought it was a duck” that became a common feature of Bottle Up And Go,
where Mama buys or kills a chicken, thinks it’s a duck and puts it on the table with
its legs sticking up.

Ducks-Yas-Yas-James-Stump-Johnson-Clip

James “Stump” Johnson was the first to record ‘The Duck’s Yas
Yas Yas’ in 1929.

The earliest release on disc of the song in question was as
‘Bottle It Up And Go’ by The Memphis Jug Band in 1932.

Memphis-Jug-Band-Clip
The first verse:

I love my baby and she loves me too, I don’t give a gosh-darned what

she do.

We gotta bottle it up and go x2

Now high-powered mama, your daddy got the water on.