{"id":7029,"date":"2005-06-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-11-07T14:58:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T18:58:39","slug":"old-riley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/?p=7029","title":{"rendered":"Old Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden\/php\/images\/chaingang.jpg\" height=\"400\" width=\"469\" alt=\"chaingang.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"audio\">\n<div class=\"alignright caption\"><a href=\"?page_id=6069\">How do I download this Mp3?<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"audio_link\">Mp3: <a href=\"http:\/\/ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden\/php\/music\/Old_Riley.mp3\">Old Riley<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"about\">Painting by: William H. Johnson<br \/>\nChain Gang<br \/>\nNational Museum of American Art<br \/>\nSmithsonian Institution,<br \/>\nWashington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>This song is actually made up of two traditional songs combined by Lead Belly. They are prison work songs used for flat weeding. &#8216;Rattler&#8217; was the name generally given to the lead search dog on a prison farm.<\/p>\n<p>The name &#8216;Old Riley&#8217; comes up in at least one other prison song. The line &#8216;Believe I&#8217;ll do like Old Riley, Old Riley walked de Brazos&#8217; appears in &#8216;Ain&#8217;t No More Cane on the Brazos.&#8217;  When an inmate tried to break out of prison, he would make his way up the river bed through the shallow water, to lose his scent to the blood hounds who were in hot pursuit. This was called &#8216;walking the water.&#8217; Apparently Old Riley was one prisoner who got away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"lyrics-header\">Lyrics:<\/div>\n<div class=\"lyrics\">\nOLD RILEY<\/p>\n<p>[G] Old Riley walked the [C] water,<br \/>\n[G] Old Riley walked the [C] water<br \/>\n[G] In them long hot [D] summer [G] days.<\/p>\n<p>Old Riley he is gone,<br \/>\nOld Riley he is gone<br \/>\nIn them long hot summer days.<\/p>\n<p>[G] Riley walked the [C] water;<br \/>\n[G] Here, [D] Rattler, [G] here<br \/>\n[G] Old Riley walked the [C] water;<br \/>\n[G] Here, [D] Rattler, [G] here.<\/p>\n<p>Old Riley&#8217;s gone like a turkey in the corn<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<br \/>\nOld Riley&#8217;s gone like a turkey in the corn<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<\/p>\n<p>Rattler come when I blow my horn<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<br \/>\nOld Rattler come when I blow my horn<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<\/p>\n<p>Old Rattler&#8217;s got him a marrow bone,<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<br \/>\nOld Rattler&#8217;s got him a marrow bone,<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<\/p>\n<p>Old Riley&#8217;s gone like a turkey in the corn,<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<br \/>\nOld Riley&#8217;s gone like a turkey through the corn,<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<\/p>\n<p>Old Riley walked the water<br \/>\nOld Riley walked the water<br \/>\nIn them long hot summer days.<\/p>\n<p>Combination of traditional Words &amp; Music by Huddie Ledbetter.<\/p>\n<p>Another variation is here:<\/p>\n<p>Here Rattler Here<\/p>\n<p>Old Riley crossed the water,<br \/>\nOn them long hot summer days<br \/>\nOld Riley crossed the water.<br \/>\nOn them long hot summer days,<\/p>\n<p>Oh Sic &#8216;im, oh sic &#8216;im<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im done gone,<br \/>\nhere rattler here<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im, oh sic &#8216;im.<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im done gone,<br \/>\nHere rattler here<\/p>\n<p>Riley crossed the water;<br \/>\nOn dem long hot summer days<br \/>\nRiley crossed the water<br \/>\nOn dem long hot summer days<br \/>\nHe&#8217;s headed for the river;<br \/>\nAs sure as your born.<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<br \/>\nHe can hear the sheriff blowin his horn<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<\/p>\n<p>Here old rattler<br \/>\nHere rattler here<br \/>\nHey old rattler<br \/>\nHere rattler here<\/p>\n<p>Oh Sic &#8216;im, oh sic &#8216;im<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im done gone,<br \/>\nhere rattler here<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im, oh sic &#8216;im.<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im done gone,<br \/>\nHere rattler here<\/p>\n<p>Riley crossed the water;<br \/>\nOn dem long hot summer days<br \/>\nRiley crossed the water<br \/>\nOn dem long hot summer days<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s headed for the river;<br \/>\nWhere we can&#8217;t go.<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<br \/>\nHeaded up north for freedom land<br \/>\nHere, Rattler, here.<\/p>\n<p>Hey old rattler<br \/>\nHere rattler here<br \/>\nHey old rattler<br \/>\nHere rattler here<\/p>\n<p>Oh Sic &#8216;im, oh sic &#8216;im<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im done gone,<br \/>\nhere rattler here<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im, oh sic &#8216;im.<br \/>\nOh sic &#8216;im done gone,<br \/>\nHere rattler here<\/p>\n<p>Old Riley crossed the water<br \/>\nIn them long hot summer days.<br \/>\nOld Riley crossed the water;<br \/>\nIn them long hot summer days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do I download this Mp3? Mp3: Old Riley Painting by: William H. Johnson Chain Gang National Museum of American Art Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. This song is actually made up of two traditional songs combined by Lead Belly. They are prison work songs used for flat weeding. &#8216;Rattler&#8217; was the name generally given to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/?p=7029\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Old Riley&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-array"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7029"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8661,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7029\/revisions\/8661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}