Comments on: Discover Oklahoma Features Cains & Some New Wills Videos

By: Michael Bates

Michael Bates — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:32:07 +0000

I’ve just checked the nine different versions of the song I have in iTunes (four by Bob Wills — Columbia in 1941, a Fresno radio broadcast from 1945, Tiffany in 1946, Liberty in 1960; one by Tommy Duncan with his Western All-Stars, one by Billy Jack Wills, and three tribute versions by George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Asleep at the Wheel).

The 1941 Columbia recording (when the band was actually based in Tulsa), the three tribute versions and the Billy Jack Wills version (sung by Tiny Moore) don’t have the Archer and Greenwood verse.

Here’s my guess: Either the Greenwood reference hadn’t been added to the song yet in 1941, or it was considered too racially charged (Greenwood as a place you’d want to go!) to include in a recorded version of the song.

When the tribute bands recorded the song, they went back to the earliest recorded Texas Playboys version. Billy Jack may have done the same thing — he wasn’t in the Tulsa version of the Playboys, nor were any of his band members, so perhaps the Greenwood reference would have been lost on them. (Billy Jack wound up here, though, and is buried next to big brother Bob in Memorial Park Cemetery.)

Oddly, the Old Possum uses the non-PC version of the cotton-picking line long after Bob himself dropped it.

By: Tyler B

Tyler B — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:52:06 +0000

Interesting. Thanks for looking that up and posting the videos.

By: Tyson Wynn

Tyson Wynn — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:14:55 +0000

Just checked Wikipedia, and it includes:

Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys recorded "Take Me Back To Tulsa" in 1941 (OKeh 6101) and it became one of their larger hits. When played at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, it often included the lines: Would I like to go to Tulsa? Boy I sure would. Well, let me off at Archer, and I'll walk down to Greenwood.

By: Tyson Wynn

Tyson Wynn — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:32:21 +0000

I dunno if it was a racial issue or not. I would assume not because the earlier versions of TMBTT include a line other than “Little man picks the cotton, Big man gets the money.” Maybe if Michael Bates checks out this post he’ll have some insight. I would be more prone to think it was due to the practice of live bands changing a line here or there when they tour (which we still see today). I would bet it breaks up the tedium of playing the same songs over and over.

By: Tyler B

Tyler B — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:00:16 +0000

“Drop me off at Archer, I’ll walk down to Greenwood.” You don’t hear that line on very many recordings of the song. I wonder if it’s because of the obvious racial implications.